haineshisway
Senior HTF Member
I first saw Experiment in Terror at a sneak preview at the Village Theater in Westwood, about five months before the film's release. It was a full house and you could cut the tension with a knife after the first scene in the garage. I only really knew Blake Edwards from this late 1950s comedies and then from Breakfast at Tiffany's - and, of course, Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky. I absolutely loved every minute of the film and best of all, Mr. Edwards was at the preview, as were Stephanie Powers and Harvey Evans (little did I know that close to fifty years later I'd be remixing and remastering the original Broadway cast album of Follies for CD, in which Mr. Evans co-stars - and doing an interview with him for our website in which he talks specifically about this film and Miss Powers and being at the preview).
Five months later, when the film was released, I was back and then saw it five or six times. It was then not until the 1980s when I saw it again, and it was still terrific and suspenseful, and that Mancini score really got under my skin. I was thrilled when the DVD came out, and it looked fine. But now, thanks to Sony and Twilight Time, it's on Blu-ray and it's a beautiful thing to behold. The black-and-white photography of Phil Lathrop comes through beautifully, and the contrast is rich and everything looks just as it should, which means the opticals are grainier and softer than what comes before and after them.
And boy does the film still work. The villain is truly creepy and upsetting, and a couple of the scenes are really uncomfortable to watch, which was the point, of course. Lee Remick is wonderful, as always, and Glenn Ford is, for me, one of the most underrated actors in film history, right alongside Joel McCrea in terms of being ignored or forgotten. Both were superb film actors and both had unique looks and voices - you know, in a time when actors actually had looks and voices and you could tell them apart, unlike today's crop of mumbling actors, who all look and sound exactly the same. Of course, we get wonderful character actors like Ned Glass and Roy Poole and others. Stephanie Powers is unbelievably adorable. The Mancini score, sparse as it is, ups the creepy factor 100%, and the main theme is one of the best he ever wrote. It's kind of a classic, this film, and I cannot recommend this Blu-ray highly enough.
Five months later, when the film was released, I was back and then saw it five or six times. It was then not until the 1980s when I saw it again, and it was still terrific and suspenseful, and that Mancini score really got under my skin. I was thrilled when the DVD came out, and it looked fine. But now, thanks to Sony and Twilight Time, it's on Blu-ray and it's a beautiful thing to behold. The black-and-white photography of Phil Lathrop comes through beautifully, and the contrast is rich and everything looks just as it should, which means the opticals are grainier and softer than what comes before and after them.
And boy does the film still work. The villain is truly creepy and upsetting, and a couple of the scenes are really uncomfortable to watch, which was the point, of course. Lee Remick is wonderful, as always, and Glenn Ford is, for me, one of the most underrated actors in film history, right alongside Joel McCrea in terms of being ignored or forgotten. Both were superb film actors and both had unique looks and voices - you know, in a time when actors actually had looks and voices and you could tell them apart, unlike today's crop of mumbling actors, who all look and sound exactly the same. Of course, we get wonderful character actors like Ned Glass and Roy Poole and others. Stephanie Powers is unbelievably adorable. The Mancini score, sparse as it is, ups the creepy factor 100%, and the main theme is one of the best he ever wrote. It's kind of a classic, this film, and I cannot recommend this Blu-ray highly enough.
