It had been a while since we stepped into the Hilliard house, where Frederic March, Martha Scott, Mary Murphy and (to a lesser extent) Richard Eyer are terrorised by escaped criminals Humphrey Bogart, Dewey Martin and Robert Middleton. Have to say police chief Arthur Kennedy and that guy from TV, Whit Bissell (I'm probably thinking of The Time Tunnel) don't do a lot, and adding mayor Ray Collins right at the end is pointless (other than it's nice to see him). Talking of which, this whole thing is Joseph Hayes' fault, as he wrote the novel, play and screenplay.
It's still a good, tense experience, which is probably why it was remade twice, as a TV movie in 1967 and by Michael Cimino (with Mickey Rourke and Anthony Hopkins) in 1990.
Shot by Lee Garmes in VistaVision for Paramount.
No comments:
Post a Comment