Cri de terreur

"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.

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.

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.)

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.