Experiment In Terror sounds like a horror flick. It is not. It’s a stylized and stylish thriller that wears its Hitchcock influence on its sleeve. Do movies have sleeves? Talk amongst yourselves…

I’m about to contradict myself: 1962’s Experiment In Terror is one of the first stalker flicks but it’s suspenseful, not bloody. I would have been traumatized as Lee Remick is one of my favorite actresses as well as an early Adrastos crush. What’s not to love about a brainy babe with blue eyes?

A word about the director. Blake Edwards is best known for his comedies such as the Pink Panther movies, The Party, Victor Victoria, and Switch. But Edwards cut his teeth as a producer-writer-director of such crime teevee shows as Peter Gunn and Richard Diamond, Private Eye. Edwards’ work on Experiment In Terror is downright brilliant with no pratfalls a la Inspector Clouseau. Instead, there are creepy set pieces like this:

The plot is simultaneously simple and elaborate. Lee Remick is brilliant as a bank clerk who is extorted into stealing $100K by her stalker. The villain is not listed in the opening credits: It was a PR stunt ala William Castle. We watched it on Noir Alley and Eddie Muller didn’t disclose who played the villain until the outro. I’m proud to say that I guessed that it was Ross Martin, master of disguise and co-star of The Wild Wild West.

Glenn Ford has never been one of my favorite movie stars. I suspect I avoided watching this movie until recently because he’s first billed. I typically pine for Van Heflin or Bill Holden to play Ford’s roles. In Experiment In Terror, Ford’s stolid presence works as he plays an FBI agent.

Another reason I fell hard for Experiment In Terror is that it’s set in my other hometown, San Francisco but in neighborhoods rarely filmed such as Twin Peaks and the Richmond District. I did my time in both hoods. The movie is disorienting because there were empty lots in Twin Peaks in 1962. They were no longer empty when I hung out there in the late Seventies.

The movie is full of Hitchcockian set pieces that I’m not revealing: This feature is called Pulp Fiction, not pulp spoilers. I must reveal, however, that it concludes at Candlestick Park with a  Giants-Dodgers game on August 18, 1961. The Giants won on homers by Willie McCovey and Orlando Cepeda. McCovey’s dinger was off Don Drysdale. Stretch owned  Drysdale. The game was real, not reel. The filming took place during and after the game.

Here’s Lee Remick at The Stick:

I spent many happy hours at that shithole ballpark getting blown around and watching the Giant annual second place finish. It was always amusing when Dodgers fans attended games there. They were baffled that it was so cold and windy at The Stick. Location is everything and Candlestick Point was a bad location. Oy just oy.

Back to Experiment In Terror. It’s a flat-out great film with amazing performances by Remick and Martin. The very young Stefanie Powers plays Remick’s sister who is taken hostage by Martin. Glenn Ford also attended. That was harsh: he’s good in this movie.

The movie is based on the book Operation Terror by a husband and wife team who billed themselves as The Gordons:

Mildred and Gordon Gordon wrote the screenplay as well. You know what they say: You can’t keep a good Gordon down.

As usual in a Blake Edwards film, Henry Mancini wrote and conducted the score. It’s not your typical cheerful Mancini music. He wrote suitably creepy music for Experiment In Terror. Well done, sir.

Grading Time: Experiment In Terror was a cinematic revelation for me so I give it 4 stars and an Adrastos Grade of A.

Here’s a photo montage before we move on to posters and shit:

Note that Ross Martin’s face is obscured as he assaults Lee Remick in this quad poster. It makes me want to leap to her defense.

And now for something completely different, the soundtrack album:

It’s that time again:

I followed the dancing refreshments hoping they’d lead me to Lee Remick. They did not. At least they didn’t lead me to Glenn Ford.

The lobby cards are garishly colorful for this black and white film. I have no new jokes on that subject, so let’s get visual:

Glenn Ford wore his blank poker face in the last lobby card. Holy mannequin depression, Batman. That’s an old pun that I felt obliged to use. It all started when one of my SF roommates brought home a mannequin that he lovingly dressed to fit the season. I never took pictures as camera phones were the stuff of science fiction back then.

Now that we’ve dissed Glenn Ford, drooled over Lee Remick, and made mannequin jokes, it’s time to hop aboard the trailer.

The last word goes to Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley intro and outro: