The Night Walker (film)

The Night Walker is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by William Castle, written by Robert Bloch, and starring Barbara Stanwyck, Robert Taylor, and Lloyd Bochner. It was Stanwyck's final feature film role.

The film centers around Irene Trent (Stanwyck), a wealthy widow who is haunted by vivid and increasingly disturbing nightmares following the murder of her first husband, Howard (Hayden Rorke), a special effects expert known for creating realistic wax figures. Irene's psychiatrist, Dr. Lloyd Richards (Bochner), encourages her to explore the source of her anxieties, but her dreams become more elaborate and convincing, blurring the line between reality and illusion. She believes she is seeing her deceased husband and is drawn to a mysterious, dream-like town that only appears in her sleep.

As Irene's mental state deteriorates, she suspects that her handsome and much younger lawyer, Barry Moreland (Taylor), is involved in the escalating events. He is ostensibly there to help her manage her late husband's estate, but Irene begins to believe he has ulterior motives and is somehow manipulating her dreams for his own personal gain.

The film explores themes of grief, paranoia, the power of suggestion, and the fragility of the human psyche. The Night Walker is known for its dreamlike atmosphere, suspenseful plot twists, and the ambiguous nature of reality within the narrative. The film's ending leaves the audience questioning the true nature of events and the sanity of the characters involved.