Great characters, plot, setting, music, and theme! Please post your feelings about this great movie here. I love that this is a continuation of mood of Blake
Edward's wonderful film noir TV series, "Peter Gunn." Before "Days of Wine and Roses" and all of his "Pink Panther" movies, he did this!
The incredible Henry Mancini score added so much to the atmosphere of this film.
I just saw it mostly for its SF location but found it rivetting. I noticed that the editing was particularly sharp. For examle, when Ross Martin says he will kill Stepanie Powers and the next scene begins with a scream of a teenage girl diving into a pool. There is an element of glib, no nonsense tv quality to the shotmaking that for most part feels compelling and fresh. The pacing helped by the editing is also nimble.
I didn't think the script was particularly good. There is almost no characterization and the drama over whether Ross Martin knew that Lee Remick had called the cops was never concluded. The audience needs a final satisfying confrontation between Remick and Ross.
And can anyone imagine the FBI being portrayed as so competent, honest and reliable today?
The Candlestick Park scene wasn't enough for you?
shareI agree, it's just a terrific film. I especially like Lee Remick. I wish we had seen more of her.
shareI'm glad you liked it , too.
shareI totally agree, she was so great. She died way too young, of cancer, at 54 (gee, that's my age!Yikes!)She was a truly beloved actress.
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and let's not forget Glenn Ford! In his long, varied and successful career I think he made it look so easy that he never got the full recognition he deserved. Remember him in Gilda? wow! and in every role I believed him all the way.
excellent film all around.
I saw this movie again yesterday, I love classic movies. I actually care about the characters in them, unlike modern movies where they put all the pc characters in them just to satisfy the special interest groups, and ruin the movie and you feel it's so fake and you don't care about what happens to some of the actors. This movie belongs to an earlier more innocent time where you could be shocked by this kind of scenario, nowadays the gangbangers and thugs make our society dirty and dangerous throughout . That's sad about Lee Remick, she was a beautiful actress.
@earl-1
Look you whiny right-winger, there's nothing "pc" about showing non white characters in today's films for the simple damn fact that society has changed in the last 50 years. People like you who make stupid comments like this are just mad that society has changed, and that everything dosen't revolve around white men anymore. And it's debatable about how "innocent" that time was---that depended on who and what you were. If you were white and middle class, yeah, it was probably a more innocent time for you. If you weren't, hell, no, that wasn't always the case. And, thugs have existed throughout human history, in every culture and in every color. I know what you were really trying to say with your veiled racism, so don't even try to play innocent.
That being said, this film is being shown on the MOVIES channel, and I haven't seen it since I was little, so I'm enjoying it. I'm surprised it's so underrated,and that it hasn't been declared a film noir classic, because it's a sharp,very dark, way better-than-average suspenseful thriller for its era. it's rarely shown, for some reason. This is the sixth really good film noir I've seen with Glenn Ford, who made some excellent ones--amongst them two classics---GILDA and THE BIG HEAT. The others being HUMAN DESIRE, FRAMED, and MR. SOFT TOUCH.
Oh stop being a whiny leftist.
There certainly is a PC component when you have films with one white guy, one black, one asian, one hispanic when there is a group of several people. The statistical chances of that convenient arrangement is pretty small.
You're an idiot. No one is upset about perceptions about the world "revolving around white men". Such a generalizing comment makes YOU sound racist, not the OP.
Oh, Thomas!
Stop being an apologist for racists and those who are afraid of the cultural/racial changes in society. You say that the statistical chance of real life imitating current films where there's one black, one Asian, one Hispanic guy as friends, working together for a common cause. Guess what? Welcome to every large and even smaller city in America, especially true in the western United States. This has been a fact for a number of years now.
Get over it. Is it "leftist" to point it out? No "rightists", "centrists", Muslims, Jews, Christians and other can point out what I pointed out. It's not a question of political beliefs but of what the reality of the racial/ethnic mixing of Americans, which always existed but is now upfront, honest, unashamed, and a far greater component of American life than existed before.
I am not an apologist for anyone, so stop being a douche and trying to pigeonhole me. You get over YOURSELF, you whiny little twit.
Every commercial, every ad has a convenient mix of races depicted equally. First, looking at real numbers, whites and white-looking hispanics outnumber blacks by far. Asians are a relative small minority. So the artificial full representation of all peoples simply does NOT reflect life, but is visualized for two reasons--commercial, so that companies appeal to every segment of the audience (and I have no problem with that) or for political correctness, for which I do have a problem.
If anything, as time goes on we will not have a "larger hispanic" population, but likely because of mixed marriages, a slightly off-white majority. Again, nothing wrong with that.
Now take your goofy non-intellectual answers down the road.
Thomas:
Maybe where you live Asians "are a relative small minority. So the artificial full representation of all peoples simply does NOT reflect life". It sounds as if you're saying that Asians, numerically, play a minor role in American society. If that's true, you're way off base there. Asians also include South Asians but there are millions of Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai spread across the United States that they figure in most urban and suburban areas. Asians featured in commercials are not simply there because advertisers want to appeal to them or for political correctness. Asian-American groups have lobbied hard for such representation in advertising and they feel (which, I agree) doesn't FULLY reflect the breadth of Asian-Americans in the U. S.
Last time that I looked, my answers, though they don't agree with your statements, were quite literate, written in English (American Standard), and filled with fact-based observations. Upon request, I can give you the links to articles and communication studies that confirm this. I don't call your observations "non-intellectual". A "douche" cleans out impurities in body cavities, so I clean out any "debris" in thinking. I was never whining, purely commenting. Look in the mirror to see who was whining and has been pigeonholing, ergo, posting my original comments to you. If you must resort to insults, then no further exchange of comments be made. We disagree and that's that.
It's on TCM right now and I'm glued to the tv! I think i had seen parts of it before, but never was able to finish watching the rest of it! I feel the same way about Lee Remick -- she was so young (but i didn't realize HOW young) when she died. Loved the movie!
shareI just watched it on TCM as well. Excellent movie
Lee Remick is fantastic and very gorgeous in this movie
"Hello, Ben. Welcome back to the land of the living" - John Locke
I just saw it for the first time - on TCM as well.
Very well-done film indeed.
Had a Dirty Harry feel to it as well -- long before Clint.
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Not bad. :-) Got a little slow towards the end. I was quite scared when the stranger ambushed Kelly outside her home. Just couldn't imagine what it would feel like being so helpless.
The scenes with the Sister and the Hangout and pool struck me. it seemed like times were so innocent back then. People were more or less actually polite. and kids didn't dress like Emos or future hookers and respected adults. I kept thinking "Toby and her boyfriend are just... swimming?" not doing drugs or robbing a convenience store etc.
~I love the rhythm it is my methoood!~
Edwards' direction, Lee Remick, Ross Martin, the settings+atmosphere and Mancini's unforgettable score are all top notch.
I place it high on my list of great suspense/thriller films.
What Are
You Looking
At Dicknose
It is a very good film with strong direction, performances and score, but I thought the suspense was a bit drawn out and this would have been more effective by losing 20 minutes or so. 7/10 stars from me.
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Agree that this is a great movie.
Great actors: Glenn Ford, Lee Remick...and everyone else. Check.
Great B&W cinematography. Check.
Great Mancini music. Check.
Confusing, noir crime thriller plot. Check.
There are many brilliant scenes. When Glenn Ford goes to meet the nymphomaniac mannequin artist. When the bad guy inhales his asthma medicine. Of course, the Candlestick Park scenes.
Excellent movie.
Highly recommended.
I loved it too. a great film with a great soundtrack, the music @ the opening! woow!
I did not like the ending thou', I know it was 1961 but still, the ending was too simple, I mean "shoot the villain" !! I feel it was too fast, but I give this movie an easy 7/10 and I would watch it again.