Sturm-Angst

I first noticed Mr. Wilde in "Naked Prey" - although it's now a bit dated in some ways, much like that better known film, "Storm Fear" is a gripping tale when viewed with the appropriate 'Fifties mindset.

Cornel plays "Uncle Charlie", a ne'erdowell prodigal son returned to his brother's home while on the run from a capital crime with his gang of gruesomes. As its plot unfolds, we learn many disturbing lessons about Charlie and his brother and his brother's wife.

Akin to cinematographic pulp fiction, this is a memorable effort perhaps due to its depiction of universal, timeless human flaws. You'll love to hate Uncle Charlie, but I think you'll enjoy the rest of the cast even more.

The outdoor scenes in Storm Fear were filmed near Sun Valley, Idaho. A local fellow named Eddie Bennett donned a fur coat and a blonde wig, and played "Edna" when she was pushed off the rock formation (which is located about 3/4 of the way from Ketchum NW to Galena Lodge). Eddie later gave the wig to my father, who gave it to me. Mr. Wilde was kind to a young girl eager to become a writer, and gave me one of the working scripts of Storm Fear. My little sister and I (in our serious moments) read the lines and acted out the script very seriously. In our silly moments, we took turns wearing the wig while the other shouted "Die, Edna, die!" and pushed "Edna" off the roof of our grandparents' house into deep snow.

Storm Fear is a contrast of brothers, both of whom have failed in life. Cornel Wilde plays the `bad' brother, fleeing from a bank robbery. Dan Duryea is the `good' brother who can't come to grips with his own artistic and personal failures. I do not like Cornel Wilde, yet I found he created a sympathetic, very human `good-for-nothing', a surprisingly less intelligent role for a lead actor to play. Duryea, on the other hand, is much less sympathetic, perhaps because he is reaching for stars that are obviously out of his grasp. Jean Wallace is quite good as Duryea's wife and Wilde's former lover. She effectively straddles the worlds of both men. Steven Hill portrays the unstable member of Wilde's gang, but he doesn't seem quite sure how far to take his character at times.

This should have been more claustrophobic with 6 people cooped up in a house in a snow storm, but the script handles this nicely. The film gives the appearance of being an inexpensive production; yet, it makes the most of what is there in set, actors, etc. Wilde does a credible job of directing. Elmer Bernstein's score is a plus. The ending, however, is totally unsatisfactory, obviously bowing to conventions of the mid 50s when uncompromising films were not the norm.

Gem from the BLACK SERIES with Cornel Wilde

This "film noir", which is not very well known in German-speaking countries, premiered on December 16, 1955 in New York City and is a representative of the so-called Black Series of American films that impressed in the 1940s and 1950s with their darkness and resounding cynicism. The Hungarian-born American leading actor Cornel Wilde (1915-1989), who made his first contacts with the film business in 1940 as Laurence Olivier's fencing coach on Broadway, also acts as a producer with his Theodora Productions and also directs. What a self-made man!

It tells the dark story of three bank robbers, Charlie Blake (Cornel Wilde) and his cronies (Steven Hill, Lee Grant), who have to hide from the police in the snowy mountain hut of Charlie's brother Fred (Dan Duryea). Old family conflicts break out because Fred is married to the beautiful Elizabeth (Jean Wallace, married to Cornel Wilde from 1951 to 1981), who was actually Charlie's girlfriend in her youth. The couple's ten-year-old son (David Stollery) hardly knows his Uncle Charlie and suffers greatly from his parents' alienation. Due to the seemingly hopeless situation, the situation for those who are virtually trapped becomes more and more dire until the intruders finally lose their nerve...

Here, an exciting, dark crime story is skilfully combined with a heart-touching family drama. The unity of place, time and plot is almost classically maintained and increases the intensity of this film gem immensely.

Cornel Wilde, who was particularly noticeable for his impressive physique in films such as "The Greatest Show in the World" (1952) and "Constantine the Great" (1961), proves to be an accomplished film craftsman who understands a lot about the structure of a drama and the The requirements of the genre are met almost perfectly.

In her rather small role as nightclub singer Edna Rogers, Lee Grant, born in 1925, creates a truly magical moment when she sings the song about "Loch Lomond" in a wonderfully off-key way. Twenty years later, Lee Grant was awarded an Oscar for best supporting actor for her role as a bored housewife in "Shampoo" (1975), who likes to bring her strong-armed hairdresser (Warren Beatty) into the house for special treatments.

Former decathlete Dennis Weaver (1924-2006), who was supposed to play a very special role in Steven Spielberg's directorial debut "Duel" (1971), can be seen as Hank, the helping hand of the Blake family.

A very exciting film that is still little known! It's worth it!

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.