Freddie Francis Inspiration for LOST HIGHWAY?

Discussion of Lost Highway

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albie
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Freddie Francis Inspiration for LOST HIGHWAY?

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I watched DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS again after seeing Robert Blake in LOST HIGHWAY. Then I saw how similar they were in this shot. And they had the same name, kind of. Blake. In actuality both are made up names. Robert Blake is a pseudonym. Then I finally found a copy of LOST HIGHWAY to watch and the similarities continue to a startling degree.

In Lost Highway Fred, Bill Pullman, is at a party and sees The Mystery Man, who proves to Fred that he can bilocate. His other self is in Fred's house. He calls his own home and there he is! He asks how he got inside his house. Robert Blake/MM says "You invited me.It is not my custom to go where I am not wanted."

That is a typical vampire trait. They must have an invitation to enter your home. So MM is a vampire? Looks like one. Black clothes, white face.
And Dr Blake in DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS is a vampire too. He uses Bob(Sutherland) to kill his own wife, Nicole, a French lady. She happens to be a vampire also and Dr Blake wants her off his patch. He tricks Bob into killing her. Then he feigns innocence when Bob claims he put him up to it. Bob is locked up. end of story.

The same thing happens in LOST HIGHWAY. Fred's wife is murdered bloodily. He is locked up for it, but has no memory of killing her. While in the prison he transforms into Peter Dayton. He is then used by The Mystery Man to help him kill Mister Eddie. Pushed into it. Manipulated. We then see a flashback of Peter/Fred somehow damaging or killing his wife in the past. It seems he was used by The Mystery Man to kill her too. Fred finds out that she's shagging Mr Eddie, and he kills him, then Renee. The film twists the plot so the beginning is at the end. The Mystery Man must have told him about the affair( but wiped that from his mind along with the murders). As Dr Blake in DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS suggests to Bob(we all know he likes that name) that his wife Nicole(both ladies have French names, note)is nibbling the neck of a little local boy.


So Lynch has seen DR TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS and was inspired? It was directed by Freddie Francis, a pal of Lynch. They made ELEPHANT MAN and STRAIGHT STORY together. Did Freddie talk about working with Donald Sutherland as Bob? Did he show him the film? Was the hero, Fred, named after Freddie Francis?
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