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MovieMail's Review
Hitchcock fans will certainly enjoy this tension-heavy thriller from director Blake Edwards, says Barney Kelley. Glenn Ford and Lee Remick star.
Blake Edwards' Experiment in Terror sees bank clerk Kelly Sherwood (Remick) is attacked by an anonymous assailant and presented with an ultimatum: unless she steals $100, 000 from her employer, both she and her sister will be killed. But Kelly's a tough cookie and calls in the feds. Agent Ripley (a heavily pomaded Ford) takes the case but his quarry is elusive and Kelly finds herself in ever greater peril.
Experiment in Terror sets out its tension-heavy stall from its magnificent opening sequence, when Kelly finds herself locked in her garage with a shadowy nutter. This isn't the sort of thing you expect from the director of Breakfast at Tiffany's but Blake Edwards excels here, ratcheting up the tension and pacing the film like a bullet.
Although Philip Lathrop's gorgeous black and white photography recalls the heady days of film noir, Experiment in Terror draws its biggest inspiration from Hitchcock. Its commitment to putting its characters – and by extension the audience – through the wringer would certainly earn approval from the master of suspense.
Experiment in Terror is a classic 1962 thriller from Blake Edwards.
Glenn Ford plays the dedicated FBI agent, John Ripley, who fights to protect Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick) from a ruthless killer. Unless his plans to rob the bank succeed, the unseen assailant (Ross Martin) - identifiable only by his asthmatic breathing - threatens to murder Kelly and her teenage sister, Toby (Stefanie Powers). To save the two terrorized sisters, the FBI sets up an elaborate trap using Kelly as a decoy, but the killer gets away. Suspense builds as Kelly, now panic-stricken, continues to act as bait long enough to let the Feds trap the killer. Unless they act quickly, the woman in distress will become a casualty.
