Edge of Eternity (1959)

Take the Grand Canyon, a cave full of tons of bat guano, an aerial tramway, an old deserted mining town, a beautiful red head, Cornel Wilde, Jack Elam, Edgar Buchanan, 50's cars, all filmed in vibrant color, and a few corpses and you get a really different mystery film that moves briskly along during its 80 minutes. This film would be worth watching if only for the scenes of the aerial tramway heading down into the Grand Canyon, something that you'll never see again, and it was all real! The mine depicted in the movie really existed, and so did the U.S. Guano Corporation!!! This movie is a time capsule and is fascinating to watch for just the period effects and the settings. Very enjoyable.

Don Siegel has an eye for the visuals in this mystery story set in the Grand Canyon but the plot and dialogue are merely serviceable.Deputy Sheriff Les Martin (Cornell Wilde) patrols the canyon area which includes an abandoned gold mine. He listens to a tall story told by an old timer of a beaten up guy he saw when he suddenly pursues Janice Kendon (Victoria Shaw) the daughter of a local mine owner who speeds past him and after he books her they begin flirting with each other.Pretty soon the deputy is investigating missing men, murders and looking into whether gold is being smuggled out of the mine works. You have an old coot, a drunken son, a hostile father, a foreman, a comic relief and any one of them could be the shady heavy.There is an entertaining climax with the cable cars high above the canyon and there seemed to be a real bat cave full of bat crap which was involved in the location filming. I think a bit of bat poo went into the script.

While flipping channels before leaving a hotel room, I caught sight of a screen view of Kingman's court house (Mohave County, AZ) and, moments later, a view of old main street (Beale Street). I hadn't time to watch the film, but as I'd lived in Kingman 25 years, I ordered the DVD out of curiosity to see what other old scenes it might offer.The film appears, indeed, have been shot entirely in the Kingman area of 1959, and the city is far smaller than the one I moved to in 1982. The Grand Canyon location within the film is today that of Grand Canyon West, a touristic site belonging to the Hualapai Reservation. Remains of the funicular link to what was once a guano mine below, as well as an auto that crashed to the bottom, are still visible as a part of the GCW tour loop. A few scenes appear to have been shot in old Oatman (a picturesque ghost mining town) and some others north of Red Lake on the way to Lake Mead.In regards to the film, I feel that 1.) its script lacks what might have been some obvious and logical improvements, 2.) its runtime needs extension by about 10 minutes to allow denouement of a number of subplots, and 3.) overall, the film is structured in a rather amateurish, low-budget fashion. Compared to many a Western film of the 1950s, however, this one is not so badly done and provides entertainment.Despite the above criticism, I - like another reviewer - found myself looking into Victoria Shaw's biography, wondering if I might explore her appearance in other films. Unfortunately, they are very few.

Director Don Siegel and star Cornel Wilde combine to give audiences a fast paced and very entertaining murder mystery that keeps everyone guessing until the breathtaking climax.The wild beauty of the Grand Canyon and the Colorado River serve as a backdrop to the mystery This is the closest that Wilde ever came to making a western and he is cast as a former Las Vegas police detective who is now a deputy sheriff in an Arizona town and is faced with a series of baffling murders in what is normally a quite and peaceful little desert hamlet.Wilde becomes romantically involved with the daughter of towns local big shot played by Victoria Shaw who he meets while giving her a speeding ticket. Ms Shaw was married to actor Roger Smith at the time.. The father is of course hostile to the relationship, particularly when he becomes a suspect in the murders. Crusty Edgar Buchanan portrays the slow moving sheriff who is occupied in a feud with the county prosecutor regarding the crimes. Mickey Shaughnessy plays Scotty O'Brien who owns the town's only tavern and liquor store. Scotty seems to know a lot of town secrets but like all good bartenders he is very discreet.Of course the Canyon is as much a star in the film as any of the actors and Siegel gets a marvelous performance from the river and the gorge.From the jaw dropping beginning to the heart pounding climax, the Canyon is the real star. Siegel favorites Jack Elam and Dabbs Greer have red herring roles. Seek this one out you will be glade you did.