The Night Holds Terror (1955) User Reviews

Quite realistic

[bkoganbing · 7/10 · 14 March 2021]

Evading a manhunt three escaped convicts takeover the home of Jack Kelly and Hildy Parks and their two small children. The three are John Cassavetes, Vince Edwards and David Cross are about as mean a trio you'll find on film. It's also apparent that Cross is playing way out of his league with the other two.

It's an open hostage situation meaning that the trio really has no fixed plans what they are doing next which is worse for the hostages because they have no idea when or if they'll be free. Especially bad for Parks because Edwards is getting ideas about her.

The husband and wife team of Andrew an Virginia Stone present this film in a fine and realistic documentary style. The film benefits from the fact that Kelly, Cassavetes, and Edwards were not any kind of names yet on the big or small screen. And Hildy Parks was primarily a New York actress

The film compares well with The Desperate Hours which had a lot of big name players in it. While The Desperate Hours has a lot of style to it The Night Holds Terror far more realistic.

This one is a real sleeper, catch it if possible.

Vince Edwards strongest player in oddly authentic family-held-hostage drama

[bmacv · 6/10 · 31 August 2002]

The Night Holds Terror doesn't have a whole lot going for it except for tension – but maybe that's enough. Like Detour (which may be a distant ancestor), it's the story of how a whim, a twist of fate, can turn lives upside down. Driving home from his job at Edwards Air Force Base, Jack Kelly picks up a hitch-hiker (Vince Edwards) who pulls a gun on him. The rest of Edwards' gang (John Cassavettes and David Gross) join up, but spare Kelly's life when he has only 10 bucks on him. Deciding that trading in his car for cash is a better deal, they take over Kelly's knotty-pine home – he has a wife (Hildy Parks) and two kids – until the following day.

From then on in it's a standard family-held-hostage suspenser, with Edwards putting the moves on the wife and the inevitable sorting out of the pecking order among the gang members. When they depart next morning, taking Kelly along for insurance, Parks disobeys orders and calls the police. But will the police locate the gang before they kill Kelly?

His five years of glory as Ben Casey, M.D. still down the road, Edwards, smoldering and stretching the seams of his T-shirt, makes the strongest impression in the movie – maybe the only impression. Cassavettes (occasionally looking like Jerry Lewis at about the same time) delivers an unremarkable performance, and the rest of the cast is no more than passable. Photography is the flat, ‘50s style until the end, when some night shots in driving rain add atmosphere. The story unfolds in the semi-documentary style common to its times, complete with voice-over narration (first by Kelly, then by an anonymous authority figure).

The Night Holds Terror gets compared frequently to The Desperate Hours, a better production but a stagier one as well. For all its low-budget look and low-price acting, the movie retains some authenticity. At times it almost seems like cinema-verité – like those edgy little films Cassavettes himself would soon be making.

Desperate Night

[Space_Mafune · 6/10 · 27 September 2002]

These types of films seemed to be quite common in the 1950s. Drivers making the foolish mistake of picking up the worst possible type of hitch-hiker--a criminal. One who might take him hostage or kill him at any moment. A very real fear of the possible.

This film feels like a mix of THE HITCH-HIKER and THE DESPERATE HOURS but isn't quite on par with either. Unlike those, this feels like a Made For TV film. The Narration is very much a negative and will probably make many laugh due to its dire seriousness.

But the characters in this film are well-played and certainly entertaining enough to make this film an enjoyable ride. Especially good are Hildy Parks as the terrorized wife who won't stand for it and Jack Kelly as her husband who is thinking only of his family's welfare. John Cassavetes is also good in his role as the mastermind criminal. There's some terrific cinematography in the film featuring scenes out in the desert and the climatic ending in the rain.

fascinatingly gritty hostage noir

[Howard_B_Eale · 9 August 2007]

THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR is an interesting thriller/film noir entry for various reasons. Yes, it bears a strong similarity to THE DESPERATE HOURS, but that's because both were inspired by the same true (and sensational) story. Proving which one went into production first might be difficult. But really, it doesn't matter, because unlike the Hollywood sheen of THE DESPERATE HOURS, this odd little film has many gritty aspects and colorings and transcends its low budget.

John Cassavetes is always great to watch, even in a lesser picture. Here, while he rarely truly shines, he manages to keep tightly wound like a coiled spring, with his menacing glare and occasional flashes of violence. Vince Edwards is actually nowhere near as good here as he was playing similar hoods in MURDER BY CONTRACT, CITY OF FEAR and THE KILLING, though it's an acceptably menacing performance.

What really makes THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR is a constant reliance on real locations. I couldn't spot one studio set in the entire picture; every interior seems to be in a real place (Cassavetes' modern hilltop home and the Courtiers' kitchy suburban one, police stations, telephone switching centers, the Mojave desert, etc.). There is even one standout sequence where the captors' car careens through the desert, photographed by what appears to be a cameraman barely holding onto the hood of the car. No rear screen here, and this is several years before the famed from-the-hood Venice driving sequence in TOUCH OF EVIL.

And the pace of the picture is practically amphetamine-charged. If the camera isn't moving, the cast always is, with constant dialogue shot through with tension. This is a strong, underrated thriller, and while hardly a perfect masterpiece, it's definitely superior to stagier hostage dramas of the period and well worth tracking down.

solid B-drama

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 16 May 2020]

Gene Courtier picks up a hitchhiker. It turns out to be wanted criminal Victor Gosset. He is forced to drive out to a remote location where Victor is joined by his fellow criminals Robert Batsford (John Cassavetes) and Luther Logan. At first, they threaten to kill him. Then they take over his house and family while they wait for the bank to open to get their money.

This alternates between threatening realism and weaker B-movie material. There is some over-acting melodrama. It is interesting to see a young Cassavetes earning his chops. Despite its limitations, it is a tense little thriller. Once the criminals leave the house, the intensity gets a bit muddled. If it's ransom, the crooks should take the kids. If they're worried about witnesses, they can't leave the wife behind. The movie becomes tied down by the police minutia. It's better to stay in the house but it's still a solid crime drama B-movie.

Saw both this & The Desperate Hours, but 40 years apart!

[hobnobx · 7/10 · 29 June 2002]

Saw "The Nite Holds Terror" in 1956. Enjoyed it so much I wanted to see it again, but it was showing for just 2 or 3 days in my small home town. I don't recall it ever coming to nearby towns or being listed on tv and wondered why. Perhaps because the Humphrey Bogart version called "The Desperate Hours" garnered a larger following. Did not see the Bogart version until June 2002 and even after 40 years I see the remarkable similarities. I think the pictures were equally as good. Thank you.

Great Cast of Actors

[whpratt1 · 7/10 · 18 June 2007]

Enjoyed this 1955 film with great actors like Vince Edwards,( Victor Gosset) and John Cassavetes, (Robert Batsford) who were just starting their careers. In this picture Jack Kelly,(Gene Courtier) makes a very bad mistake and picks up a hitchhiker in the desert and Victor Gosset commanders his car and wants him to sell it for money and then meets up with Robert Batsford who is the boss of the kidnapping and then they decide to go to Gene Courtier home and hold his wife, Doris Courtier,(Hildy Parks) and two children hostage in their own home. Victor Gosset is crazy about women and can't seem to keep his hands off Doris Courtier and starts all kinds of problems with her husband. There is very high tension through out the entire picture and it was a great film for 1955. Enjoy

A low-budget--but still compelling--"Desperate Hours"

[stusviews · 6/10 · 14 March 2021]

A gritty kidnapping caper (complete with no-nonsense, "Dragnet"-style narration) that turns into a documentary-style police procedural as the cops begin to close in. After a sensational beginning--featuring a carjacking, a home invasion, and a very terrified family--the movie begins to lose some steam in the second half (there are lots of shots of hard-working, real-life police dispatchers and telephone operators), but you'll still want to hang on till the end. With a very young John Cassavetes and a pre-"Ben Casey" Vince Edwards as two of the thugs. Based on actual events.

Thrilling re-tread of "The Desperate Hours"

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 28 March 2010]

When husband and father Jack Kelly is on the road, he is stopped by a supposed stranded motorist (John Cassavettes) who instantly places a gun to Kelly's head and plans to leave him dead in the desert to take his car. Desperate to save his life for the sake of his family, Kelly promises to get him cash, and Cassavettes and his co-horts (Vince Edwards and David Cross) take over their home. This is a taunt and tense film noir that grasps you from the very beginning and doesn't let go. What seems to be heading down a familiar street turns out to be intriguing once the pace gets moving. Kelly and his wife (Hildy Parks) are appropriately frightened, while there are multi-dimensional portraits given to each of the thugs. There are vulnerabilities and humanities in some of them that you don't see in most gangster thrillers, so obviously the script writer took great pains to add more detail to their characterizations. There are also some wonderful twists and turns that get the viewer convinced that the villains are about to get their dues when something else happens to take it down a different path. This makes it more exciting and as more of the law becomes involved, so does the media, which makes the tension even worse. While not yet released in Columbia's film noir collection, this is definitely one that should be. It is one of their better later film noirs.

You came so close to getting it it isn't even funny

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 10 November 2011]

(Some Spoilers) It's when electronic engineer Gene Courtire, Jack Kelly, casually gave hitchhiker Victor Gosset, Vince Edwards, a lift his world turned upside-down. With the not too alert Gosset mistaking Courtier's Mercury for a Lincoln Continental, in him thinking by driving an expensive car like that Courtier is loaded, everything started to go downhill for Gosset and his fellow hoods Robert Batsford, John Cassavetes, and Luther Logan, David Cross.

Not only didn't Courtier have the big bucks that the trio of hoods were looking for but by kidnapping, a capital crime, him and later his wife Doris, Hildy Parks, they now face the San Quentin gas chamber if their caught: Which according to FBI statistics is in kidnappers getting caught is something like 99.9 % of the time. Instead of playing it safe and dropping the entire matter the thee hoodlums, two wanted by the police for murder, keep running with the ball, or kidnapping, making things even more worse for themselves then they already are.

Both Gosset & Batsford who at first were more then willing to murder Courtire if he as much as looked at them later let the guy and his wife live even after in a number of incidents they were attacked and assaulted by the battling couple! And in one case almost killed by one, Gene Courtier, of them! All the retaliation that came for the murderous duo was Courtier just getting belted to the ground by an enraged, whom he earlier almost killed, Gosset when he wasn't looking.

The film went on and on with the three stooges, Gosset Batsford & Logan, screwing up at every turn giving the police and FBI all the time they needed to finally capture them. It was Logan who came up with the "bright" idea to get Courtier's rich businessman dad, Stanley Andrews, to pay a $200,000.00 ransom to get his son back. By then Mrs Courtier was for some unexplained reason released by the kidnappers together with her two children making the kidnappers chances of getting away with their half baked crime even more difficult then it already was!

***SPOILERS*** Still thinking that he's got all the winning cards in the deck the head kidnapper Bastford, looking like he's Jerry Lewis' evil twin brother, demanded that the ransom money be delivered to him and his boys, Gosset & Logan, within the hour or Gene Courtier is history. The brainless jerk didn't realized that he was kept on the phone for something like 15 minutes so his whereabouts could be traced by the police. And sure enough just as both Bastford and Gosset, by then fellow kidnapper Logan was completely out of the picture, were waiting for the big payoff they were surrounded by 187 police and FBI units, a record in California crime history, before they could even realize just how ridicules their perfect plan or crime really was!

Opens Flat But Builds.

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 1 June 2012]

A stentorian baritone tells us that what we are about to watch is based on a true story and I can believe it. Nobody would make up such a whimsical drama.

There's an amateurish quality to this movie. It's like watching a television program, a very long episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or the early series of "Dragnet". None of the performances is notable. All are hardly believable. The direction is functional and uninspired. The photography and lighting are high key, out of "I Love Lucy." The dialog is of no help. It all sounds written and unexciting except when it stumbles, as if by accident, into something original or so corny as to be impressive. "I'd just as lief stick a knife into you as not." An upper-class house is "swank." (I can almost hear the ghost of Little Caesar marveling, "Say, ain't this a swank dump you got here!") The first-person narrative of Kelly, the kidnap victim who picks up the wrong hitch hiker, takes over the narration and tells us all about his inner feelings, as opposed to his outer feelings, when he and his family are taken into custody by four kidnappers and robbers. At first, the four miscreants take him out into the desert to simply kill him and steal his wallet and car. (The actual makes are mentioned -- "Chrysler" and "Merc.") But, as with true psychopaths, their ambitions grow waggishly to include finally two hundred grand from Kelly's well-to-do father.

Then the plot gets more complicated and begins to resemble real life in its unpredictability. The style also changes. Instead of a psychological drama involving a family held captive, the movie turns into one of those docudramas about the Los Angeles Police Force in its technical aspect, the sort that were made so popular in the post-war years by directors like Henry Hathaway -- "The House on 92nd Street" and the rest.

I found the last third more interesting. In the movies, when the police try to trace a phone call, we never learn any of the details. A cop tells the victim to keep the call going as long as possible. They usually fail to trace the call to its source or, if they succeed, they find only an empty phone booth at the other end. Here, there is a good deal of mechanical and electronic stuff that was over my head, involving "bays" and "relays" and "routers." But at least we learn how complex a process a trace is. And I never knew that a simple procedure by a telephone operator could keep a connection traceable even after the caller had hung up. Now I'm beginning to worry about all those marketeers that call me at dinner time. I can do without the free dancing lessons at Arthur Murray's.

But hardly anything can save the film from being routine. The actors walk through the fully lighted stage sets, hit their marks, make a face resembling an expression, recite their lines, and walk away -- except for Vince Edwards. He does all the other things but he doesn't make a face resembling an expression. His features remain placid and neutral, no matter the situation. He was perfect as Ben Casey.

One for Andrew Stone fans!

[JohnHowardReid · 8/10 · 2 April 2018]

Director, producer, and screenplay: ANDREW STONE. Director of photography: Fred Jackman, Jr. Sound: Theron Triplett. Music score: Lucien Cailliet. Song: "Every Now and Then" by Virginia Stone. Assistant director: Melville Shyer. Film editor: Virginia Stone. Narrated by William Woodson.

Copyright 1955 by Andrew L. Stone Productions. Released by Columbia Pictures Corp. New York opening as a support to Footsteps in the Fog at Loew's neighborhood cinemas: 14 September 1955. U.S. release: September 1955. U.K. release: 17 October 1955. Australian release: 2 February 1956. 85 minutes.

SYNOPSIS: Returning to his desert home in Lancaster, California, Gene Courtier picks up a young hitch-hiker, Victor Gosset, who pulls a gun on him and is soon joined by two other criminals: the psychopathic leader of the bunch, Robert Batsford, and the gentler Luther Logan. The three men hold Courtier, his wife Doris, and their two small children hostage. The family spends a terrified night but believes that the nightmare will end in the morning when Courtier sells his car for the cash the men seek. But in the morning, Batsford announces a new plan and holds Courtier for ransom.

NOTES: The film combines incidents concerning the 1953 Gene Courtier kidnapping case and the 1954 Leonard Moskowitz kidnapping cases.

COMMENT: Quickly assembled by writer/producer/director Andrew Stone to cash in on The Desperate Hours (and actually completed and released before that film), this is still a gripping and very tautly constructed thriller, allegedly based on an actual incident and filmed entirely in the actual locations. Given the disadvantages of filming on the actual spot, cinematographer Fred Jackman Jr has achieved a remarkably high standard of photography. The performers were all virtually unknown when this film was released (except for Hale). Performances are excellent throughout. We particularly like David Cross' portrayal of the unwilling accomplice.

Better Than Average Hostage FIlm - The Night Holds Terror

[arthur_tafero · 6/10 · 6 November 2023]

The big names in this film are the supporting actors: John Cassavetes does his Bogart imitation (and quite well. Too), while Vince Edwards plays another punk (he played several punks before his Ben Casey breakthrough) who is part of the kidnapping gang.

Jack Kelly is the lead, but fails to make an impression, while Hilda Parks does a decent job as the wife of the hostage. You will be sure never to pick up a hitchhiker after seeing this film. The male lead, Kelly, decides to pick up Edwards. Big Mistake. He gets carjacked, and then taken to his home,which puts his family at risk as well. The thieves are not happy with the two grand they get, so they go for the big score by kidnapping Kelly and holding him for ransom for his rich father. Another big mistake. Not bad for a B film.

Weak depiction of a terrifying criminal act of kidnapping

[secondtake · 5/10 · 5 June 2012]

The Night Holds Terror (1955)

There is no way to simply watch this film as a straight drama and not see all the holes in it. But there is also no way to miss the remarkable strengths, from a true-crime story with chilling consequences to an early look at several actors who would later have huge careers.

Foremost of these for film fans is John Cassavetes, who made lots of films and t.v. appearances in the 1950s before his first directorial success in 1959 (with "Shadows"). Not to be confused with the son, born that year. Cassavetes later made the intense "Woman under the Influence" and appeared in "Rosemary's Baby," and here he is in his youth playing a common thug in a common movie. And perhaps stealing the show even though his part is intermittent.

Vince Edwards of course later became the one and only Ben Casey, televisions premier doctor for years. He's creepy here and not a great talent. The main "good" guy and victim here is a small time actor, Jack Kelly, and he's less than convincing though he's supposed to play a regular guy caught up in a criminal nightmare. Even more unconvincing, I suppose, is his wife, though her hysteria and overacting is probably not so far off the mark. The rest of the cast is reasonable, and functional.

So the story rules. It's a cruel, detailed, and apparently accurate tale of innocently picking up a hitchhiker and having it all go wrong. Some police procedures are detailed, especially phone tapping and tracing calls the old way, wire by wire. Fascinating side stuff.

The director and writer and producer and etc is Andrew Stone, who made a number of very low budget films like this, typically filmed on location and using little known actors. His wife Virginia teamed up with him on these, and they are one of the many small level results of the breakup of Hollywood and the rise of television in the 1950s, creating crisis and opportunity equally. His second to last film is probably his biggest, "Song of Norway" in 1970.

"The Night Holds Terror" is what it is, straight shooting and fairly horrifying, but held back by some common issues of acting and directing.

Not Even the Suburbs are Safe

[dougdoepke · 9 September 2007]

Gritty little suspenser that holds interest throughout. Writer-director Andrew Stone's and wife Virginia's reputation rests on a documentary-style approach to film-making. Making a movie about people on board a sinking ship?-- then sink an actual ship, The Last Voyage (1958). I believe it was Andrew Sarris who observed that it was a good thing they never made a film about the end of the world!

There's a lot of that documentary approach in this low-budgeter taken from an actual kidnapping case of the period. Kidnapping was much in the news in 1953 with the sensational abduction for ransom of little Bobby Greenlease, of Kansas City, I believe. And, of course, then as now, screen-writers love to chase the headlines of the day. So it's no surprise that several of these plot-lines turned up at about the same time, including the rather eerie Big House, USA (1955).

Here the screenplay recreates the abduction of the offspring of a wealthy LA-area family, Gene Couture. What makes the movie work is the inspired casting (probably a happy accident) that brings together three fast-rising young actors-- a sullen Vince Edwards, a moody John Cassavetes, and an appealing Jack Kelly as the victim. You really get the feeling from the former two-- who look edgy and act even edgier-- that anything can happen at any time. Together as the lead abductors, they're little short of the proverbial dynamite. When they take Kelly into the desert, you get the feeling he's a dead duck for sure.

Then too, the Stone's insistence on real suburban locations lends the proceedings a look and feel different from the usual. The procedural part gets kind of draggy as the cops enter the case and was likely inspired by the police mega-hit of the day, Dragnet. But at least it's consistent with the over-all documentary tone. Some buffs see the movie as noir. I don't, taking it instead as a particularly effective example of the "home invasion" genre that was also popular at the time. But however you cut it, this is still a darn good little 90 minute nail-biter.

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

[boblipton · 6/10 · 9 October 2023]

Vince Edwards, John Cassavetes, and David Cross have their robbery go sideways. They have to get out, and Jack Kelly picks up one of them as a hitch hiker on his way home. Soon all three are terrorizing Kelly's wife, Hildy parks, and their two children. The three crooks decide to make some money by taking Kelly away and leaving Miss Parks to arrange for a ransom.

It's based on a real story, with the actual family being paid to use their names. Writer-director Andrew Stone has crafted a nicely detailed movie, with well developed characters played by still obscure -- and so probably inexpensive -- performers. I have issues with his use of a narrator -- William Woodson -- but the era was crazy for Jack Webb's use of the technique in radio and television versions of Dragnet. With Eddie Marr, Jack Kruschen, and Jonathan Hale.

BASED ON A TRUE STORY...!

[masonfisk · 7/10 · 2 May 2021]

A 1955 crime noir which involves a trio of hitchhikers taking a family hostage. Based on a true story, we find the father, an engineer by trade whose father owns a chain of businesses, being picked up by a trio of thugs who take him back to his home to keep the family (mother & their 2 children) hostage till morning (he ends up selling his car to get them off his back & needs to wait for the cash) but when it's revealed who his father is, they opt for a large payday. The next morning the kidnappers take the father as a means for his wife to not call the police (through a fluke of circumstance she nearly gets caught because the kidnappers have a cop radio) but once the authorities realize the stakes involved, an intense manhunt commences (primarily trying to track their calls down using methods we would recognize as archaic) but keeps the suspense on an ever increasing vise grip. Future notables John Cassavetes & Vince Edwards play a couple of the kidnappers & Jack Kruschen (from The Apartment) played one of the detectives.

A fine low budget thriller

[Leofwine_draca · 7/10 · 1 May 2023]

THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR is a very early example of the home invasion thriller which would go on to provoke so much terror and disgust in audiences over the following decades. This one's a high-suspense ride based on a true story and it generally hits the mark, getting going right from the outset when an ordinary family man is held up by a robber who demands that he and his gang be taken to the guy's home, where his wife and kid reside. What follows is an exercise in tension from beginning to end. The unknown cast (including a young John Cassavetes) do their job well and, although it gets a little bloated with the police presence in the second half, it's still a fine low budget thriller.

Based on a true story, though a couple other similar films are a bit better.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 February 2024]

"The Night Holds Terror" is a lower budgeted film about a man who was taken hostage and forced to sign over his money to the kidnappers. Additionally, when they discovered his father was rich, they decide to bleed the old man as well. The crooks also terrorize the man's wife and kids and it is a creepy film...one that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

The 1950s saw several films much like this one, including "Suddenly", "The Desperate Hours" and "Cry Terror!"...all of which were better than "The Night Holds Terror". However, "The Night Holds Terror" is still a very good film and it's worth watching.... I just think these others are just a bit better...more polished and more compelling.

Based on an actual events

[jordondave-28085 · 6/10 · 7 December 2023]

(1955) The Night Holds Terror CRIME DRAMA

Produced, written and directed by Andrew L. Stone that involves three escaped convicts hold a man and his family ransom for the assumption he has money. It opens with Gene Courtier (Jack Kelly) stopping his car to pick up what he initially thought was a hitchhiker, Victor Gosset (Vince Edwards). As it turns out, he was originally a wanted felon and he pulls a gun on him to pick up two of his friends, head boss, Robert Batsford (John Cassavetes) and Luther Logan (David Cross) before forcing Gene to drive them to their house, taking the rest of the family hostage that includes his wife, Doris Courtier (Hildy Parks), and their two young children.

Based on actual events, and is narrated in accordance to Gene Courtier as he explains the reason why he does not pick up hitch hikers anymore whenever he goes out driving.

This film explores the foibles of the weaker sex . . .

[tadpole-596-918256 · 6/10 · 20 March 2021]

. . . many if not most members of which will go miles out of their way for a chance to fall prey to Stockholm Syndrome. A couple Swedish psychologists won the Nobel Prize for Medicine when they discovered that women go Ga-Ga for Bad Boys, the viler the better. As his wife Doris slow-dances with one of the three Swedish thugs threatening to kill their pair of urchins, husband Gene realizes that with a spouse like Doris a guy has a built-in enemy. Just as that ancient Greek playwright documented that many moms are eager to bake tyke pie for the right bad man, Doris seems to be more worried about coming up with the perfect crust than in displaying any true sign of maternal feelings throughout THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR.

The young hardened criminals that terrorized a family in this crime drama...make this desert film worth a watch.

[cgvsluis · 5/10 · 21 October 2023]

This is a disturbing film, particularly since it not only is based on a true story but it shows a photo of the actual family at the beginning of the film. Billed as a B-movie noir, it is plays more like a straight crime-drama, although there is some beautiful tension built particularly when the hostage taking kidnappers are all in the family's home overnight.

The drama starts when Gene Courtier picks up a hitchhiker in the desert on his way home. The hitchhiker pulls a gun and drives him out into the desert, where he is joined by his two partners. Vince Edwards, John Cassavetes, and David Cross play the three criminals who initially are going to shoot Gene in the desert and leave him for dead, but get convinced by Gene himself to go with him to sell his car after only getting $10 off his wallet. They find out they can't get the money for the car until the next day which sends them all to stay the night at the Courtier's home in order to prevent them from going to the police. This is one of the most tense periods of the film as one of the violent criminals is pretty hands-y with Mrs. Courtier. I feel like the couple does several things right...sticking together, trying to make a deal with the sanest of the three, yelling out about the police radio. They did some things that probably saved their lives.

"What happened to the Courtier's could happen to you!"

The moral of this story is don't pick up hitchhikers. I loved the footage out in the desert amongst the cacti, the visuals were great in this film. I particularly liked the step by step process of tracking a phone call's location in the 1950's was great. If you like tough guys and crime drama...I think you should add this to your list. Not sure it stacks up to any of the real noir classics, it does have a story that's enjoyable to watch...especially since it's true. Soft recommendation for crime fans and really because the three hardened criminals really make this film worth the viewing.

It Started in Broad Daylight

[richardchatten · 9/10 · 13 July 2023]

The disreputable genre of the home invasion film seems a nasty recent genre; but probably dates back at least as far as Robert Sherwood' 1935 play 'The Petrified Forest'.

When in 1955 William Wyler's 'The Desperate Hours' returned to the subject, the same year a much cheaper version by the notoriously parsimonious Andrew Stone also hit screens, perfectly exemplifying Stone's device of presenting "'ordinary' people with a sudden, shattering emergency that involves a race against time" as David Thomson put it.

'The Night Holds Terror' cost a fraction of the price of Wyler's film (and it certainly lacks the star power of Humphrey Bogart - who starred in the play - and Fredric March) but doesn't suffer from the comparison since the rough edges resulting from Stone's notorious corner cutting simply adds to the tension propelled by the narration that had already become the director's hallmark.

The Night Shoulda Held A Nap

[ArtVandelayImporterExporter · 4/10 · 16 May 2020]

I'm way too young but I've seen enough re-runs on cable to know that even 1950s American TV was better than this low-rent movie.

Bad acting. Uninspired direction. Insipid dialogue.

There is about as much menace in this movie as a badly made ice cream sundae.

What is their plan, anyway? How do the tough guys profit from terrorizing the family? The guy had 10 bucks, the guy had 10 bucks. Rob him and move on.

And if you're going through all that trouble, why would you let the man and wife have a secret conversation in their bedroom?

So lame.

Before CRY TERROR, Andrew Stone shows his skills.

[searchanddestroy-1 · 8 January 2023]

I have often confounded NIGHT OF TERROR with CRY TERROR, because both have "terror" in the title, and also because both are made by the same director; and let's admit that both stories are quite close. Hoodlums against the common law abiding citizen living in the suburb. John Cassavetes and Vince Edwards literally steal the show because of their performances. This story could have been perfect for a seventies or even eighties film, partly because inspired from true events that occured in february 1953. It is predictable, easy to know how it will end, but just enjoy the directing and acting too. Useless to insist on this same topic as DESPERATE HOURS.