Workhorse B-pic director Edward L. Cahn, typically busy in 1960 with eight short features, never flinched at genre or quality. All meat to the grinder, as with this standard issue hostage drama where criminals take over a home to commit some horror that demands a specific staging area to accomplish. Assassination, robbery or prison-break, what matters is location, location, location. Available at various price points: high-budget A-list packaging in THE DESPERATE HOURS/’55; mid-budget indie like SUDDENLY/’52; or zero-budget time-fillers like this, meant for grind-houses, drive-ins or theater chains that promised ‘Always a Second Feature!.’ That’s Cahn territory. Behind the camera, Cahn knew what he’s about, making the equivalent of a two-part tv serial. If only he’d vary the pace now & then, and not hold off suspense for the last reel. He gets it done with two prominent dodges: Mastershots to cover two-thirds of the footage; and an omniscient narrator (school of Edward R. Murrow) to fill in any missing pieces. Cahn helped by two better actors than he usually got: Cameron Mitchell as the gunman setting up the perfect shot to take down the departing plane of a foreign Prime Minister (functionally, the Humphrey Bogart spot in DESPERATE HOURS) and John Lupton (a fair-haired missing link between Bruce Dern & Anthony Perkins) leaving the other hostages behind to head off to his job at the Airport Control Tower (just like Fredric March in HOURS.). In the Cahn oeuvre, damning with faint praise is praise indeed!
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, THE DESPERATE HOURS. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/02/going-back-at-least-to-1912-and-gish.html
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