Although Walter Matthau had been in the business for about a decade before he made Voice in the Mirror (1958), his seventh big screen appearance, his slouching posture and droopy-dog face were more familiar to audiences in the 50s due to the dozens of TV roles he had already played. Matthau was still ten years from the unlikely but long-termed stardom he would achieve upon the release of The Odd Couple (1968), but he was becoming known as a respected supporting actor and given third billing in this story of a man who overcomes destructive alcoholism to found a group very similar to the real-life Alcoholics Anonymous. The role of the recovered drunk went to Richard Egan who, at the time, was a popular star of glossy melodramas while Matthau took on the role of a wise and cautioning doctor. The popular singer and actress Julie London played Egan's supportive and long-suffering wife.

Although not well known today, director Harry Keller had a long and successful career in motion pictures. He entered the business as an editor in 1936, and went on to direct numerous movies (the majority of them Westerns) and TV shows. He also served as producer on several projects and later returned to editing late in his career, receiving credit for his work on such comedies as Stir Crazy (1980), Stripes (1981), and others released just a few years before his death in 1987. He is perhaps best remembered as the director Universal called in to reshoot some scenes from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).

Voice in the Mirror was shot by legendary cinematographer William "Billy" Daniels, whose 150+ pictures between 1922 and 1970 ran the gamut from the great silent Von Stroheim dramas to ensemble cast classics Grand Hotel (1932) and Dinner at Eight (1933) to his Oscar®-winning black-and-white work on the documentary-like film noir The Naked City (1948). He also shot Westerns and action epics, big budget MGM musicals and such high-profile melodramas as Some Came Running (1958) and Valley of the Dolls (1967). But he is probably best known as Garbo's favorite photographer, the man who is credited with virtually "creating" her screen face. The two worked together on 20 pictures, including most of the star's biggest hits.

Making an early appearance in only his second year in motion pictures, Troy Donahue would shortly become a teen idol for a brief period in the late 50s and early 60s. The cast also boasts a number of screen veterans, including Mae Clarke, the woman who took the grapefruit in the face from James Cagney in The Public Enemy (1931) and married Colin Clive's mad doctor in Frankenstein (1931), and Ann Doran, who by some counts appeared in around 500 pictures and 1000 TV episodes between the silent era and the late 1980s. Also featured in a small bit as a raving psychiatric patient is character actor Harry Dean Stanton, later known for his work in Alien (1979), Paris, Texas (1984) and most recently the HBO TV series Big Love.

In case you were wondering, that's Julie London's smoky voice singing the title tune behind the opening credits. She and her husband, Bobby Troupe, wrote the song, but the film score was composed by multiple award-winner Henry Mancini.

Director: Harry Keller
Producer: Gordon Kay
Screenplay: Larry Marcus
Cinematography: William Daniels
Editing: George Gittens
Art Direction: Alexander Golitzen, Richard H. Riedel
Original Music: Henry Mancini
Cast: Richard Egan (Jim Burton), Julie London (Ellen Burton), Walter Matthau (Dr. Leon Karnes), Troy Donahue (Paul Cunningham), Arthur O'Connell (William Tobin).
BW-103m. Letterboxed.

by Rob Nixon