Experiment in Terror

It's San Francisco in the very early 1960's. We've never heard of Inspector Harry Callahan of the SFPD. The Giants have recently moved to town from New York. When they play the Dodgers, it's always a sellout. And tonight, the Dodgers are in town and Don Drysdale is pitching. Great night to be at Candlestick Park if you're a baseball fan, or if you're a psychopathic extortionist! Ross Martin is absolutely terrifying as the asthmatic extortionist who kidnaps little sister Stephanie Powers and demands $100,00 from bank teller Lee Remick. Glen Ford gives perhaps his finest performance as the FBI agent in charge of the investigation. Martin instructs Remick to deliver the payoff to a sold out Candlestick Park during a Giants-Dodgers game. Real major league stars make cameos during the baseball scenes. The late Ross Martin is sensational! If you've never seen this film, I promise you won't be disappointed.

Before Ross Martin became the amiable Artemus Gordon on "The Wild, Wild West," and before Blake Edwards began making those Pink Panther movies, they joined up for this complex, thoroughly convincing story of a sadistic thief who terrorizes bank teller Lee Remick to gain her complicity in a heist. Edwards makes effective use of the San Francisco locations, of Glenn Ford's portrayal of a tough FBI agent, and of Henry Mancini's jazzy score to weave this taut, psychological suspense tale.

"Experiment in Terror" is a superb example of how to scare the hell out of you without a trace of gore, blood or gratuitous violence. For all intents and purposes this is a police procedural where the aim is to track down a stalker/blackmailer/murderer. Filmed in black and white the film revels in darkness and uses it to create its more unsettling moments. Imagining what we are barely seeing in the dark and letting our imaginations run wild is scarier than seeing a graphic depiction. Ford and Remmick turn in excellent performances under Blake Edwards' deft direction. Best of all is Ross Martin as the world champion heavy breather. Martin is generally known for more lighter roles but his rather sinister turn here is very fine. Stark photography, often at night, and a subtle yet unsettling score by Henry Mancini are icing on the cake. To be watched with the lights out.

There are so many things to praise about this frightening little picture. The performances are uniformly excellent. San Francisco is captured in a 40 year old time capsule yet the fear and terror are as vivid in 2002 as they must have been in 1962. Ross Martin is an able and elusive villain with some ability to engender loyalty in friends. As has been noted, the terror visited on Lee Remick's character Kelly Sherwood, is real and intense and persistent. In an age that equates terror with fanaticism and major special effects, all that this little noir required was poor breathing, a telephone, skilled camera work, great performances and a slam-bang script. Bravo.