Mister Buddwing

A man wakes on a park bench in Central Park with a total mind blank, no identification or money, and a folded slip enclosing two large white pills and a phone number. His memory is gone and the slip hints at a life he cannot recall. He begins to piece together clues from the city around him as he tries to identify himself. The mystery of his past becomes the impulse that drives the first hours of his search.

From a street phone, he dials the number and reaches Gloria, who mistakes him for her shiftless husband. He improvises a new identity by adopting the name Sam and coining Buddwing from a Budweiser truck and an airplane he sees. Gloria, moved by pity, hands him cash and sends him on his way. The deception deepens his identity crisis.

Over breakfast, a giant newspaper headline proclaims the escape of a violently insane criminal, sending a chill through him as he wonders if he himself is the fugitive. He studies a ring with initials, interpreting them as proof of a concealed identity he cannot fully trust. The fear of being hunted by authorities or his own past gnaws at him as he tries to anchor his life in the present.

Seeing a woman on the street, he hails her as Grace, but she is Janet, a music-school student in Washington Square. A flashback reveals a romance from college days and shows him as a struggling student composer who impulsively marries Janet. The misrecognition triggers a surge of memories and a sense that his past is still unfinished.

Back in the park, Janet rejects him and creates a scene. A policeman arrives to question Buddwing, but he flees when the officer becomes distracted by hecklers. The encounter sharpens his awareness that his identity might be less solid than he believes.

A deranged street person pursues him, raving that Buddwing is the murderer on the loose. The chase snakes through sidewalks as his fear and confusion mount. He escapes again, still unable to stabilize a true identity.

He meets a coquettish actress named Fiddle and believes she is Grace. They have sex, and afterward he sits at a piano, memories of his former identity resurfacing through music. He falls asleep in her arms and dreams of a fight with his wife over an unexpected pregnancy.

In a nightmare, he fights with his wife figure over a pregnancy they cannot afford, insisting on an abortion. Grace climbs over the railing of the 59th Street Bridge, ready to jump, and he grabs her to save her. The rescue heightens his sense that his life is built on fragile delusions rather than durable truth.

Seeking relief from his torment, the fake Grace becomes part of a boozy scavenger-hunt moment with a socialite and they drift to Harlem to gamble in a craps game to win 100,000. They win financial liquidity but lose any sense of real life or art, as the relationship remains strained and hollow. The episode underscores that wealth cannot restore his artistic talent or the love he longs for.

In delirium, the different identities fuse into a hollow dream where the glamorous life cannot satisfy him. He sees a blood-spattered vanity and a razor blade and realizes he dialed the wrong area code, not the Monument exchange but Mount Kisco in Westchester. The discovery begins nudging him toward a concrete, recoverable truth.

He dials into a hospital in Mount Kisco and a realization grows that Grace is connected to this place. The hospital scene becomes a turning point as he faces a real past rather than the fantasies of wealth and romance. The pursuit of truth narrows to Grace's life and their shared history.

At the Mount Kisco hospital, he begs to see Grace and takes her lifeless arm, speaking her name. Her hand moves slowly, signaling life, and he clasps it, sharing his rediscovered life force. The film ends on a note of renewal as their bond and his memory of art are finally rejoined.