Amnesia noir

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OK, what are the best movies/novels that use amnesia as a key plot trigger? I'm thinking more noir stuff from the 40s, 50s or 60s rather than the neo-noir of Mulholland Dr. or Memento.

The Manchurian Candidate may be the greatest of them all, are there any better?

― L.H.O.O.Q., Wednesday, 10 November 2004 14:47 (twenty years ago)

twoooo weeeeeeks...

― Freelance Hiveminder (blueski), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 14:50 (twenty years ago)

Well, there's always "Spellbound".

The best amnesia novel is John Franklin Bardin's "The Deadly Percheron", which is Lynch avant la lettre:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/-/books/1841950130/reviews/026-1835400-6588455

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 15:02 (twenty years ago)

Muppets Take Manhattan

― jaymc (jaymc), Wednesday, 10 November 2004 15:29 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Cornell Woolrich uses amnesia a lot. For example, in "Nightmare" a character begins to believe he's an amnesiac killer when
clues start popping up that link him with a stabbing. Bardin's excellent "Deadly Percheron" is mentioned above, but also his other novels "The Last Of Phillip Banter" and "Devil Take the Blue-Tail Fly" have an amnesia theme.

― HBD, Tuesday, 3 January 2006 11:47 (nineteen years ago)

Mankiewicz's Somewhere In The Night is great amnesiac noir from the 1940s. War vet who has lost his identity etc etc.

― jz, Tuesday, 3 January 2006 11:52 (nineteen years ago)

Marnie is the first to spring to mind. It's not Hitchcock's best, and it sufers from his misogyny, but it's definitely better than Spellbound, which has some great visuals but way too much silly Freudianism-for-dummies.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 12:09 (nineteen years ago)

I keep thinking Philip K. Dick, but I don't remember why exactly.

― StanM (StanM), Tuesday, 3 January 2006 12:12 (nineteen years ago)

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