The Deadly Dream (1971)

Sadly Over-hyped

An Exercise In Nonsense

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

As my experience of the era grows I find that early 70's made for TV genre fare mostly tends to follow the same pattern, a modish premise well wrought at a youth friendly yet still often scary level, with tight, self contained storytelling reminiscent of classic pulp short writing. Deadly Dream is a bit of an anomaly in that while its basic story is slim and contained, the underlying concepts are enough to power a serious minded science fiction feature if the right hands took hold of them. Mind manipulation, conservative versus utilitarian approaches to the future, concepts of pre-crime prevention and the strange and chilling permeability of the walls between sleep and our reality, there's a whole lot going on in Deadly Dream, so much that for all its basic thrills (and it does contain one genuinely shocking and intense sequence towards the end), one is left wondering that it might have been a lasting classic rather than the obscurity that it is today. This disappointment aside, there's plenty to like about Deadly Dream. It moves like a bullet, with intriguing incidents mounting a sense of paranoia with grace as well as speed. Though predictable, there's a cold, unnerving vibe to it that works well and the general lack of compromise to the tale does the vibe justice. The main players do very well with Lloyd Bridges as the lead, a scientist hopeful and determined but buckling steadily as his drive comes up against that which he cannot understand. Janet Leigh is equally fine as his wife, confusion curdling into fear, slowly harrowed yet never without an underlying sympathetic support. Then there's effective menace from Don Stroud and Richard Jaeckel, and more sympathy from Lief Erickson as an older scientist, cautioning but helpful and kind. So with the general actorly commitment and solid direction this is a decent little thriller, but the gap between what is and what might have been is so great its a difficult film to fully like. Worth a watch then, but don't set your expectations too high.

WARNING: SPOILERSI saw this movie when it first aired in 1971. I was 10 years old and the movie was both scary & disturbing. I saw it again a few years later. This is one of several made for TV movies from the 70's that I'd like to see again. It's unfortunate that movies like these are unavailable on DVD or on the internet to be downloaded for a price.It's been over 30 years since I saw this & my memory's hazy. I do remember the movie starts with Lloyd Bridges (Dr. Hanley) having a nightmare with a group of people (tribunal) after him & cornering him. They then cut his arm & smear or pour a liquid on the cut & he begins to scream. Hanley then wakes up next to his wife in bed. After he gets out of bed he looks down & discovers that he has a cut on his arm identical to the one given to him in the dream.As I remember, the tribunal in Hanley's dream had condemned him to death but he never really finds out the reason why. Another part of the movie I recall is when Hanley falls asleep and dreams the dream for the second time. In this dream the tribunal has him and are forcing him into a car (presumably to kill him). Hanley fights back & escapes. In the process of escaping he slams the car door on the foot of one of his assailants, crushing that man's foot. The people then get in the car & begin chasing Hanley trying to run him down & kill him. If I remember correctly, Hanley picks up an object (probably a large rock) & throws it at the car, cracking the windshield. Before the car is able to run down Dr. Hanley, he wakes up. Sometime after that in his awake world, Hanley is walking to a parking lot (possibly outside his place of work) when he spots the same man who was in his dream (the one whose foot was crushed in the car door) walking on crutches with his foot in a cast. Hanley has never seen this man (from his dreams) before in his waking life. Horrified, Hanley goes up & initiates a conversation with the man who tells Hanley that he injured his foot in an accident (possibly skiing: I can't remember for sure). The man then gets in a car and as he starts to pull out of the parking lot, Dr. Hanley sees to his horror that the car is the same one that was in his dream, cracked windshield and all.I don't remember too many other details from the movie, but I do remember that things spiral downward & get worse & worse. As the movie progresses Hanley slips into the dream every time he falls asleep, even for a few minutes. Also, as things get worse Hanley discovers that close friends in his waking life are part of the group of people (tribunal) who are trying to kill him in his dreams. Toward the latter part of the movie Dr. Hanley discovers to his horror that even his wife is part of the tribunal in his nightmares. In Hanleys waking life these people along with his wife are normal. As the movie progresses Hanley slowly begins to go crazy & lose the ability to discern reality from unreality. In the end, I remember Dr. Hanley dying in both worlds. In the waking world he flips out, ends up in the hospital where his heart stops & doctors are unable to revive him. Simultaneously in the dreamworld Hanleys assailants succeed in killing him. Although I'm sure this movie wouldn't have the same impact on me now that it did when I was a kid, I would still like to see it again. Perhaps I can find a bootleg video on ebay.

"Deadly Dream" sounds a lot like this one movie I saw on television in the 80s and have been trying to learn the name of since. I will write down what I remember of that movie in the hope that someone will tell me what its name was. Maybe it was "Deadly Dream."At the beginning, a man is running away from some assailants through what looks like a construction site. They corner him by a chicken wire fence and overpower him. They roll up his sleeves to bare his arm. They cut it and smear the wound with some liquid. The man is in terror as if he knew what that liquid would do to him., and faints.He wakes up in bed. Next to him, his wife. It's only been a dream. Our protagonist is a scientist. His colleagues, men and women, look and sound like regular upper middle class Americans, handsome and witty. This is his waking life, or so we think.But he falls asleep and comes to in the other world. He is back at the construction site. He goes for help. For some reason, the police ignores him. Eventually, he runs into the same colleagues we've met. They whisk him away to some den and explain the matter to him. The world is in danger from someone's diabolical scheme, and they--and he--are part of the resistance. I think this resistance group may be called the "Friends." Then our guy passes out again, and back to his waking life. Back and forth, on and on. The same cast of people prominent in both versions of life and on parallel tracks. For example: Upon waking from a nightmare in which a Friend meets with a horrific death, our protagonist may hear the news of that same friend's death by a stroke.Until things get worse and worse for him. The last scene is of him dying in both lives. The villains have got him, and in the waking life he is being wheeled to an operating room.Some such sequence, although some of it above may be inventions of my mind, it's been so long. The movie may have been black and white. There may have been a seven-headed dragon coming out of the sea. I don't remember any tribunal though.Please if anyone knows this movie, please let me know what it is by leaving a comment here. Thanks very much.

WARNING: BIG SPOILERThe old mystical suggestion that our waking life is a dream, and our dreams actually real life, is eclipsed in THE DEADLY DREAM by the subplot of humankind being endangered by the advance of science, and the lengths men could go to prevent progress. In Dr. Jim Hanley's dream (which turns out to be the real world, but it's not our world) scientists are closely monitored, and hunted and executed if they threaten to advance human knowledge. Lloyd Bridges is superlative as the oppressed researcher. For a Made-For-TV movie of the 70's this runs pretty long (90 minutes as opposed to 75). The tale is truly horrific in its downward spiral and ends on a note of terror. May actually be unsuitable viewing for youngsters. Lots of physical violence including some really scary wife abuse. Recommended for adult horror/sci fi fans.