Experiment in Terror is an OK movie, but it really doesn't rise much above the level of your basic TV movie-of-the-week. I guess I could nitpick on all the plot details that I just didn't get. Why would Lee Remick's first impulse be to call the FBI as opposed to the local police? It is San Francisco, after all, not some jerkwater small town operation. Why was she sneaking the $100,000 into her purse if the whole thing had been set up previously with Glenn Ford and her boss to take the money anyway? Why does Glenn Ford say, "Well, it's too bad about Popcorn" after Ford shoots that middleman who comes to answer the phone which is clearly not Popcorn (as the camera moves away, we see Popcorn, looking solemnly at the dead body with his bag of popcorn in hand)? At Candlestick Park, why doesn't Ross Martin have two seats together for himself and Remick, so he can just take the money and leave? Instead, he grabs her violently in the middle of an exiting crowd of about 50,000. Why does Martin gesture like he wants to rape Stefanie Powers, then, after she whimpers a little, he gives something like an 'Aw, shucks' reaction and just forgets the whole thing? What a sweetheart! And that story Martin tells Powers to get her to come running to him in the first place was just about the cheesiest ever.
The biggest problem with the movie is that, at no time in the picture did I think Lee Remick was in any kind of danger. Ford's G-man is on the case within the first 10 minutes of the film. The subplot involving the Asian woman and her son added nothing to the story. It's a complete throwaway. On the positive side, Ford, Remick, Martin, Ned Glass, and the guy who played Ford's sidekick are all very very good. Henry Mancini's score is terrific, as it nearly always is. The location shots in and around San Francisco of Fisherman's Wharf, Candlestick Park, etc. are gorgeous, and the opening tracking shot of Lee Remick driving over the Bay Bridge at night is absolutely spectacular. One more thing- toward the end, in the Candlestick Park sequence, the Giants are playing the Dodgers, and Vin Scully's voice is heard on the soundtrack briefly giving the Dodger radio call of the game. Those thirty seconds almost redeem the entire film.
The biggest problem with the movie is that, at no time in the picture did I think Lee Remick was in any kind of danger. Ford's G-man is on the case within the first 10 minutes of the film. The subplot involving the Asian woman and her son added nothing to the story. It's a complete throwaway. On the positive side, Ford, Remick, Martin, Ned Glass, and the guy who played Ford's sidekick are all very very good. Henry Mancini's score is terrific, as it nearly always is. The location shots in and around San Francisco of Fisherman's Wharf, Candlestick Park, etc. are gorgeous, and the opening tracking shot of Lee Remick driving over the Bay Bridge at night is absolutely spectacular. One more thing- toward the end, in the Candlestick Park sequence, the Giants are playing the Dodgers, and Vin Scully's voice is heard on the soundtrack briefly giving the Dodger radio call of the game. Those thirty seconds almost redeem the entire film.