Cry Terror!

Cry Terror!
Theatrical release lobby card
Directed by	Andrew L. Stone
Produced by	Andrew L. Stone Virginia L. Stone
Screenplay by	Andrew L. Stone
Starring	James Mason Inger Stevens Rod Steiger
Music by	Howard Jackson
Cinematography	Walter Strenge
Edited by	Virginia L. Stone
Production company	Andrew L. Stone Productions
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates	May 2, 1958 (United States)
Running time	96 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$482,000[1]
Box office	$1,020,000[1]

Cry Terror! is a 1958 thriller film starring James Mason, Inger Stevens, and Rod Steiger.^[2]

The crime story was written and directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Andrew L. Stone. The cast also featured Neville Brand, Earl Holliman and Angie Dickinson.

Plot

Paul Hoplin is mastermind of a crime to collect a $500,000 ransom, threatening to use an explosive device that Jim Molner designed. He and his gang are holding Molner, wife Joan and young daughter Patty hostage.

FBI agents gather in New York with representatives of an airline. Hoplin has been sending anonymous notes, suggesting that a bomb will be planted on a plane. Joan Molner is forced to go alone to collect the ransom payment, while Hoplin's accomplices, a woman named Kelly and a man named Vince, watch her husband and child in a Brooklyn penthouse apartment.

Joan barely makes it back by the gang's deadline in time to prevent her husband's death. She is left alone with an ex-con, Steve, who has a history of sexual assaults on women. Forced to defend herself, she kills Steve with a shard of glass.

Using the dental records of Kelly, the FBI manages to find the hideout. They disarm Vince and shoot Kelly, wounding her. Now they must find Molner's wife, but Holpin has seen newspaper reports that her husband and daughter are safe. She runs for her life into a subway, and when Hoplin pursues her, he steps on a third rail and is electrocuted.

Cast

James Mason as Jim Molner Inger Stevens as Joan Molner Rod Steiger as Paul Hoplin Neville Brand as Steve Angie Dickinson as Eileen Kelly Kenneth Tobey as Agent Frank Cole Jack Klugman as Vince Jack Kruschen as F.B.I. Agent Charles Pope Carleton Young as Roger Adams

Barney Phillips as Dan Pringle Harlan Warde as Bert Ed Hinton as Operative Chet Huntley as Himself Roy Neal as Himself Jonathan Hole as Airline Executive William Schallert as Henderson Portland Mason as Patty's Friend on Schoolbus Terry Ann Ross as Patty Molner

Reception

Box Office

According to MGM records the film made $340,000 in the US and Canada and $680,000 elsewhere resulting in a profit of $48,000.^[1]

Critical response

Film critic Dennis Schwartz was not able to suspend his disbelief in this film in his review, and wrote, "Director-writer Andrew L. Stone presents an ill-conceived attempt at making a realistic thriller about a mad bomber extorting money in a terrorist plot via the 1950s. There are too many implausible occurrences for the narrative to handle and it all falls by the tracks in the climactic hysterical underground subway chase scene, which yields to Hollywood melodrama ... Unfortunately the story lacked the kind of tension it needed throughout and there were too many coincidences and contrived plot points to sustain interest."^[3]

See also

• List of American films of 1958

References

1. The Eddie Mannix Ledger, Los Angeles: Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study.
2. Cry Terror! at the Internet Movie Database.
3. Schwartz, Dennis, film review, Ozus' World Movie Reviews, September 9, 2005. Accessed: July 7, 2014.

External links

• Cry Terror! at the Internet Movie Database
• Cry Terror! at AllMovie
• Cry Terror! at the TCM Movie Database