Like Ida Lupino and a handful of others, Cornel Wilde went before the camera ;it is his first effort,and it's a curate's egg.He would do much better works ,such as his masterpiece "naked prey " -which was a strong influence on Gibson's "apocalypto" -or "no blade of grass" ,the latter displaying his concern for the family unit in the context of a disaster movie .
The family unit is at the centre of "storm fear" : call it William Wyler's "desperate hours" (released the same year ) in the mountains ,but without the great director's science of cinema ;but it was Wilde's debut after all.
Like in Wyler 's film ,most of the action takes place in a house where a whole family is head hostage by gangster after a robbery .There the comparison ends ,for the gang leader is dad's kid brother (I'm no more the kid brother!says he!) who used to be in love with his sexy sister-in-law (Jean Wallace,then the director's wife and a recurrent actress of works to come );hence blood ties ,completely absent in "desperate hours" .
Unfortunately ,supporting characters are cardboard : dad is a failed writer ,suffering from TB ,but Dan Duryea is left on his own devices to moan and to cough without much purpose ;it was certainly brave to hire blacklisted Lee Grant ,who was unforgettable in Wyler's "detective story" as a shoplifter tomboy ; here ,wearing a horrible blond wig ,she's little more than an extra as the gangster 's moll , whose only moment is her rendering of "the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond".Both Dennis Weaver and Steven Hill are wasted , as the bland good guy and the inexpressive villain.
We're left with the leader,his former love and the boy : they make the movie watchable because their relationship is complex and many events of Charlie 's tumultuous past are smartly left in the shadow ;to have an uncle called Charlie does not bring any luck whatever the hoodlum may say :see Hitchcock's "shadow of a doubt " (1943);its heroine (Teresa Wright) and the young David follow opposite paths : first ,the boy is terrified by this intruder ,who is wounded and carries a gun;then little by little ,he begins to be fascinated by this uncle who has travelled all through the land whereas he's never left the family farm : his admiration keeps on growing , and the dead dog's collar in the Xmas tree is a deeply moving moment :in the last part of the movie,his fear has turned into admiration and even affection.Elizabeth is more ambiguous : why does she let her hair hang down? And when they remember their childhood , they can't help bursting out laughing.Although fate decided otherwise ,they are the family unit the three of them have always dreamed of .
The family unit is at the centre of "storm fear" : call it William Wyler's "desperate hours" (released the same year ) in the mountains ,but without the great director's science of cinema ;but it was Wilde's debut after all.
Like in Wyler 's film ,most of the action takes place in a house where a whole family is head hostage by gangster after a robbery .There the comparison ends ,for the gang leader is dad's kid brother (I'm no more the kid brother!says he!) who used to be in love with his sexy sister-in-law (Jean Wallace,then the director's wife and a recurrent actress of works to come );hence blood ties ,completely absent in "desperate hours" .
Unfortunately ,supporting characters are cardboard : dad is a failed writer ,suffering from TB ,but Dan Duryea is left on his own devices to moan and to cough without much purpose ;it was certainly brave to hire blacklisted Lee Grant ,who was unforgettable in Wyler's "detective story" as a shoplifter tomboy ; here ,wearing a horrible blond wig ,she's little more than an extra as the gangster 's moll , whose only moment is her rendering of "the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond".Both Dennis Weaver and Steven Hill are wasted , as the bland good guy and the inexpressive villain.
We're left with the leader,his former love and the boy : they make the movie watchable because their relationship is complex and many events of Charlie 's tumultuous past are smartly left in the shadow ;to have an uncle called Charlie does not bring any luck whatever the hoodlum may say :see Hitchcock's "shadow of a doubt " (1943);its heroine (Teresa Wright) and the young David follow opposite paths : first ,the boy is terrified by this intruder ,who is wounded and carries a gun;then little by little ,he begins to be fascinated by this uncle who has travelled all through the land whereas he's never left the family farm : his admiration keeps on growing , and the dead dog's collar in the Xmas tree is a deeply moving moment :in the last part of the movie,his fear has turned into admiration and even affection.Elizabeth is more ambiguous : why does she let her hair hang down? And when they remember their childhood , they can't help bursting out laughing.Although fate decided otherwise ,they are the family unit the three of them have always dreamed of .