True, the story line is a bit noir for a Technicolor Cinemascope production, but when one realizes that Tucson was at the time a popular and inexpensive location for John Wayne films and the musical Oklahoma! also in glorious color under the blazing Arizona sun, it begins to make sense -- at least in terms of getting out of nearby California where the visible smog at the time was far greater than it is even today.
I saw several of the exterior scenes of this film being made, and wondered whether the final cut would amount to much of anything. Robert Wagner seemed very young for the part, and almost frighteningly thin in stature. Moreover, his acting ability had not yet developed to the extent of that displayed by his contemporary Joanne Woodward. But it was obvious to all that the production itself and the supporting cast were professional to the core.
Author Ira Levin was very popular at the time, something of the sort of writer one reads today in Robin Cook, Jonathan Kellerman, Stuart Woods, etc. In other words, not really a Raymond Chandler or even a Michael Connelly. That explains why so many recent viewers seem able to catch the adumbrations in the film early on. Potboilers lack the complexity of truly great detective fiction because the characters are stock heroes and heavys.
The view looking down from the top of the old 12-story Valley National Bank building (portrayed in the film as the city hall), even though insignificant by today's height standards, is just as scary as it was then. Many of the other locations like the resort portrayed as a grand estate have been transformed or have simply disappeared. And those really cool "rides" are now languishing in automobile museums.
I saw several of the exterior scenes of this film being made, and wondered whether the final cut would amount to much of anything. Robert Wagner seemed very young for the part, and almost frighteningly thin in stature. Moreover, his acting ability had not yet developed to the extent of that displayed by his contemporary Joanne Woodward. But it was obvious to all that the production itself and the supporting cast were professional to the core.
Author Ira Levin was very popular at the time, something of the sort of writer one reads today in Robin Cook, Jonathan Kellerman, Stuart Woods, etc. In other words, not really a Raymond Chandler or even a Michael Connelly. That explains why so many recent viewers seem able to catch the adumbrations in the film early on. Potboilers lack the complexity of truly great detective fiction because the characters are stock heroes and heavys.
The view looking down from the top of the old 12-story Valley National Bank building (portrayed in the film as the city hall), even though insignificant by today's height standards, is just as scary as it was then. Many of the other locations like the resort portrayed as a grand estate have been transformed or have simply disappeared. And those really cool "rides" are now languishing in automobile museums.