Storm Fear (1955)

Cornel Wilde produced, directed and starred, and wife Jean Wallace co-starred in this gripping hostage drama. This was I believe Wilde's first attempt at producing/directing.A wounded Charlie Blake (Wilde) and his cohorts Benjie, a psychopath (Steven Hill in his debut) and Edna Rogers (Lee Grant) Charlie's dumb blonde "travelling companion" are on the run and take refuge in Charlie's brother's isolated mountain side farm. The brother Fred (Dan Duryea) is a sickly unsuccessful writer, who lives with his wife Elizabeth (Wallace) and son David (David Stollery) on the farm. They also employ a hired hand, Hank (Dennis Weaver) who happens to be away when the group arrives.A snow storm ensues, isolating the gang for the time being. We learn that Charlie and Elizabeth have a past and although she believes him to be no good, still carries the torch for him. Benjie begins to bully Fred and the family until Charlie intervenes.When Fred sneaks away to find help, Charlie decides that the gang must flee as the storm subsides. He employs young David to lead them across a mountain pass to the highway to avoid the police in pursuit. Meanwhile Hank returns from town drunk and professes his love for Elizabeth and her son. He then sets off after Charlie and his gang.Several events befall the gang in their attempt to escape until Hank catches up and......................................................Cornel Wilde does a creditable job as the lead character showing compassion and toughness as appropriate. Jean Wallace, his "favorite" leading lady is surprisingly good as the beleaguered wife torn between the two brothers. Dan Duryea in an offbeat role, is excellent as the sickly Fred. However it is a very young Steven Hill who stands out as the slightly mad Benjie. Wilde's decision to cast Lee Grant was a gamble as she had been blacklisted by Hollywood as a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early fifties. She makes the best of her role as the flakey blonde. Young David Stollery plays the son caught between his parents and "Uncle" Charlie with conviction.The budget restraints are obvious but don't really detract from the film's effectiveness. Most of the story takes place in the small farm house with it's sparse furnishings and coal oil lamps which gives the film an interesting atmosphere. The trek through the snow at the film's climax brings out the conflicts within the group and heightens the hopelessness of their situation.Comparable to a point with "The Desperate Hours" with Bogart and March released around the same time.

Another of the 'home invasion' dramas so popular at the time, except with a twist. Here the fleeing criminals (bank robbers) invade the secluded mountain home of one (Wilde) of the robbers' old sweeties (Wallace) now married to a failed writer (Duryea) with an adolescent son (Stollery). Naturally, in these cramped quarters with a blizzard outside, emotions bubble over, especially with the consumptive, jealous Duryea, plus the unstable gunman Steven Hill. These are promising elements but the drama really fails to gel, because Wilde is too nice to project real menace, while the real menace, Hill, is never given the kind of emotional close- ups that would establish his danger. Instead, he just sort of prowls around in the background. Actually, the movie's mainly about the burgeoning Wilde-Stollery relationship, where you have to read between the lines about the actual source of the dog collar. Then too, it's Stollery stealing the movie in a poignantly shaded performance, while Wilde unwisely spends too much time showing off his manly chest.The second half moves to the great outdoors, where the gang tries to escape the approaching cops by fleeing over the snowy mountains. Here we get some suspense as the figures are reduced to little dots on a great white landscape. Now they're struggling not only with each other, but with an overwhelming nature. This part plays out in fairly effective fashion, though I never did figure out what exactly the errant snowplow was doing on an anonymous mountainside.All in all, it's an uneven, sometimes awkwardly filmed movie, whose chief virtue may be what it doesn't tell the audience about the relationships instead of what it does. And kudos to producer Wilde for giving the blacklisted Lee Grant a minor part as the gang's moll, at a time when the best this fine actress could get is TV walk-ons. My guess is Wilde took on too much for a first-time filmmaker (director-producer-star) and would have been advised to hire an accomplished director. But then this was a low-budget effort, (the interiors were filmed in a TV studio!). Wilde's real filmmaking talent would show up later in the acclaimed Naked Prey (1966), so I guess this was something of a learning experience.

Gangster Cornell Wilde and his small-minded sidekick Adam Schiff -- I mean Steven Hill -- show up unexpectedly with a bag of loot at the remote farm house of his big brother, the failed writer Dan Duryea, and his blond hausfrau Jean Wallace. Their child, David Stollery, is a witness to the conflicts, arguments, violence, deaths, and general mishigas that takes place during the visit. Dennis Weaver has a small part as the good neighbor.The screenplay was by Horton Foote, the direction by Wilde, and the cast and crew professionally competent, with some exceptions. The result is almost a stage play in which fierce disagreements take place.Wilde does adequately by the part of the tough guy who genuinely doesn't want to intrude but has no place else to go because the police are all over the place searching for him and his buddy. He adds an almost indiscernible stutter to his voice in moments of stress. Nothing is made of it. It's just a nice touch that makes him human. He has a couple of shirtless scenes during which his wounds are treated by Wallace and I hated him for that. How can he be so muscular and sound at the age of forty-three? The swine.Jean Wallace is not much of an actress but she looks as if she would be perfectly at home milking cows on a Polish włość. I hope you appreciate that Polish word. It means "small farm." Took me half an hour to find the proper alphabet. Dan Duryea -- well, we missed his slick-backed hair and straw boater and his whining voice and his slapping dames around. Here, he's a fagged out lunger wrapped up in sweaters and scarves and looking as if the North Korean Army had just marched over him. Steven Hill is unrecognizable except as the stereotype he is. And as for the kid, kids will be kids. Everybody loves them, except Hill.Overall it's pretty depressing. It's claustrophobic. It resembles a staged play in which the set dresser was drunk all the time. And the story, for all its shouting, is a little weak in humanity. (See "Hud" for a successful example of how to make a movie about a couple of people on a ranch.) Poor Dan Duryea freezes in the snow. It's not quite certain exactly where his body is found, through either careless direction or editing. But if I were despondent and depressed, a total failure -- and I AM -- I think I'd hang myself if I had to live in a seedy dump like that.

Cornel Wilde is excellent in this dark drama about a group of hoods on the run who show up at the door of a remote home snow bound in winter. We learn more about the relationship between the leader of the hoods (Cornel Wilde) and the family he's holding captive as the move unfolds. Very tense, engrossing film that you won't want to take your eyes off.