The Long Wait

Johnny McBride is badly burned and loses his memory entirely when the truck he has hitched a ride in blows a tyre and goes over an embankment. Two years later a lead takes him to a town called Lyncastle, where his photograph has been placed in a photographer’s window. What he learns on arriving is this: here he is the prime suspect in a murder, and to defend himself he has to reconstruct a life he cannot remember. Victor Saville directed, from Mickey Spillane’s 1951 novel, made as an independent production and distributed by United Artists. Anthony Quinn takes the lead, with Charles Coburn, Gene Evans and Peggie Castle in the cast, and Franz Planer behind the camera. It was released on 26 May 1954 and runs ninety-four minutes.