He adapted George Agnew Chamberlain's novel, and it's quite dark material. I was quite surprised in the beginning as wholesome high school student Lon McCallister is talking to his girlfriend - the rather saucy Julie London (no less) - about their swimming date and she tells him not to change into swimwear - 'we'll change at the lake'. Now I don't know how that got through the censor because it sounds very suggestive to me. And the plot is full of extra undercurrents of incest and madness.
McCallister is asked by wooden legged Edward G. to help with evening chores at the farm, where his sister Judith Anderson and daughter Allene Roberts live. When the teen leaves at night, Ed G. warns him not to go through the woods as he'll get lost and hear ominous screaming. The boy - with the aid of a suitably rich and ominous score from Miklos Rozsa, and moody lighting from Bert Glennon - does get freaked out and returns to the farm, but he's 'not a chicken' and resolves to make his way into the woods at any cost - so far so fairy tale. What's in the woods that scares Ed so much, and why does it intrigue Roberts so, and what's broody Rory Calhoun got to do with it? All I can tell you is that in the end Ed goes nuts and there's a suitably thrilling climax.
A Sol Lesser production for United Artists.
Rozsa doesn't even mention the film in his autobiography. He's using his beloved theremin in the score here and there.
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