Experiment in Terror

Plot synopsis:
A psychotic killer, Garland "Red" Lynch, uses a campaign of terror to force San Francisco bank teller Kelly Sherwood to steal $100,000 from the bank for him. Despite his threat to kill her or her teenaged sister Toby if she goes to the police, Sherwood contacts the San Francisco office of the FBI, where agent John Ripley takes charge of the case.
Ripley interviews a woman who implies that she's involved in some way in a serious crime, but before she can give Ripley the details, Lynch murders her. Sherwood continues to be terrorized with phone calls, an asthmatic condition making the unseen Lynch's voice all the more sinister.
The FBI identifies the criminal, noting that Red Lynch has a record of convictions for statutory rape, forgery, criminal assault, armed robbery, and murder. They track down his girlfriend, Lisa Soong, whose 6-year-old son has just had a hip replaced. Lynch is paying all the hospital bills. Because of this, Lisa refuses to believe that Lynch is a criminal and will not cooperate with the investigation. Ripley nevertheless manages to get some information about "Uncle Red" from the boy.
Lynch finally gives Sherwood a time and date to steal the money, and just to make sure that she does, he kidnaps her sister Toby and holds her captive. The climax is a chase through Candlestick Park after a nighttime baseball game between the San Francisco Giants and the Los Angeles Dodgers. On-field action includes several close-ups of Dodger pitcher Don Drysdale. Ripley and his men ultimately surround Lynch on the infield of the stadium. As Lynch takes aim at a police helicopter, Ripley shoots him and he dies on the pitchers mound.

Tags: murder, sadist

Review:
Although it's two hours long and there is nothing much resembling today's blood and guts-action-a-minute thrillers, this 1960s crime story still entertains, thanks to an interesting cast.Sure, they could have chopped off 15 minutes of this to make it a bit tighter but watching Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers and Ross Martin isn't all bad, especially Remick, a gorgeous woman with one of the sweetest, softest voices I've ever heard.
Since my exposure to Blake Edwards beyond his comedies has only been `Days of Wine and Roses', which is one of the most depressing films I've ever seen, I wasn't sure what to expect in the way of a thriller from a director who I largely respect.
`Experiment in Terror' which stars Lee Remick and the always great Glenn Ford, turned out to be an outstanding and slick film which was thoroughly enjoyable.While the story, about a bank teller who is threatened with the kidnapping of her younger sister if she doesn't steal 100K from her employer, and the FBI agent (Ford) who tries to both protect her and find out who the extortionist is, does not rely on cheap thrills in order to create suspense.
Glenn Ford is an FBI agent; Lee Remick is the victim of someone she's never seen in "Experiment in Terror," directed by Blake Edwards and also starring Stefanie Powers and Ned Glass.
He has a nice chemistry with Remick.There are some great scenes in "Experiment in Terror." One of the best takes place in the apartment of a woman who makes mannequins; and several take place right at the beginning, when Martin accosts Remick and later surprises her in her home.
Not having their expertise, I won't.I really love the atmosphere Blake Edwards created in this film, and I love the casting of Ford, Remick, Martin, and Powers.
Coming home late one night Kelly (Lee Remick) is attacked in her garage by an asthmatic nasty named Red Lynch (Ross Martin) who convinces her he knows of all her daily life , particularly her employment at the bank where she works as bank teller.
Taut noir thriller has an asthmatic psycho killer excellently played by Ross Martin who steals the show and gives an unnerving portrait of evil .
Gorgeous Lee Remick as accosted woman , an effective Glenn Ford as obstinate Inspector and a likable and very young Stefanie Powers .
Before Ross Martin became the amiable Artemus Gordon on "The Wild, Wild West," and before Blake Edwards began making those Pink Panther movies, they joined up for this complex, thoroughly convincing story of a sadistic thief who terrorizes bank teller Lee Remick to gain her complicity in a heist.
Edwards makes effective use of the San Francisco locations, of Glenn Ford's portrayal of a tough FBI agent, and of Henry Mancini's jazzy score to weave this taut, psychological suspense tale..
I have to agree with another review which wondered why ROSS MARTIN didn't just rob a bank himself if he wanted that $100,000 so badly, instead of terrorizing a young bank clerk (LEE REMICK) and her not too bright sister (STEPHANIE POWERS).
At that point, it loses some of its credibility.Good performances help sustain whatever suspense there is, especially from LEE REMICK, GLENN FORD, ROSS MARTIN and NED GLASS.Skillfully directed but needed a tighter script..
But when Toby is abducted by the stranger, Kelly tries to stay calm to help the FBI to catch the criminal."Experiment in Terror" is an above average thriller from the early 60's in a noir style directed by Blake Edwards and with Glenn Ford, Lee Remick (whom we all miss so dearly) and Stefanie Powers on the lead roles.
When Lee Remick's character Kelly is attacked for the first time, her eyes are impressive even in a black- and-white film.
Glossy thriller concerning pretty bank teller Kelly Sherwood(Lee Remick)who's coerced into embezzling $100,000 by a unseen asthmatic killer who will threaten to kill her young sister Toby(Stephanie Powers)unless she agree's to the demands,F.B.I agent John Ripley(Glenn Ford)is assigned to protect them & foil the blackmailer.Atmoshphic tension build's through out the film as the bank teller is under scrutiny by the assailant at all times & watching her every move & a game of cat & mouse is played out.which heighten the suspense right to the nerve-racking conclusion.Blake Edwards bird eye camera view direction add to the paranoia..
The fact that director Edwards does not typically dabble in the genre (albeit having learned his lesson from the masters extremely well) should excuse its occasional pretentiousness - most evident in the long two-shot at the beginning of Lee Remick's first encounter with Ross Martin and the similarly extended (and basically irrelevant) sequence in the mannequin lady's apartment prior to her murder.The film's deliberate pace and methodical approach creates a riveting and unrelenting tension and the various subplots (focusing on Stefanie Powers as Remick's younger, liberated sister; Ned Glass as a sleazy police informer; the aforementioned and possibly nymphomaniac 'mannequin lady'; and Martin's Japanese 'family'), while making it longer than is perhaps necessary, are so well nurtured that they give the film an extra edge - thus further enhancing its essential quality.
Acting is top-notch: Glenn Ford is one of Hollywood's most likable, reliable and underrated leading men; Remick and Martin (a memorable and complex heavy, who also gets to do his menacing act in drag!) are perfect as victim and aggressor.Also, the film's pervasive noir-ish atmosphere (propelled by Henry Mancini's unusual score and superbly caught by Edwards and cinematographer Philip Lathrop) is indication that the genre wasn't quite done yet; indeed, EXPERIMENT IN TERROR can be seen as marking perhaps the transition point between old-style noir and the so-called neo-noirs spearheaded by POINT BLANK (1967).Since I work as a bank teller myself, I'm always fascinated by caper films and, in this case, I couldn't help but empathize with Remick's plight; however, I found some aspects of the plot unconvincing: the bank manager's refusal to put up the ransom money, the fact that Remick was kept active on front-office duty during this nerve-racking period, Remick cramming $100,000 in two bundles into her little purse and, finally, the supervisor not noticing the missing cash from Remick's own till at the end of the day....
The first scene, with Remick trapped in her garage by a man who tells her she must rob $100,000 for him from the bank where she works or he will "do something" to her or her younger sister, is a stunner, but it gives away any surprises (and thus the possibility of real suspense) the rest of the film might have had to offer.
Glenn Ford stars as an FBI agent and Lee Remick is a bank teller who is forced to steal $100,000 dollars from the bank or he'll kill her and her sister.
Glenn Ford is good as usual and so is Lee Remick and their is this one scene that really stands out when the camera is shooting up from the floor that shows three FBI agents talking..
This film is a disappointment, despite having the ever-welcome Lee Remick and Glenn Ford in the leads.
The performance of Ross Martin is the only real interest, although Ford and Stefanie Powers are good, Remick less so.
Above-average thriller directed by Blake Edwards about a young bank teller(Lee Remick) and her younger sister(Stephanie Powers) being terrorized into stealing from the bank or suffer the consequences.
The brisk pace, the credible story, and the excellent acting by Remick, Ford, and in particular Ross Martin add immeasurably to the overall mood.
Written by the Gordons, from their book "Operation Terror", this Blake Edwards crime-drama has a sterling black-and-white look, a fine Henry Mancini music score, and good performances by a first-rate cast.
A great deal of time is spent examining the psycho's relationship with an (innocent?) Oriental woman and her ailing son; there's a tie-in to the case with the murder of a local woman who painted mannequins, yet the sequence appears to be included solely to feature the corpse hanging amongst the fake limbs and torsos (stylish but merely distracting); and there's talk about whose money victimized Lee Remick will actually remove from the bank, yet when the time comes she seems to be acting all alone (with suspicion all around her).
It stars Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers and Ross Martin.
Lathrop.Film begins with bank teller Kelly Sherwood (Remick) driving home through night time San Francisco, over head shots capturing the cityscape for backdrop purpose.
All the while Mancini's musical accompaniments act as a foreboding presence, dovetailing with the themes and characterisations at work in the play.Visually it's also impressive, filmed in gritty black and white, Edwards uses intense close-ups to ramp up the tension, dallies with angles to enforce emotional turmoil, while Lathrop always keeps the lenses stark, the contrasts rich and the use of angled shadows is most striking.
The lab rat in this particular Experiment In Terror is Lee Remick who works as a bank teller and lives and supports her younger sister Stefanie Powers.
At one point he confronts Sherwood in the ladies room of a club and Martin is complete in drag, looking every bit as murderous as Tony Perkins was in Psycho.Glenn Ford is the lead character here as the FBI agent assigned to track Martin down when Remick contacts them.
It's a good part for Ford, but it doesn't really develop into a three dimensional character because of the way the script is written.The film really belongs to Martin as the experimenter and Remick and Powers as his lab rats.
Some other familiar faces here are Roy Poole as another FBI agent, Clifton James as a local homicide cop, and Ned Glass as a rather quirky informant.The film also features some nice shots of Candlestick Park in San Francisco where the final confrontation takes place after a Dodger-Giant ballgame.
Blake Edwards shows a masterful hand at direction and orchestrates a fine cast, including the absolutely beautiful Lee Remick and the no-so-bad-herself Stephanie Powers in a tense FBI drama.
Blake Edwards' "Experiment in Terror" is just that, edge-of-your-seat suspense that just gets better over the years.
But the best performance in the film comes from Ross Martin as "Red" Lynch, the supremely scary villain of the piece.
And that story Martin tells Powers to get her to come running to him in the first place was just about the cheesiest ever.The biggest problem with the movie is that, at no time in the picture did I think Lee Remick was in any kind of danger.
"Experiment in terror" (1962) directed by Blake Edwards as movie is nowadays of course an incredible piece of time that reconstructs namely the architecture of a baseball stadium, in a last scene of pursuit and shootings, where terror is experienced as rarely we have seen before, like a tragic beauty which it is difficult to forget for a viewer.
Featuring a great cast including Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, a very young Stephanie Powers, and a pre-Wild, Wild West Ross Martin as the villain, this movie has all of the suspense, and yes, terror, that so many movies don't have in the midst of all of their heavy-laden special effects.
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.
Lee Remick and Stephanie Powers are excellent as the two sisters who are the targets of the bad guy's machinations, but this Ross Martin's movie.
Blake Edwards monochromatic thriller is a beautifully shot, tense film filled with excellent performances.
One night upon returning home she's threatened by a stranger known as 'Red' (Ross Martin) in her garage, she's then forcibly told to rob her bank of $100,000 or she and her sister will be murdered by him.She then manages to get the word out to an FBI officer John 'Rip' Ripley (Glenn Ford) without Red knowing.
However the screen-writers do a great job of writing likable, interesting characters whilst keeping the action focused on their situations rather then the plot/heist, which helps to hide some of the pacing issues.The entire cast all give excellent performances, especially from Ford and Remick.
There are solid performances from Remick as the bank worker, Powers as her little sister, Ford as the FBI agent, and Martin as the creepy, asthmatic villain.
Experiment In Terror is a by-the-numbers film noir thriller, and director Blake Edwards plies his style too heavily.
This is what pretty much happens on screen as Glenn Ford takes every meeting as FBI Agent Ripley with such serious response that we can't help but believe that at the core this is a grand comedy.The title states the whole film in the title, Blake Edwards has indeed created an experiment in terror with camera angles, lighting, and editing he has crafted a perfect film noir without the least amount of heart that lies at the best of the genre.
Great night to be at Candlestick Park if you're a baseball fan, or if you're a psychopathic extortionist!Ross Martin is absolutely terrifying as the asthmatic extortionist who kidnaps little sister Stephanie Powers and demands $100,00 from bank teller Lee Remick.
Shot in black in white, restored to widescreen format on DVD, the San Francisco locations (including the Golden Gate Bridge and Candlestick Park) gives this film a interesting aura.Lee Remick is a young bank teller named Kelly Sherwood, who lives with her teenage sister, Tobey (Stefanie Powers).
With Kelly in the crossfire, Ripley and his fellow agents close in on him in a memorable climax in Candlestick Park's baseball stadium.Unlike the gratuitous violence and nudity often found in films today, "Experiment In Terror" relies on plot development, effective camera angles and concentrated performance in order to bring out fear in the viewer, and for the most part, it does it in spades.
In contrast to the other films I've mentioned, Experiment in Terror is an entertaining thriller with some nice, tense moments and at least one "edge of your seat" scene.
This is heightened by simple yet realistic performances by Lee Remick and Glenn Ford as well as a very convincing psychopathic performance by Ross Martin.
The uneasy mood of the piece is effectively enhanced by Henry Mancini's creepy score and some wonderful cinematography strongly reinforces an awareness of the ever-present menace that lurks in the shadows.One dark night, Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick), who works as a teller in a San Francisco bank, returns to her home in the Twin Peaks area of the city and after having parked her car in her garage, is grabbed from behind by a man who threatens to kill her and her teenage sister unless she agrees to steal $100,000 from the bank where she works.
He warns her not to contact the police because he'll be watching her to ensure that she obeys his orders.When Kelly gets the opportunity, she contacts FBI agent John Ripley (Glenn Ford) who takes charge of the case and soon identifies the attacker as Garland "Red" Lynch (Ross Martin) who's a criminal with a long record of convictions for violent crimes.
Glenn Ford shows Ripley's genuine concern, sincerity and efficiency very convincingly and Ross Martin is terrific as the madman whose actions cause so much distress and fear."Experiment In Terror" looks great and is well directed despite a few unnecessary lapses in the momentum of what happens on screen.
The movie is boring, but Ross Martin is good as the mysterious psychopath who terrorizes Lee Remick.
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.
Ford is a bit wooden but efficient and the supporting cast includes Ross Martin, Stefanie Powers (as Remick's younger sister), and the great Ned Glass as "Popcorn," a not so trustworthy police informant..
The terrorized bank teller decides to take a chance with getting in touch with the F.B.I. and agent John Ripley(Glenn Ford), will race with the clock to find Toby and catch the blackmailer before matters get worse.Filmed in San Francisco and making good use of iconic locales.
Blake Edwards' "Experiment In Terror" is a suspense film so stark, so serious, so sinister, that it almost plays like a Naked Gun-style parody of the genre.
The terror begins there and the movie never stops, never lightens up or allows any of its characters to catch their breath or achieve three dimensions.Lee Remick, as the bank-teller victim, calls the FBI immediately, (did she not take the psycho's threat seriously?) and gets in touch with G-Man Glenn Ford, who's like a Federal Agent on the cover of a Wheaties box.
(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....
Its opening terror scene is tense, sadistic, and surprising; it comes from out of nowhere, just like film's villain.