Experiment in Terror Reviews

Ford is a rugged but by-the-book FBI agent called into an extortion case involving Remick. She is a bank teller who has been accosted in her garage by a man shrouded in darkness. His husky voice tells her to steal $100,000 from her bank--or, with her sister, meet a dire fate. Ford tells Remick to play along with her terrorizer while he plants agents in the bank and throughout the neighborhood where Remick and her sister live. Through recognition of the extoritionist's voice as that of an asthmatic, and through information provided by informants, Ford is able to identify Martin as the culprit. The price of the information comes high, however, as many of the informants are later found murdered by Martin. As the dragnet tightens about him, Martin abducts Powers and holds her hostage. Remick, following Ford's instructions, takes the money from the bank and meets with the killer at Candlestick Park during a baseball game. Just as he is about to flee, planted FBI agents jump up from their seats and shoot it out with the murderer, killing him. Powers is found safe, and Remick sees Ford as more than just her protector, at film's end. Filmed on location in San Francisco, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR offers rich shots of cable cars, magnificent bridges, and the inherent attractions of one of the most beautiful cities in the world--the site for many another crime film (THE LINEUP, DIRTY HARRY, HELL ON FRISCO BAY). Enhancing the sinister sounds of Martin's rasping deliveries is an autoharp background, underlining the psychopath's errie voice, that composer Mancini worked into his chilling score. Martin's physical malady makes him all the more menacing--a film noir device that worked with Alan Ladd in THIS GUN FOR HIRE (a deformed wrist--a hairlip in the Grahame Greene novel), Richard Widmark in KISS OF DEATH (a maniacal giggle), Everett Sloane in THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (a lurching limp), and William Talman in THE HITCHHIKER (an eye that never closes). Edwards' direction is effective, although he relies too heavily on overhead and boom shots to show his action scenes.