Directed by:
Julien DuvivierCast:
Edward G. Robinson, Charles Boyer, Barbara Stanwyck, Betty Field, Robert Cummings, Thomas Mitchell, Charles Winninger, Peter Lawford, Anna Lee (more)Plots(1)
This trio of separate stories was an attempt to recreate the success of the similar TALES OF MANHATTAN. As the film opens, Benchley and Hoffman are sitting around their club one night, discussing dreams and elements of the supernatural. Their conversation provides the setups for the three stories. The first is set in New Orleans and features Field as a dressmaker who is angry and bitter about her plain looks. Mardi Gras is about to begin, and a mysterious masked man appears and gives her a mask to wear during the galas of Fat Tuesday. He assures her that wearing the mask will change her life, if she is willing to jettison the envy and hatred that gnaws at her. She meets handsome Cummings, a frustrated attorney, and their romance flourishes that night, but is consumed with dread at the thought of removing the mask. The second episode opens at a party where psychic Thomas Mitchell predicts Robinson will commit a murder. Robinson makes fun of the prediction and calls Mitchell a charlatan. But Robinson soon finds himself obsessed with the prediction and consumed with thoughts of murder. In the final story, Boyer is a circus aerialist who performs without a net while under the influence of alcohol. Boyer has a dream of Stanwyck being seated in the audience when he falls to his death. He eventually meets her on a sea voyage to America and learns she is a jewel thief. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Lee Phelps
USA
Best movies:
Love Crazy (1941)
The Roaring Twenties (1939)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Doris Lloyd
UK
Best movies:
The Sound of Music (1965)
The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
To Each His Own (1946)
Mary Forbes
UK
Best movies:
Song of Love (1947)
You Gotta Stay Happy (1948)
Captain Blood (1935)
Frank Mitchell
USA
Best movies:
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
The Kid Brother (1927)
Anchors Aweigh (1945)
Edward Fielding
USA
Best movies:
Rebecca (1940)
Madame Curie (1943)
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Phil Warren
USA
Best movies:
Born to Kill (1947)
Pittsburgh (1942)
Sherlock Holmes in Washington (1943)
Jacqueline Dalya
USA
Best movies:
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
One Million B.C. (1940)
Leyland Hodgson
UK
Best movies:
The Great Dictator (1940)
The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (1939)
Rebecca (1940)
Heather Thatcher
UK
Best movies:
Gaslight (1944)
Beau Geste (1939)
Man Hunt (1941)
James Carlisle
USA
Best movies:
Edison, the Man (1940)
After the Thin Man (1936)
Waterloo Bridge (1940)
Ted Billings
UK
Best movies:
The Invisible Man (1933)
Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
The Song of Bernadette (1943)
Edward Cooper
UK
Best movies:
Holiday (1938)
Love Is News (1937)
Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Ted Jacques
USA
Best movies:
Action in the North Atlantic (1943)
The Killers (1964)
The Big Steal (1949)
Jerry Maren
USA
Best movies:
Producers' Showcase (1954) (series)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Hello, Dolly! (1969)
Grace McDonald
USA
Best movies:
Follow the Boys (1944)
Gung Ho! (1943)
Lawrence Grossmith
UK
Best movies:
Gaslight (1944)