CRY TERROR (1958) — A suburban family is held hostage in their home by a crazy man (Rod Steiger) and his drug-addled accomplice (Neville Brand). There’s a bit of me in this story. The crazy intruder was a popular film genre in the 50s. Brand has a great scene when he explains his addiction to the hostage wife (Inger Stevens) who is memorable running along railroad tracks in a subway tunnel. Likewise, the hostage husband (James Mason) appears quite anxious hanging onto a cable in an elevator shaft. Whatever keeps you on the edge of your seat, you’ll find in “Cry Terror.”
For me I enjoyed cameos with NBC news reporters Chet Huntley, network news anchor, and Roy Neal who covered aeronautics for NBC TV News when I was an editorial assistant at KNBC in 63-64. Neal, who fancied a cigarette holder, was a bit stuffy but likable. (Rockets, missiles, satellites and space travel were big news in the 60s). I picked Roy up in my ’61 Plymouth Fury at the Burbank airport when he returned from an assignment. The Fury had some space age touches with an aluminum fin running the length of the trunk and very Buck Rogers illusions, mostly dismissed by car buyers and industry critics. As reporter Jim McLaughlin of The Idaho Statesman observed, it looked like it was going 30 miles an hour when it was sitting at the curb. I now happily drive a Dodge Dart, a brand that found currency in SoCal with a “little old lady from Pasadena the terror of Colorado Blvd.” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051501/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
1 comment:
Don't stop now, you'r on a roll!
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