Joyce and Yeats?

Some real strangeness in the comic thriller Fingers at the Window (dir. Charles Lederer, 1942). Oliver Duffy (Lew Ayres) and Edwina Brown (Laraine Day) are attempting to gain access to a hospital in their search for an axe murderer. The hospital is interviewing “loonies,” so Oliver pretends to be one, gets in, and then introduces himself to Dr. Immelman (Miles Mander): “I’m Doctor Stephen Dedalus of Ireland.” He reminds Immelman that they met in Zurich.

Stephen Dedalus is of course the protagonist of James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man and one of the three principal characters in Ulysses. Joyce lived in Zurich while working on Ulysses .

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When we get a full frontal view of Dr. Immelman, he bears a strong resemblance to the older James Joyce.


And here’s a genuine “loony” (Jules Cowles) being questioned. The doctor reassures him: “Remember, there are no evil spirits.” This fellow bears a strong resemblance to the older William Butler Yeats, whose interest in the supernatural is well known. Irreverent Dubliners called Yeats Willie the Spooks.


I think it’s reasonable to think that someone working on this movie was having fun.