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"Cry Terror," from 1958 is not a big-budget film, but it holds the viewer throughout. It's the story of a man, James Mason, who is duped into making small bombs which he believes are for government use.

Only later does he realize that he made them for a criminal who intends to extort money by placing them on airlines and threatening to detonate them if the money is not paid.

He and his family are kidnapped, and his wife (Inger Stevens) is used to collect the money so it seems as if he is the actual guilty party.

Rod Steiger is the bad guy, and Jack Klugman, Neville Brand, and the nearly unrecognizable Angie Dickinson make up his gang, each with their own part to play.

Without giving anything away, the story is preposterous at times but always suspenseful and effective. Steiger is terrific as a dangerous man whose quiet orders belie a violent temperament.

Dickinson is only 26 here and brunette but her sultry voice and gorgeous figure are the same. Brand does well as a scary psychotic, and Klugman is good as a man under Steiger's domination. Mason is appropriately harried.

The workhorse role belongs to Inger Stevens, a natural beauty who rose to fame in the TV series "The Farmer's Daughter" and who took her own life, after several unsuccessful attempts, in 1970.

In a way, one of her tries at suicide occurred during the filming of "Cry Terror" when she and Rod Steiger suffered carbon monoxide poisoning during a tunnel scene at the end of the film. She refused medical treatment, stating that she wanted to die.

Stevens gives an excellent performance in this movie, that of an hysterical, panicked, and ultimately nearly catatonic mother who fears for her husband and young daughter and her own assault by Brand.

Unfortunately, due to the fact that Steiger and Mason are so underplayed, she comes off at times as overacting. She was, however, a wonderful and appealing actress who might have gone on to a much bigger career had she lived. She had it all - or so it seemed.

This is a good movie loaded with the New York City atmosphere of the '50s, though in one scene, it looked as if Stevens was headed for Brooklyn using the Holland Tunnel. You'll never get there that way.

A splendidly over-the-top performance from Rod Steiger as the maniac who holds a family hostage as part of the extortion plot that involves putting a bomb on a plane, is the main reason to see Andrew L Stone's thriller, "Cry Terror!". It's all a bit daft but it's got a good cast, (even if James Mason is wasted as the poor dupe who made the bomb in the first place). Inger Stevens is very good as his wife and Neville Brand, Jack Klugman and Angie Dickinson are suitbaly nasty villians while Stone always knew how to keep the suspense on the boil. Minor but watchable.

I enjoyed this picture. No, not perfect, but if it comes on at 1:15 AM and you can't sleep, is kinda fun... full of nostalgic views of the world of 1958, when things seemed simpler, and everything in view was American Made! Yes, Chrysler cars everywhere.. Furnishings of 1958 were a particular delight, full-wall-length draperies, long-low "moderne" couches, vacuum-tube electronics abound, (25" black and white TV's), Cute Women in dresses, real-world locations shot to see the life of '58 USA as it really looked. Gives one a feeling of wanting to go there and live a life of blissful ignorance of any racial, economic, religious, disease caused strife, and just relax with a gang of Psycopaths and enjoy the cool cars, and snappy dialog... FUN.

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.)

Although this is one improbable story a great cast moves Cry Terror along. In watching this I suggest you do not take a bathroom break as you'll miss some kind of thrilling moment.

James Mason is a TV repairman with wife Inger Stevens and little daughter Terry Ann Ross and during the late war he was in underwater demolition with Rod Steiger. Steiger comes to Mason with a proposition that he build some kind of triggering device that they can sell to the Navy. Only Steiger puts it on some bombs and is making extortion threats against an airline run by Carlton Young.

Now that he's got Mason implicated in his extortion scheme Steiger takes Mason and family hostage and he has Stevens go to collect the payoff. She gives as much information as she can to FBI agent Kenneth Tobey and without following her, the FBI races against time to catch Steiger and his gang before they do some grievous harm to the airlines and Mason's family.

Mason and Steiger are a great pair of leads and a contrasting study in acting styles just like Steiger and Humphrey Bogart were in The Harder They Fall. Stevens gives one of her best performances on the big screen as the frightened wife.

Steiger's accomplices are quite a study in low lives. Jack Klugman as a punk, Neville Brand as drug addicted sex criminal, and psycho nymphomaniac Angie Dickinson are some real criminal specimens. They give good competition to the leads.

It's an improbable story, but the tension never lets up the second that Steiger takes the hostages. Those last three minutes or so will stay with you forever as they did with me when I first saw Cry Terror several decades ago.

The plot is REALLY dumb, with a back story that writer/director Andrew Stone wisely soft peddles, since it makes James Mason's character look like a complete dope. Also, it is not very suspenseful. Basically it's a lot of Inger Stevens and Mason too easily outsmarting the bad guys and gal interspersed with some aggressively dull FBI procedural stuff. Finally, the look of it is extremely cheesy, what with Riverdale alternating with LA, often in the same scene (last time I looked the Bronx did not boast palm trees or craftsman bungalows). So, why a 6 'stead of a 5, or worse? In a word, the cast. Great assemblage of actors. How great? Well, let's just say, as a previous reviewer has noted, that the least distinguished member of it is Mason and when that happens you know there's some serious character acting going on. My fave? Angie Dickinson, of course, never better or more convincing than when playing a hot, morally challenged, moll. Also nice to see Jack Klugman, fresh from playing knife hating juror #5 in "12 Angry Men", this time lovingly nursing a shiv. Give it a C plus.

This is a really taught little thriller. I've heard it described as noir, but that isn't true. There is way too much daylight in this movie, but it doesn't in any way detract from the nail biting suspense. It's a somewhat convoluted plot about an evil psycho that lures an old army buddy into his plan to extort money from an airline by planting a bomb on one of their flights. I know that sounds like a tired plot, but this one has lots of twists. He gets the buddy to build the bomb by convincing him the Army is interested in it. He then kidnaps this guys family and forces the wife to pick up the ransom money! This is a fast paced movie and the tension just continues to build from beginning to end. There is also lots of stuff for the tech junkies.

The cast is also top notch. Rod Steiger plays the diabolical psycho, assisted by his evil henchmen played by Neville Brand (what a surprise), Jack Klugman (as a shlub), and a delicious Angie Dickenson in her most delicious prime. Inger Stevens plays the terrified wife who always seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but the big surprise is the buddy played by James Mason, of all people. Character development abounds as this story progresses. Jack Klugman begins to break down when he realizes they will have to kill the kid. Rod Steiger begins to lose his cool as the plan unravels. Neville Brand becomes crazier and more menacing by the minute. The family, on the other hand, gets stronger and more resourceful as time goes by. They seem to be able to draw on an inner strength none of them knew they had. The motive for this madness is perfectly logical. They were willing to blow up an airplane for half a million dollars. In light of 9/11 we can almost look back in nostalgia at a motive that rational.

1958 was a good year. This movie lets us look back on cars with tail fins, beer can openers, the West Side Highway, men who wore ties, and women who wore heels. It was also the tail end of an era where movies actually told a story - and this is a great one.

Warning: The following reveals some plot elements.

James Mason does little and Inger Stevens (as Mason's wife) a lot until near the end when Mason climbs down the cable of an elevator shaft. The hard-driving

music and the voice-overs of Stevens (and, eventually, Mason) seem

unnecessary and stilted to me. The villains (especially the benzedrine wacked- out Neville Brand, but also the mastermind Steiger and the cold-blooded Angie Dickinson) are menacing enough without reports of fears from the victims. The child is exceptionally, unbelievably inert (well-behaved?) in captivity, and I have difficulty believing that an impression from chewing gum and canvassing

dentists could lead to where Mason and his daughter are being held. The FBI/ police conduct is hokey and the ending predictable, but Stevens's resolve and ingenuity are within the realm of possibility and impressive. The New York

backdrops are effectively used and some of the technology (the fabric chute for deplaning and automobile car fins, in particular) are quaint.

The story packs a punch. OK, as suggested in the summary, there are far more global forms of terrorism now. But this sort still exists and still is awful.

Neville Brand stands out as giving the best performance. Rod Steiger is good too but maybe a little studied. James Mason turns in an extremely atypical performance, right from our first view of him. He seems more dithery than a James Mason character ought to, even under the tense circumstances involved.

Angie Dickinson is very good as a nasty, tough participant in the plot against Mason, his wife, their little daughter, the passengers of an airline, and the country. But Inger Stevens, the wife, is so shrill it's hard to view her as a heroine.

It's a strange production. All the cars are from the Chrysler Corporation. This happened a lot in TV shows of this time but less frequently in movies.

A genuine nail biter, from start to finish! This film is guaranteed to keep you in suspense from beginning to end! Led by Rod Steiger, who gives a riveting performance as the psycho-kidnapper, the rest of the cast performs most ably, lending considerable credulity to the storyline. Acting honors must go to the underrated Inger Stevens, whose career was tragically shortened by her untimely death. She lends just the right note of hysteria as the wife and mother whose family is being held, as she is made to follow the demands of the kidnap gang members in order to secure their safe release. The film also gives us some great shots of the NYC of the period, particularly the West Side Highway and other notable spots in the city.

The police receives a $500k ransom demand by threating to blow up a plane with RDX explosives. Jim Molner (James Mason) is horrified by the realization that he helped build the bomb. The gang leader Paul Hoplin (Rod Steiger) is an Army buddy who tricked him. Paul forces him to continue by taking his wife and young daughter hostage. Kelly (Angie Dickinson), Vince (Jack Klugman), and Steve (Neville Brand) are the other gang members.

I don't really understand the compromise. I would think that Hoplin would simply tie the husband and kid down forcing the wife to do his bidding. I don't get why the couple would see splitting up as a better deal. It's all a little confused. The only gain comes from forcing the wife to be controlled by the pervert Steve. It's a manufactured situation. I also don't care much about the FBI's side of the story. There is a good crime drama in here and the cast is interesting. It's especially interesting to see Dickinson and Klugman as villains.

Fairly grisly for the 50's, with the subjects of rape, child-killing and mass murder right out in the open. One of the greatest casts ever: James Mason, Rod Steiger, Inger Stevens, Angie Dickenson, Neville Brand, Jack Klugman! Wow! Exciting scenes of NY streets as Inger takes the ransom money to Steiger. Some of the other scenes are duds (the elevator shaft did nothing for me), but many are electric, and the generic evil generated by over half the cast takes up the slack.

"Cry Terror" belongs to the "family taken hostage by criminals" sub-genre of film noir. Rod Steiger is the leader of the pack, and man is this dude creepy. Steiger was mostly incapable of playing a character other than as an off-putting boor, which was a problem when we were supposed to like him, but serves him well in a movie like this. James Mason is the husband/father of the family that gets taken hostage, and Inger Stevens is his wife. They both have some cool set pieces to manage, Mason's involving a shinny through an elevator shaft and Stevens's a high-speed car drive through city traffic. Angie Dickinson is the female member of the gang, and she's even sexier (if that's possible) playing a cold hearted moll (and man, is she ruthless) than she was playing good guys.

Eddie Muller talked this one up quite a bit in his TCM intro. I don't think I liked it as much as he does, but it is a pretty good, suspenseful little noir.

Grade: A-

Mason is squandered in the picture, and the narration by him and Inger Stevens is ridiculous, and shifting the action to the police station detracts from the danger the family faces. The plot to extort money would have worked better without kidnapping the family, but then we wouldn't have had this film in the first place. Take those factors out and the picture is still tense and exciting, thanks to Stone's directing and the desperation that Stevens conveys in her scenes with psycho Neville Brand. Equally menacing is, of all people, Angie Dickenson as the cold-blooded criminal willing to kill the daughter if the demands aren't met. Rod Steiger as the ringleader is too busy trying to contain Brand, and maybe could have been used as the cop instead. The elements are haphazard, the film is all over the place, it's fun to watch, but it goes back and forth instead of straight.

This film classic of 1958 depicts all the superstars of the silver screen very young, Angie Dickinson (Eileen Kelly)"Dressed to Kill"'80 is very hard to recognize, however, her sexual charm is always present in this film. Ingar Stevens(Mrs.John Molner)"The Farmers Daughter"'63 TV Series, was very young and beautiful as James Mason's(John Molner)"Lolita"'62 wife, Ingar Stevens was an unappreciated actress and unfortunately took her own life in 1970 at the very height of her career. Rod Steiger(Paul Hoplin)"No Way to Treat A Lady"'68 played the role of a mastermind with a fool proof way of making a half a million dollars by kidnapping Mr. & Mrs. Molner and their daughter. The black & white photography of NYC made this picture a real classic film for many future generations to enjoy and the wonderful talent of these great SUPERSTARS! Be sure to view it the next time it is on TV.

It's so important when watching a film like this to take into context both the century and decade it was filmed. The implausibility factor ranks high but should easily be forgiven considering such. These types of movies of course seem terribly tame nowadays when compared to current offerings; still, it must have packed quite a punch at the time of release.

I agree with reviewers who rave about the casting, but I also agree with those who find Mason's performance to be nothing more than standard. Dickinson and Klugman seem a bit miscast. It's a miracle Steiger doesn't chew up the scenery as he usually did, but he does a good job. The real star, however, is Stevens. I find her performance to be quite riveting.

In my opinion, the real shout-out goes to Virginia Stone. What a fantastic job she did editing this film. Her talent is also evident in The Last Voyage, an obvious influence when it comes to The Poseidon Adventure and Cameron's Titanic. We just don't get enough nods to women behind the camera in the entertainment industry.

Recommended for 1950s crime-thriller buffs. Otherwise, it's somewhere between good and really good but certainly not excellent.

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.

The airline is getting bomb threats. Chet Huntley reports. Mastermind Rod Steiger has an extortion scheme to collect half a million abetted by Klugman Dickinsom, and Brand. Steiger bamboozled Mason into building his bombs, then kidnaps his family to execute the plot. Interestingly, Stevens is overwrought (purposefully directed so)while nearly everyone else underplays it very effectively - UNTIL things start unwinding. Then Brand's psycho begins to freak out, Steiger's mastermind blows his cool, and Mason loses it - all very realistically done in semi-documentary fashion. I do not see the "routine" aspects others cite. These characters are quite different from the ordinary - especially Dickinson's matter-of-fact criminal who has no compunction about killing if necessary and has ice water running through her veins - a great performance. It makes fabulous use of its New York locations on a low budget. Stevens' race to make the ransom delivery on time despite being diverted by traffic miles in the wrong direction is a tour-d-force like I have seldom seen. The wrap-up is a bit melodramatic considering the tension that came before it - but only then did I breathe normally again. If you are from New York or interested in New York in the 50's, this is an edge-of-your seat treat.

A blackmail thriller from 1958 starring James Mason. A commercial airplane lands suddenly because of a bomb threat. The FBI are brought in to investigate & a plot is unraveled where a blackmailer has threatened another bomb detonation unless a ransom is paid. Hearing the news on the radio, a worried engineer, played by Mason, fears a recent construction sample of his may've been used to construct the device which prompts the blackmailers, led by Rod Steiger, to kidnap Mason & his daughter while his wife, played by Inger Stevens, must go to the powers that be at the airlines to collect the cash. A taut thriller using actual New York locations serve this film well as the ever present ticking clock (particularly during a sequence where the wife has to make it back to the blackmailers' lair by a certain time plays like gangbusters) ratchets up the suspense as the situations becomes more dire & desperate. Co-starring Angie Dickinson, Jack Klugman & Neville Brand as the rest of Steiger's crew w/Kenneth Tobey as the lead Fibbie in charge.