Cry Terror! (1958)

Jim Molner (James Mason) owns an electronics store and was duped into making a couple of small detonators for Paul Hoplin (Rod Steiger), a former Army demolitions expert. Hoplin told Molner they were for the military, but filled them with an explosive element second only to plutonium and had them planted on an airplane by Eileen Kelly (Angie Dickinson).We find out these details, in part through the FBI's investigation after the plane makes an emergency landing and the bombs are neutralized. A call was made which tipped off the head of Twentieth Century Airlines before they were to explode. The FBI task force, headed by Frank Cole (Kenneth Tobey), quickly determines that the detonators were made by Molner, and suspects he is the one who is trying to extort $500,000 else he'll actually blow up a plane this time.However, Molner, his wife Joan (Inger Stevens), and their preschool daughter have been kidnapped by Hoplin and his associates which, in addition to Kelly, consists of Vince (Jack Klugman) and Steve (Neville Brand). They've taken the Molners to a secluded home in which Hoplin tells Molner that his wife will be the bag lady for the ransom else they'll kill his daughter. A game of chicken between the Molners and Hoplin changes the plan slightly; Molner is allowed to go with his daughter, Kelly & Vince to another location while his wife will stay with have to stay alone with Steve for some periods of time.It turns out Steve is somewhat unstable and was in prison for raping and/or killing a woman. This makes the moments when Steve is alone with Joan a little dicey. The first time it happens, Hoplin returns in time to prevent Joan from suffering Steve's previous victim's fate. Molner and his daughter are taken by Vince & Kelly to her penthouse apartment, where Kelly has promised to stick a shiv (a very sharp knife) through his daughter's belly if his wife is not successful.Joan is given a complex set of instructions to follow, the first of which are to go to the bank where the FBI task force has assembled to compile the money. She tells them about the kidnapping and, though they're not 100% sure that she's telling them the truth, they give her the money and send her on her way without tailing her. Her next instructions are designed to throw off anyone who may follow her. But if she doesn't arrive at the (now) third house where Hoplin and Steve are waiting by 1:30 PM, Vince & Kelly will get a call to dispose of Molner & his daughter. Of course, she makes an error, which after she corrects it puts her chances of getting to the house on time in jeopardy.Unfortunately, what was a fairly taught and interesting story turns into something with very little credibility at this point. If you thought the FBI's finding out that the original detonators were made by Molner was impossibly fast, "you ain't seen nothing' yet". Plus, Molner is left alone in the loft of Kelly's apartment, with his conveniently asleep daughter, and enough time and freedom of movement to figure out a plan of action (which in the end, didn't accomplish anything anyway). This is AFTER Hoplin already has the money, more alone time between Steve and Joan with improbable consequences, and yet another meaningless location change. I'm afraid my intelligence was insulted just a few two many times for me to recommend this film.

One look at a lustful Neville Brand (Steve) in heat darn near sent me under the bed. He's high on Bennies and it's a cowering Joan (Stevens) who's going to pay, except maybe she's got a surprise for the plug-ugly thug. In a movie filled with tense situations, this may be the scariest. Anyway, if it's not a woman menaced by a nutcase, it's Joan driving in traffic to meet a deadline, or her hubby (Mason) clambering around an elevator shaft, or both Dad and Mom keeping a nasty extortion gang from taking their toddler. If anything, there may be too many of these sweaty palms to keep up the effect. Whatever the case, this may be first film of the '50's to utter the word 'rape'.The plot's a version of a '50's favorite, the home invasion, where an unwary American family is suddenly under attack inside the apparent safety of the home. It's also likely a reflection for the movies of a growing suburban audience. Here the invasion is part of a complex plan to extort money from an airline under threat of an airliner bomb. Of course, that brings in the feds and a lot of police procedure, while we hang in there with the little family under siege.It's an unusually fine cast, with Brand as the standout, at least in my little book. Also, check out the fetching Angie Dickinson as a sadistic gang moll—real casting against type. There's also the tragic Inger Stevens showing her fine acting chops, along with a rather restrained Rod Steiger as the gang mastermind. It's all put together by the Stones, husband and wife, noted for their documentary style and dedication to location filming, from which the story gains helpful credibility.All in all, the movie's a 90-minute exercise in relentless tension that seems ironically topical, given how thorough bomb detection is now fifty-years later.(In passing—I expect the movie's premise was inspired by the real life case of John Gilbert Graham. In 1955, he blew up an airliner over Colorado for insurance money on his mother, of all people, killing 44 passengers in the process. Needless to say for the law and order 1950's, he was swiftly executed. But perhaps most interesting for our day is that there was no federal law at the time covering bombs aboard airliners—apparently the possibility seemed too remote! As a result, Graham was tried and convicted under a different statute. Yes indeed, how times have changed.)

The exclamation point in the title is appropriate, albeit an understatement. This movie doesn't just cry -- it shrieks loud enough to shatter glass.Filmmakers Andrew and Virginia Stone made shrill, humorless suspense thrillers that strove for a semi-documentary feel. Here, they shot on actual New York locations with tinny "real-life" acoustics to jack up the verisimilitude. But the naturalism of the sound recording only serves to amplify the Stones' maladroit dialog and the mouth-frothing histrionics of tortured butterfly Inger Stevens.In a performance completely devoid of modulation, Stevens plays the wife of electronics whiz James Mason (looking haggard and bored); both are held captive by extortionist Rod Steiger (looking bloated and bored) and his slimy cohorts in a scheme to blackmail an airline with a deadly bomb that Mason has unwittingly helped construct.Here is another credibility-straining instance of a criminal mastermind so brilliantly attentive to every detail, yet knuckleheaded enough to hire a drug-addicted degenerate as an underling. The Stones' idea of nail-biting tension is to trap the hysterical Stevens alone with Benzedrine-popping rapist Neville Brand, filling the frame with his sweaty, drooling kisser. But the camera work is so leaden and Brand so (uncharacteristically) demure that the effect is hardly lurid, much less suspenseful. The Stones, a square pair at heart, don't even have the courage of their own lack of convictions.The film, which ends with the portly Steiger chasing the fleet-footed Stevens on a subway train track, is as clumsy as its ungainly heavy. With Angie Dickinson as Steiger's amoral girlfriend, Jack Klugman, Kenneth Tobey, and Barney Philips.

This is a very short review because all that's been said about this film by others is correct and not needing further description, except there's ONE FACT not known apparently ANYWHERE on the internet, and that is that this film is available (only from CDToaster.com) in an extremely rare COLORIZED VERSION! The coloring process is done by the masters of the industry, and is a terrific added feature. One problem with this colorized version is that it was only available from a rare Television Broadcast signal, so the points where the commercials were edited out become a bit of a distraction, but the rest of the film is intact because the running time matches the official film time length.