I had a feeling of deja vu as I watched this, and I soon realized it was a remake of Fear in the Night, a 1947 film starring DeForrest Kelley.
This film stars Edward G. Robinson, Kevin McCarthy, Virginia Christine, Connie Russell.
A young New Orleans jazz musician Stan (McCarthy) dreams that he's involved in a murder. He wakes up holding a button, a key, and he has blood on him. He's convinced he committed murder without realizing it. He approaches his brother-in-law Rene (Robinson), a police detective, who brushes it off as a nightmare.
One day, while on a picnic, Stan, Rene, Rene's wife (Christine) and Stan's girlfriend Gina (Russell) are caught in a rainstorm. Without realizing how he knows, Stan directs them to a house. There's a mirrored room as in his dream, and the key fits a closet.
Rene realizes that somehow Stan was involved and accuses him of lying and demanding to know the whole story. Stan swears it was all a dream, and he doesn't know what happened. When the sheriff comes along and tells them there was a murder in the house, Rene wants more information, believing Stan is a killer.
Neat story by Cornell Woolrich, who wrote "Rear Window." Edward G. Robinson is great as always as a man determined to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Kevin McCarthy, who worked until he died at 96, is adorable in this.
Some fantastic singing by Connie Russell -- it's worth watching the film just to hear her -- in what would be her last film. After a long career on stage, films, and clubs on two continents, she retired when she became a mom.
Very entertaining. The end is wonderful, and really puts it a cut above "Fear in the Night."
