Best movie of this year hands down!

Excellent but underrated film

An Exercise In Nonsense

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

First off - did anybody else notice the close resemblance of James Lanphier who played the Landlord and Ross Martin? When Lanphier walked into frame I thought for the longest time that HE was a probable suspect... (Do a Google image search for James Lanphier to see what I mean)Anywhoo, a good solid, police procedural with a number of plot holes that didn't spoil the fun.Lee Remick, was gorgeous and gave a convincing show of terror, Stefanie Powers when SHE was menaced in turn turned into a shivering wreck.Glenn Ford was personable and believable as an FBI agent and from telling somebody he'd "never had to shoot anybody" managed to up his body count by the movie's end.The final crowd scenes at Candelstick Park added tension but kinda telegraphed what the finale would be...

Apparently, Blake Edwards proved that he could do things far beyond the range of the Pink Panther films and he sure hit a home run with this intense 1962 thriller.Just watch the face of Lee Remick, bank teller, who is accosted in her garage by a heavy breathing sadistic, eerie character threatening her that if she doesn't steal $100,000 from her bank for him, she and her teenage sister, Stefanie Powers, will be killed.This is a tense thriller and Ross Martin is absolutely superb as the sinister character.Glenn Ford is smooth as the FBI man who Remick turns to. There is also an excellent supporting performance by an Asian woman, a girlfriend of Martin, who refuses to cooperate with the police and though it is wrong, you can see why she has taken this kind of attitude.

"Experiment in Terror" is a smart and entertaining crime/noir thriller from the 1960's. The opening 10 minutes are superb, and beautifully filmed in crisp black & white, as Lee Remick is menaced by the villain in her own home. The rest of the movie (2 hours!) charts her predicament as she wavers between contacting the police and going along with the criminal's plan. Glenn Ford plays a very cool FBI officer who assists her, and There's an appearance from a young Stephanie Powers as the heroine's sister.Action is tight all the way through, and the film hold your interest. The photography is beautiful, noir style. Fluid camera movement, unusual angles and inspired framing crop up regularly. The scene in the mannequin workshop is very reminiscent of scenes in "giallo" thrillers from the 1970's, except this film was made in 1962! Could it have been an influence?Lee Remick is perfect in the lead role of Kelly Sherwood. She looks gorgeous and acts realistically throughout. Kelly is no damsel in distress, she's brave and clever, a great heroine. Glenn Ford plays FBI agent Ripley as a total professional who never loses his cool. He plays well as the strength that gives Kelly the courage to withstand the situation she is in. If anything lets the movie down, it is the amazing amount of man power given to support the heroine by the FBI on the strength of one anonymous phone call! She sure is one lucky lady. Bit on the whole, a real pleasure to watch and very enjoyable.

When I saw that this was directed by Blake Edwards and with music by Henri Mancini, I was a bit worried but things turned out OK. Edwards works wholly within the established conventions of the film noir genre and he is very competently supported by camera and lighting work. There is no brilliant innovation but everyone definitely knows what they are doing. Mancini's music is completely appropriate and as good as one could ask for. Thus, if you are studying film noir and how to produce such films, this is a good representative technical example. In 1962, the elements, however well executed must have been very familiar to its audience. However, if you are coming to it without having seen many others, it will grab you. In fact, the opening scene will grab anyone. The various elements work very well and the viewer is pulled right in. However, the strength of that opening scene is one of the reasons the film falls short of a top rating. Great suspense and sense of threat is created there but it cannot be sustained. Instead of building to a crescendo, we are dropped solidly into the deep water but allowed to meander our way to the shallows until we emerged relatively relaxed at the end. The film does throw in twists and turns that keep you guessing at times but the level of tension ebbs away. The contrast with other films of this type that succeed in genuinely having you on pins-and-needles toward the end is strong. One of the reasons for that could be that we see Ford and his FBI colleagues so numerous and well mobilized on the case. Much of the film consists of their earnest investigations and support of the intended victims. We thereby get the sense that they will inevitably prevail. We also see Ross Martin's villain as multifaceted and not as all-threatening as he might be despite the very convincing start up. The acting as noted by others is good from top to bottom and in the case of Martin, top notch. If we could only get that more often today!!