A decade before Brian De Palma earned a reputation exploiting Hitchcockian motifs, Stone's work in the 1960s employed Hitchcock-like narratives, even while the director was still an active film maker. Hitchcock's influence is especially evident in the Edward Dmytryk-directed "Mirage", a suspense-mystery that Stone adapted from the Howard Fast novel "Fallen Angel". The narrative has Gregory Peck suffering from "unconscious amnesia" while dodging bullets in downtown New York. Although shot in black-and-white, many of its themes and images are reminiscent of "Vertigo". The cast included Walter Matthau and George Kennedy from "Charade".