![]() ![]() ![]() Rosanna Arquette thinks she's Madonna in "Desperately Seeking Susan" (1985), Goldie Hawn forgets she's rich and spoiled in "Overboard" (1987), Christopher Lloyd's Uncle Fester in "The Addams Family" (1991) thinks he's an imposter, and Ellen DeGeneres, in animated form, forgets, well, most everything in "Finding Nemo" (2003). ![]() When Joel McCrea loses his memory late in "Sullivan's Travels," it lands him in prison. Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp suffers from it in "The Great Dictator" (1940), and William Powell forgets he's a con artist in "I Love You Again" (1940). We haven't even gotten to the 1940s' 10-film "Crime Doctor" franchise, in which a famous criminal psychologist has forgotten he was once a criminal himself.Ĭomedy has also made a lot of hay with amnesia. Peck tried it again with the very Hitchcock-like film "Mirage" (1965), and others in thriller trappings include George Peppard in "The Third Day" (1965), Nicol Williamson (as Sherlock Holmes) in "The Seven Percent Solution" (1976), Jennifer Jones in "Love Letters" (1945), William Powell in "Crossroads" (1942), Elizabeth Taylor in "Suddenly Last Summer" (1959), Robert Taylor in "The High Wall" (1947), both Frank Sinatra and Laurence Harvey in "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), and Tom Berenger in "Shattered" (1991). And how about Tippi Hedren as the title character in "Marnie" (1964)? Next was Gregory Peck in Hitchcock's classic "Spellbound" (1945). The first time was with the character played by Norah Baring in Hitchcock's "Murder" (1930). And that includes a few by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock himself - who may have forgotten he had already used it when he decided to use it again. Even that film was a remake, though, having been a two-part TV miniseries starring Richard Chamberlain in 1988.īut even by 1988, the amnesia plot had been done to death, most often in the service of mysteries. In fact, "The Bourne Identity" remains the biggest moneymaker on the subject, spawning a pair of highly successful sequels, with another in the planning stages. Both are examples of creaky material getting a reboot that works well enough to entertain for a couple of hours. "Unknown" is pretty good, with a dandy car chase and a climax that is expected, yet surprising in the way it occurs. That 2002 thriller starred Matt Damon as Jason Bourne, rescued from the water to find he has amnesia, so he looks for answers with help from a beautiful stranger as they elude assassins.īut none of this is really meant to disparage those movies. If you're thinking, "That sounds like 'The Bourne Identity,' " give yourself a gold star. Only flashes of memories remain, which he tries to piece together with the help of the beautiful cabbie who saves his life as they elude unknown assassins. Martin Harris, an American in Berlin who loses his memory after being rescued from a taxi that crashes into a river. If you've been looking for evidence that Hollywood has run out of original ideas, look no further than "Unknown," with Liam Neeson as Dr. One of the more hackneyed movie-plot devices of the past 100 years is amnesia, yet here we are in the 21st century and it's still being trotted out in major Hollywood motion pictures. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |