Nightmare is a remake of the 1947 noir Fear in the Night. The protagonist is Stan Grayson (instead of Vince) played now by Kevin McCarthy. The setting has been switched to the New Orleans area and the director is the same as in the 1947 version, Maxwell Shane. Edward G. Robinson now takes on the role of the brother-in-law and has an area appropriate French name, Rene Broussard.
Nightmare represents an improvement over the 1947 effort in that Grayson is no longer a bank clerk but a jazz session musician. What's more, his girlfriend is played by a well known jazz singer of the time, Connie Russell, in the role of Gina. The pristine monochromatic cinematography is light years ahead of what was used nine years earlier and the jazz score manages to give the film a distinctive flavor.
The script and the dialogue are virtually the same as the original. Stan Grayson is still a man who wakes up after a nightmare and believes that the nightmare was real and he actually murdered someone.
When he wakes up, he finds blood on his cuff and a key and button in his possession of which he had no prior knowledge. He consults his police detective brother-in-law Rene who at first puts no stock whatsoever in his story. Eventually Rene along with his wife and Stan's girlfriend drive out to the suburbs where they end up at the house which contains an octagonal room of mirrors where Stan believes he committed the murder.
Eventually a local sheriff arrives and informs Rene that a man was murdered in the house along with his apparent girlfriend, who was run over by a car. Now rather unbelievably, Rene now believes his brother-in-law is guilty despite his protestations of being responsible for the crime since he can't remember what happened. Rene fails to give Stan the benefit of the doubt that he may have committed the crime without being in his right mind. Only later in the Second Act does Rene make further inquiries and learns that Stan had interactions with a man living in the adjoining room at the hotel where he was staying who may have controlled him without his knowledge.
It's finally revealed that the man, Harry Britten (Gage Clarke), was the husband of the woman who was murdered and an evil hypnotist to boot. Stan's only hope of exoneration is to prove that he was hypnotized by Britten to commit the murder, so he wears a wire and Rene and his police colleagues obtain Britten's recorded admissions of guilt.
Nightmare concludes with Britten ordering the once again hypnotized Stan to drown himself in a lake, only to be saved by Rene who pulls him out before he drowns. The car chase in the original version was nixed (I guess to save money) and Britten is dispatched on foot after a brief chase.
As with the original version, Nightmare mainly doesn't work due to the idea that hypnotists can actually hypnotize an innocent person to commit a murder without knowing it and/or against their will. I've never heard of it happening and doubt that it ever has.
Nightmare represents an improvement over the 1947 effort in that Grayson is no longer a bank clerk but a jazz session musician. What's more, his girlfriend is played by a well known jazz singer of the time, Connie Russell, in the role of Gina. The pristine monochromatic cinematography is light years ahead of what was used nine years earlier and the jazz score manages to give the film a distinctive flavor.
The script and the dialogue are virtually the same as the original. Stan Grayson is still a man who wakes up after a nightmare and believes that the nightmare was real and he actually murdered someone.
When he wakes up, he finds blood on his cuff and a key and button in his possession of which he had no prior knowledge. He consults his police detective brother-in-law Rene who at first puts no stock whatsoever in his story. Eventually Rene along with his wife and Stan's girlfriend drive out to the suburbs where they end up at the house which contains an octagonal room of mirrors where Stan believes he committed the murder.
Eventually a local sheriff arrives and informs Rene that a man was murdered in the house along with his apparent girlfriend, who was run over by a car. Now rather unbelievably, Rene now believes his brother-in-law is guilty despite his protestations of being responsible for the crime since he can't remember what happened. Rene fails to give Stan the benefit of the doubt that he may have committed the crime without being in his right mind. Only later in the Second Act does Rene make further inquiries and learns that Stan had interactions with a man living in the adjoining room at the hotel where he was staying who may have controlled him without his knowledge.
It's finally revealed that the man, Harry Britten (Gage Clarke), was the husband of the woman who was murdered and an evil hypnotist to boot. Stan's only hope of exoneration is to prove that he was hypnotized by Britten to commit the murder, so he wears a wire and Rene and his police colleagues obtain Britten's recorded admissions of guilt.
Nightmare concludes with Britten ordering the once again hypnotized Stan to drown himself in a lake, only to be saved by Rene who pulls him out before he drowns. The car chase in the original version was nixed (I guess to save money) and Britten is dispatched on foot after a brief chase.
As with the original version, Nightmare mainly doesn't work due to the idea that hypnotists can actually hypnotize an innocent person to commit a murder without knowing it and/or against their will. I've never heard of it happening and doubt that it ever has.