Qualcuno dietro la porta

French shot/English speaking psychological thriller mirroring François Truffaut mirroring Alfred Hitchcock has a perfectly cast Anthony Perkins as a neurosurgeon taking an amnesiac patient to his plush home in order to (supposedly) help the nameless stranger, played by an only slightly miscast Charles Bronson, pacing taut and timid like a caged beast during his pre-fame European Phase...

But this is really Perkins' ride, providing another hiding-a-dark-secret creepy guy role...

And from the mellow cadence, what could have been cat-and-mouse is more like mouse-and-mouse, or mouse and toothless cat, even during Bronson's sporadic tantrums in a noirish plot involving Jill Ireland as the doc's cheating wife (employing a cute Agathe Natanson as their maid, who'd have fit the ingenue role much better)...

It's no irony that both Bronson and Perkins are ultimately best remembered playing killers the audience sympathizes with, and director Nicolas Gessner uses effective zoom shots and strategic camera angles/setups to the advantage of this "chessboard mystery" (mainly involving one set) where both antagonist and protagonist seem equally sinister and vulnerable...

And despite SOMEONE BEHIND THE WINDOW wielding an art-house short film plot-line stretched to 90-minutes, it doesn't drag either way.