7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
A woman is terrorized by a man with an asthmatic voice who plans to use her to steal $100,000 from the bank where she works.
Starring: Glenn Ford, Lee Remick, Stefanie Powers, Ned Glass, Clifton JamesThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Music: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 1.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
It’s funny how sometimes completely tangential information can color an initial film experience. When I was a kid The Wild, Wild West used to be broadcast in reruns on weekday afternoons right after I got home from school, and it became a real favorite of mine when I was a young boy. While I probably had childlike fantasies of being James West, I also thought that West’s cohort Artemis Gordon was incredibly cool, especially with his remarkable ability to adopt so many remarkable disguises. West may have been the brawn, but Gordon was often the brains of the duo and while Robert Conrad was the matinee idol star with the incredible good looks and charisma, Ross Martin somehow embodied a lot of the soul of the series. It was in fact seeing Ross Martin’s name among the credits in a long ago TV Guide listing for Experiment in Terror that first led me to watch the film when I was probably still at about the same age as I was when I was catching those old Wild, Wild West reruns after school. I in my young naïvete assumed that Ross Martin would obviously be a good guy, and I was stunned to discover as the film unfolded that not only was Martin portraying a character who not a good guy, the character was actually a pretty revolting creep, one whose asthmatic wheeze becomes one of the most unlikely frightening sound effects in any thriller. My first experience with Experiment in Terror, then, was inordinately colored by the realization that actors were not their roles, that just because Ross Martin was a brainy hero in a beloved television series, that didn’t mean he couldn’t be a repulsive maniac in another film. The fact that Martin is so convincing in such widely disparate parts is testament to a sadly under-remembered actor whose body of work was incredibly varied.
Experiment in Terror is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Twilight Time with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. This is another great looking black and white transfer from the Columbia archives. It may not have the same lustrous blacks and bristling whites of other Twilight Time black and white releases, but the transfer presents extremely well graduated gray scale that captures Edwards' obvious desire to frame this film in a sort of quasi-noir ambience. The image is often quite breathtakingly well defined (one extreme close-up of Martin's face will give you ample opportunity to count the actor's pores, one by one). The location footage is sometimes just slightly soft in midrange and wide shots, but the bulk of this film looks appealingly sharp. The elements are in excellent condition and there does not appear to have been any over aggressive digital sharpening or noise reduction applied.
Experiment in Terror features an unexpected lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix. Twilight Time's Nick Redman isn't absolutely certain, but assumes the film was originally mono, but this repurposed 5.1 track that was provided by Columbia has little of the overly artificial surround activity that often mars such efforts. The bulk of the film utilizes the front channels for dialogue, with some ambient environmental effects and Henry Mancini's moody score (prominently featuring a spooky sounding autoharp) filling out the surrounds. Fidelity is excellent, with dialogue, effects and score all nicely rendered and extremely well prioritized. A couple of crowded scenes, like the café Toby goes to after school, and the final sequence in Candlestick Park, very nicely create an immersive aural atmosphere that smartly utilizes all of the surround channels.
Experiment in Terror is exciting, if just slightly far fetched at times. Blake Edwards keeps things moving at an almost breathless pace a lot of the time, which helps the film maintain momentum and keeps savvy viewers from thinking about some of the illogic that crops up in the plot. The film utilizes its San Francisco setting marvelously, and part of the enjoyment of this film is seeing the city in the early sixties. Remick is wonderful and Martin is unforgettable in one of his few featured film roles. This Blu-ray looks and sounds great, and even if supplementary material is a bit slim, it comes Recommended.
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