Ransom is a classic example of a promising plotline that hits a brick wall in midstream and is doomed to end in an anticlimax. When Glenn Ford's son is kidnapped, he chooses not to pay the ransom. He prefers to play the waiting game in the hope that the kidnapper will realize that he has no hope of financial gain and return the child. This is where we hit the wall. All that is left is to watch the anguish and near breakdown of the mother and the misery of the father as he passively waits for his son to be returned. There are only two likely outcomes from here - the child is killed or he is returned. Either way, Glenn Ford as the star of this, has no real role in the events. Inevitably, the end will be an anticlimax. When the son miraculously appears in the closing stages, there has been no real suspense or proactive action - just a series of images of Glenn Ford looking distraught and Donna Reed on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The premise of a father refusing to pay the ransom will only have a chance of working in film if he had taken a more active role in locating his son. In the case of Ransom, the writers and director clearly took the wrong fork in the road.
