EXPERIMENT IN TERROR: Ross the Boss

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR (Blu-ray)

1962 / 123 min

Sony

Available at www.MovieZyng.com

Review by Mr. Paws😺

Blake Edwards’ legacy has him largely associated with comedies, probably for good reason since some of them rank among his best. But he directed plenty of films in other genres to varying degrees of success. One of them was 1962’s Experiment in Terror, a nifty piece of neo-noir starring Glenn Ford and Lee Remick.

Remick plays Kelly Sherwood, a bank teller who’s threatened at home with an ultimatum by a shadowy figure: Steal $100,000 from the bank where she works. If Kelly fails, refuses or calls the police, not only will he kill her, but kid sister Toby (a very young Stephanie Powers). Still, she does manage to alert FBI agent John Ripley (Glenn Ford), who immediately puts both sisters under constant surveillance while trying to ID and locate the man before Kelly’s forced to commit the robbery.

The suspect turns out to be a man named Garland “Red” Lynch, who has not-only committed previous robberies in the same manner, he’s a dangerous, sadistic killer who also appears to be sort of a pedophile. For me, the big surprise of the film is that Red is played by none other than Ross Martin. I’m used to seeing him in such lighter TV fare as The Wild, Wild West and The Twilight Zone. But not only is Martin wonderfully disturbing as Red, he manages to steal the film from his bigger co-stars (and was nominated for a Golden Globe).

Waiting for the next available agent.

Elsewhere, Ford is his reliable solid self, giving his no-nonsense character quiet intensity. I’ll be upfront and confess I’ve never been a huge fan of Remick, and here, she’s required to do little outside of her wheelhouse, which is to look terrified. It doesn’t help that her character isn’t particularly interesting to begin with. But hey, somebody has to be put in peril…otherwise we wouldn’t get the tension filled climax set at a crowded ballpark.

Experiment in Terror is a little overlong, and I can’t help but feel that a director who specializes in crime thrillers could have tidied up the story to a brisk 90 minutes. Still, the film is stylishly directed by Edwards, who deftly incorporates a film noir aesthetic to the largely police procedural story. The result is one his better films outside of the comedy genre.