This is How Movies Should Be Made

n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A genuine nail biter, from start to finish! This film is guaranteed to keep you in suspense from beginning to end! Led by Rod Steiger, who gives a riveting performance as the psycho-kidnapper, the rest of the cast performs most ably, lending considerable credulity to the storyline. Acting honors must go to the underrated Inger Stevens, whose career was tragically shortened by her untimely death. She lends just the right note of hysteria as the wife and mother whose family is being held, as she is made to follow the demands of the kidnap gang members in order to secure their safe release. The film also gives us some great shots of the NYC of the period, particularly the West Side Highway and other notable spots in the city.

The story packs a punch. OK, as suggested in the summary, there are far more global forms of terrorism now. But this sort still exists and still is awful.Neville Brand stands out as giving the best performance. Rod Steiger is good too but maybe a little studied. James Mason turns in an extremely atypical performance, right from our first view of him. He seems more dithery than a James Mason character ought to, even under the tense circumstances involved.Angie Dickinson is very good as a nasty, tough participant in the plot against Mason, his wife, their little daughter, the passengers of an airline, and the country. But Inger Stevens, the wife, is so shrill it's hard to view her as a heroine.It's a strange production. All the cars are from the Chrysler Corporation. This happened a lot in TV shows of this time but less frequently in movies.

This is a very short review because all that's been said about this film by others is correct and not needing further description, except there's ONE FACT not known apparently ANYWHERE on the internet, and that is that this film is available (only from CDToaster.com) in an extremely rare COLORIZED VERSION! The coloring process is done by the masters of the industry, and is a terrific added feature. One problem with this colorized version is that it was only available from a rare Television Broadcast signal, so the points where the commercials were edited out become a bit of a distraction, but the rest of the film is intact because the running time matches the official film time length.

Fairly grisly for the 50's, with the subjects of rape, child-killing and mass murder right out in the open. One of the greatest casts ever: James Mason, Rod Steiger, Inger Stevens, Angie Dickenson, Neville Brand, Jack Klugman! Wow! Exciting scenes of NY streets as Inger takes the ransom money to Steiger. Some of the other scenes are duds (the elevator shaft did nothing for me), but many are electric, and the generic evil generated by over half the cast takes up the slack.