BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Arianna Moses Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

JasparLamarCrabb A tightly wound thriller from director Blake Edwards. Lee Remick is a teller terrorized by an unseen madman into stealing money from her bank. FBI agent Glenn Ford is on the case. This procedural thriller is extremely entertaining, very well acted (particularly by Remick) and features a great jazz infused score by Henry Mancini. Edwards shot the film on location in San Francisco and the film benefits greatly from it. The film hits the ground running and still manages to feature fully fleshed out characters. Ford is a bit wooden but efficient and the supporting cast includes Ross Martin, Stefanie Powers (as Remick's younger sister), and the great Ned Glass as "Popcorn," a not so trustworthy police informant.

SnoopyStyle Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remick) is threatened by a breathy man. She must help him steal $100,000 from the bank where she works, or he will do unspeakable things to her and her sister Toby (Stefanie Powers). FBI agent Ripley (Glenn Ford) investigates.It's one part police crime drama and one part psychological thriller. The psychological thriller works better and it's all due to Lee Remick. It's in her eyes. The movie starts with the man terrorizing our heroine. It is scary tense-filled opening. I really felt Lee Remick's fear. As the investigation gets going, the story loses some of its intensity. Every time we get back to Lee Remick, the movie picks up steam.I guess this is before crooks started kidnapping family members to force bank manager to do the robberies. The bad guy should really have kidnapped the younger sister right off the bat. Some of it wasn't completely logical. Comedic director Blake Edwards switches gears and shows that he could deliver the tension. If he could drop the old fashion police crime drama, this could be much more interesting.

PWNYCNY This is a solid movie with a strong story. The real star of this movie is Ross Martin whose portrayal of a psychopathic killer is chilling. The story itself is tightly put together and moves forward steadily and relentlessly to its conclusion. Glenn Ford gives another outstanding performance, this time as the investigator assigned to the case. The black and white cinematography adds to the eerie and somber mood of the story. Lee Remick and Stephanie Powers are excellent as the two sisters who are the targets of the bad guy's machinations, but this Ross Martin's movie. He is the star. His presence makes this movie succeed because without him the movie would have lost much of its dramatic impact. His character permeates throughout the movie and if not properly performed, the entire movie fails. In this case, that pitfall is avoided.

a666333 When I saw that this was directed by Blake Edwards and with music by Henri Mancini, I was a bit worried but things turned out OK. Edwards works wholly within the established conventions of the film noir genre and he is very competently supported by camera and lighting work. There is no brilliant innovation but everyone definitely knows what they are doing. Mancini's music is completely appropriate and as good as one could ask for. Thus, if you are studying film noir and how to produce such films, this is a good representative technical example. In 1962, the elements, however well executed must have been very familiar to its audience. However, if you are coming to it without having seen many others, it will grab you. In fact, the opening scene will grab anyone. The various elements work very well and the viewer is pulled right in. However, the strength of that opening scene is one of the reasons the film falls short of a top rating. Great suspense and sense of threat is created there but it cannot be sustained. Instead of building to a crescendo, we are dropped solidly into the deep water but allowed to meander our way to the shallows until we emerged relatively relaxed at the end. The film does throw in twists and turns that keep you guessing at times but the level of tension ebbs away. The contrast with other films of this type that succeed in genuinely having you on pins-and-needles toward the end is strong. One of the reasons for that could be that we see Ford and his FBI colleagues so numerous and well mobilized on the case. Much of the film consists of their earnest investigations and support of the intended victims. We thereby get the sense that they will inevitably prevail. We also see Ross Martin's villain as multifaceted and not as all-threatening as he might be despite the very convincing start up. The acting as noted by others is good from top to bottom and in the case of Martin, top notch. If we could only get that more often today!!