Experiment in Terror
by Blake Edwards
Our Price: $70.96
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $39.00 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Ned Glass, Roy Poole, Stefanie PowersDirector: Blake Edwards
Cinematographer: Philip H. Lathrop
Producer: Blake Edwards
Editor: Patrick McCormack
Producer: Don Peters
Writer: Gordon Gordon
Writer: Mildred Gordon
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Japanese (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Anamorphic, Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 123 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-06-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Sony Pictures
Movie Reviews of Experiment in Terror
Movie Review: A Young Girl's Inner Soul
Summary: 5 Stars
For those of you who are anxiously awaiting Eric Rohmer's next movie, or who have complained that the girls in Eric Rohmer's films aren't pretty enough, let me recommend Blake Edwards' EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, which stars Stefanie Powers (from HART TO HART) as a 16 year old American high school student in San Francisco around the time of the Kennedy administration. Stefanie's character is Toby Sherwood, an androgynous sort of name for her isn't it, considering she's extremely feminine, sweet, and obedient, and without too many thoughts in her head. The camera loves her as it follows her into the school swimming pool, on a date with her anonymous teen boyfriend, and fast asleep in her twin bed in her beautifully appointed home on Twin Peaks, the lovers' leap that towers above the Castro and the Mission here in San Francisco. Hope you're getting the "twin" references, for the movie is all about how many ways Blake Edwards can show mindless little Toby, as sensual and dumbed down as a fish, just being alive in her own female universe in perfect counterpart to her older, more neurotic sister Kelly (second-billed Lee Remick, in her second Blake Edwards part within a year), a bank teller. Anyone watching Stefanie Powers in this part will wonder if the screenwriters took her unusual name, "Toby," from Tobey Heydon, the heroine of a popular series of young adult books for girls by Rosamund du Jardin and extremely popular in the 1950s.
Toby's boy-and-girl love affair with Dave is fun enough, but nothing special, though Harvey Rvans plays him with a nice dancer's grace. Audiences in the 1960s would have recognized Evans from his parts in the screen musicals WEST SIDE STORY, THE PAJAMA GAME, and THE GIRL MOST LIKELY, and they would have wondered that all of a sudden he's supposed to be a heterosexual high school student? Only in San Francisco! Toby's not all sweetness and light, and somewhere out there in the noirish shadows is a man who's made it his mission to kidnap and torment her. Played by greasy screen genius Ross Martin, Garland "Red" Lynch is totally weird and perverted, like Sal Mineo in the somewhat later WHO KILLED TEDDY BEAR? We see him wake in the morning, his asthmatic hiccups scaring himself awake, extremely closeup of the underside of his jaw, then the hair in his underarm, the long muscles of his ribcage, bare to the waist where his white, tight pajame pants, slick with sweat, are knotted in a crazy, ascetic way, as though he's been mortifying his flesh. When he finally meets up with sweet, virginal, confused Toby, the screen explodes into a lubricious madness. They couldn't film such a scene today and get away with it--well, maybe Rohmer could.
Summary of Experiment in Terror
Experiment in Terror, a stylized noir thriller, was director Blake Edwards's second film in 1962, the first being a devastating portrait of alcoholism, Days of Wine and Roses. Neither film would seem standard fare for a filmmaker best known for his sophisticated slapstick comedies. For Experiment in Terror, Edwards perfected the stylish black-and-white cinematography he used to great effect in the 1950's TV series Peter Gunn. Glenn Ford plays a stalwart G-man out to thwart psychopathic extortionist Ross Martin's plans to force bank clerk Lee Remick to rob the bank where she works. San Francisco locations have never looked better or more ominous. One particularly chilling scene unfolds in the loft of an artisan who makes mannequins for a living ... though not for long. Blake Edwards's experiment in suspense grabs hold of you from the very beginning and doesn't let go until the final showdown at Candlestick Park. The film also features a near-legendary score by Henry Mancini. --Kristian St. ClairAction & Adventure DVD Video
DVD Video
- Action & Adventure
- African American Cinema
- Animation
- Anime & Manga
- Art House & International
- Classics
- Comedy
- Cult Movies
- Documentary
- Drama
- Educational
- Fitness & Yoga
- Gay & Lesbian
- Horror
- Kids & Family
- Military & War
- Music Video & Concerts
- Musicals & Performing Arts
- Mystery & Suspense
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Special Interests
- Sports
- Television
- Westerns
Movies most talked about in My Nominations for Most Frightening Unsung Villain
![The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [Blu-ray] Image](/images/The-Texas-Chain-Saw-Massacre-Blu-ray-B001APM41C-X.jpg)
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre [Blu-ray]MPI; Release date: 2008-09-30; DVD
Best price: $13.48
Price in other shops:
Blue Velvet (Special Edition)Velvet; Release date: 2002-06-04; DVD
Best price: $6.50
Price in other shops:
Experiment in TerrorRelease date: 2003-06-10; DVD
Best price: $72.89
Dirty Harry (Two-Disc Special Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-06-03; DVD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
Marathon ManParamount; Release date: 2001-08-28; DVD
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops:
Wait Until DarkWarner Brothers; Release date: 2003-08-05; DVD
Best price: $9.37
Price in other shops:
Similar DVD Movies
Portrait In Black / Madame X (Double Feature)Universal; Release date: 2008-02-05; DVD
Best price: $7.34
Price in other shops:
The Night of the HunterRelease date: 2000-01-25; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Warning ShotRelease date: 2005-11-01; DVD
Best price: $8.48
Price in other shops:
To Kill a Mockingbird (Collector's Edition)Universal; Release date: 1998-04-29; DVD
Best price: $9.99
Price in other shops:
Survive the NightRelease date: 2007-02-27; DVD
Best price: $2.59
Price in other shops:
Anatomy of a MurderSony; Release date: 2000-07-11; DVD
Best price: $7.93
Price in other shops:
Touch Of Evil (50th Anniversary Edition)Universal; Release date: 2008-10-07; DVD
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
Cape FearUniversal; Release date: 2001-09-18; DVD
Best price: $3.89
Price in other shops:
The Great RaceWarner Brothers; Release date: 2002-06-04; DVD
Best price: $7.99
Price in other shops:
No Way to Treat a LadyParamount; Release date: 2002-09-03; DVD
Best price: $6.60
Price in other shops: