Name: Memento Mei
Released: 1963
Duration: 1 min 10 s
Cast: Patrick Silva, Don Tescher, Edward Mulvaney, Cecilia Souza, Robert D. Browne

Cast & Crew

Robert D. Browne

Film Details

Release Date

Jan 1963

Premiere Information

Honolulu, Hawaii, showing: 1963

Distribution Company

Martin Charlot

Country

United States

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 10m

Synopsis

A hospitalized old man sitting in a wheelchair remembers a time ca1900: Pat, a young man, runs along a hill holding hands with a girl friend. She runs ahead as he pauses to rest; chasing after her, he climbs a cliff, at the top of which sit two men in whiteface and a third whose face is encased in a white mask. When Pat is unable to pull away the mask, he tries to smash it with a rock. He falls through the mask, through space, into the yard of a dilapidated old house. Stumbling through the creaky interior, he confronts a hooded figure holding a watch. Outside the house the girl waits with her back turned, but as Pat approaches her she turns and is seen to be a hag. Running through the forest, Pat is thrown to the ground by a bearded giant carrying a staff; and a hunchback joyfully dances. The giant releases Pat and the three walk through the forest. At a stream, the giant and hunchback force Pat underwater; but the young man floats downstream, and the giant and hunchback, after chasing him, disappear into the forest. Pat's beard grows as he floats, and he awakens at the edge of the stream. A grinning barber shaves off his beard with two strokes, then swipes at Pat. As the young man leaps up, his forehead is cut. Alone in the forest, Pat pulls out a 3-leaved fern from the site of his wound and bandages his head. He sees an old factory; the girl is walking up its outside staircase. Rushing into the building, he once again confronts the old woman, who laughs at him. He claws at her and they struggle, but she vanishes. Pat finds himself in an artist's studio. A stuffy client sits in a chair as the artist frenetically paints an "action" portrait. The client, furious at the result, jumps through the canvas. Pat's face becomes an abstraction. The old man in the wheelchair moves painfully, then settles back: Pat runs up the hill and walks off with the girl.