Cry Terror! | |
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Directed by | Andrew L. Stone |
Produced by |
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Screenplay by | Andrew L. Stone |
Starring | |
Music by | Howard Jackson |
Cinematography | Walter Strenge |
Edited by | Virginia L. Stone |
Production
company |
Andrew L. Stone Productions
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Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date
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Running time
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96 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $482,000 |
Box office | $1,020,000 |
Cry Terror! is a 1958 thriller film starring James Mason, Inger Stevens, and Rod Steiger.
The crime story was written and directed by Oscar-nominated screenwriter Andrew L. Stone. The cast also featured Neville Brand, Earl Holliman and Angie Dickinson.
Paul Hoplin (Rod Steiger) is the mastermind of a crime to collect a $500,000 ransom, threatening to use an explosive device that Jim Molner (James Mason) designed. He and his gang are holding Molner, wife Joan (Inger Stevens) and young daughter Patty (Terry Ann Ross) hostage.
FBI agents gather in New York with representatives of an airline. Hoplin has been sending anonymous notes, suggesting that a bomb will be planted on an aircraft. Joan Molner is forced to go alone to collect the ransom payment, while Hoplin's accomplices, a woman named Kelly (Angie Dickinson) and a man named Vince (Jack Klugman), watch her husband and child in a Brooklyn penthouse apartment.
Joan barely makes it back by the gang's deadline in time to prevent her husband's death. She is left alone with an ex-con, Steve (Neville Brand), who has a history of sexual assaults on women. Forced to defend herself, she kills Steve with a shard of glass.
Using the dental records of Kelly, the FBI manages to find the hideout. They disarm Vince and shoot Kelly, wounding her. Now they must find Molner's wife, but Holpin has seen newspaper reports that her husband and daughter are safe. She runs for her life into a subway, and when Hoplin pursues her, he steps on a third rail and is electrocuted.
The production was shot from early August to early September 1957 in New York City. For James Mason who had primarily taken on leading roles, with Cry Terror!, he began to take on "colorful supporting roles and character leads", a direction he continued until the end of his acting career.