Wonderful Movie

Crappy film

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Dear Blake Edwards,you had one of the greatest musical scores of all time. And the greatest title sequence ever. You had one of the most achingly beautiful leading ladies ever. And one of the toughest leading men. You had one of the greatest screen villains of all time. And awesome cinematography with some cool camera angles. What more could a director ask for?Yet, I would only rate your film a 7 on 10. You know why? Because it just went on and on. Did you sign a contract that the film had to be two hours long? Some of the sub-plots were so damn uninspired. Only the villain had good lines. Everyone else was somewhat ordinary. And the plot, development and resolutions were all inane. The film could have been a good 30 minutes shorter.Best Regards, Pimpin.(7/10)

The threatening atmosphere that quickly develops soon after the start of "Experiment In Terror" sets the tone for everything that follows in this disturbing story of a young woman who's attacked by a violent psychopath and forced to carry out a serious crime on his behalf. The woman's ordeal continues as she's used as the bait to catch her tormentor and her life remains in grave danger all the way through to the movie's spectacular climax. The uneasy mood of the piece is effectively enhanced by Henry Mancini's creepy score and some wonderful cinematography strongly reinforces an awareness of the ever-present menace that lurks in the shadows.One dark night, Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick), who works as a teller in a San Francisco bank, returns to her home in the Twin Peaks area of the city and after having parked her car in her garage, is grabbed from behind by a man who threatens to kill her and her teenage sister unless she agrees to steal $100,000 from the bank where she works. The man, who remains unseen throughout the attack, is an asthmatic who tells Kelly details about herself and her sister which unnerve her and adds that he's already killed a couple of people in the past. He warns her not to contact the police because he'll be watching her to ensure that she obeys his orders.When Kelly gets the opportunity, she contacts FBI agent John Ripley (Glenn Ford) who takes charge of the case and soon identifies the attacker as Garland "Red" Lynch (Ross Martin) who's a criminal with a long record of convictions for violent crimes. Ripley's very methodical investigation doesn't achieve much success initially as a couple of characters who could potentially provide useful information are killed and another refuses to co-operate because Lynch had previously been very kind to her son and paid for some expensive medical treatment that he needed.Lynch kidnaps Kelly's younger sister Toby (Stefanie Powers) just before he wants Kelly to go ahead with the robbery and Ripley arranges for Kelly to follow Lynch's orders so that she can be used to trap him. The way in which the events that follow play out, prove to be extremely tense, unpredictable and dangerous.Lee Remick, in a brilliantly measured performance, conveys the extreme fear and vulnerability that her character feels after being attacked, terrorised and stalked by a ruthless maniac and the composure that she also displays in some frightening situations testifies to her courage and resilience. Glenn Ford shows Ripley's genuine concern, sincerity and efficiency very convincingly and Ross Martin is terrific as the madman whose actions cause so much distress and fear."Experiment In Terror" looks great and is well directed despite a few unnecessary lapses in the momentum of what happens on screen. Some dramatic camera angles emphasise the chaos into which Kelly's life descends after she's attacked in her garage and the extreme close-ups ratchet up the tension that's such a powerful feature of this superb movie which ends in style with a very memorable and well staged finale.

This is a solid movie with a strong story. The real star of this movie is Ross Martin whose portrayal of a psychopathic killer is chilling. The story itself is tightly put together and moves forward steadily and relentlessly to its conclusion. Glenn Ford gives another outstanding performance, this time as the investigator assigned to the case. The black and white cinematography adds to the eerie and somber mood of the story. Lee Remick and Stephanie Powers are excellent as the two sisters who are the targets of the bad guy's machinations, but this Ross Martin's movie. He is the star. His presence makes this movie succeed because without him the movie would have lost much of its dramatic impact. His character permeates throughout the movie and if not properly performed, the entire movie fails. In this case, that pitfall is avoided.

This film is a disappointment, despite having the ever-welcome Lee Remick and Glenn Ford in the leads. Although I enjoyed watching them do their very professional jobs of attempting to portray the rather unrealistic characters, I did not enjoy the film at all. It is simply an inferior piece of work and a hackneyed story line. The film was directed by Blake Edwards, and from time to time he or his cinematographer manage some atmospheric shots. There are lots of expressionistic shadows of Venetian blinds in the background of shots (hardly an original idea), and there is one shot near the end looking up from floor level at three men talking, who loom over the camera in an effective manner which heightens the tension. But by and large, this film is a waste of time. The psychopathic criminal who threatens Lee Remick is overdone, the whole effect is corny, we have seen it all before in films which have been much better scripted and better directed than this one. And frankly this genre is pretty boring in any case. The world is threatened by so many psychopaths on a daily basis that it is difficult to have too much sympathy for an arbitrarily chosen single woman and her harrowing ordeal, when whole nations and peoples are going through much worse than that. This film is an overt attempt at exploitation of the horror of menace to try to appeal to an audience and make some money. It has no integrity as a project.