(1958)
3
Bruce Eder
Andrew L. Stone outdid himself in his quest for realism in shooting Cry Terror!, for which he filmed entirely in New York City, from the Bronx to Greenwich Village. In addition to successfully building much of his success on the city's unique geography and traffic patterns, he also benefitted from the unique street lay-out of Greenwich Village, and the PATH train tunnels at Christopher and Ninth Streets, As a thriller, the movie holds up well across 50 years, with tense, split-second suspense and pacing, and totally convincing performances by the leads -- only Klugman's overacting spoils one scene, whereas Steiger manages to hold most of his tendencies in that direction in check, and seems all the scarier for it, while Neville Brand's under-acting makes his character believably harrowing and slimy (it's no wonder, after roles like this and his work in pictures such as D.O.A., that he relished the comic relief role of Reese in the series Laredo). One questions today whether corporate leaders would behave as upright -- or could be depicted as behaving as upright -- as those we see here, and the narration is a little too involved; editing out a line or two, and having Stevens dial back the intensity, might have allowed it to work better in an otherwise beautifully suspenseful race against time by car across the city
cast-crew for Cry Terror! on AllMovie
Cry Terror! (1958)
