Experiment in Terror (1962) (Limited Edition to 3000) - SOLD OUT

[Hawkguy]

I love this film! This may have to be my first purchase from these guys.

[HuggyBear73]

This will be a blind buy for me. Heard nothing but good things about it.

[oildude]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

I love this film! This may have to be my first purchase from these guys.

I highly recommend picking up Rapture and The Big Heat at the same time. I think you will really like them, too, based on many of your posts I have read.

[Hawkguy]

Originally Posted by oildude

I highly recommend picking up Rapture and The Big Heat at the same time. I think you will really like them, too, based on many of your posts I have read.

Wow, thank you for that . I haven't seen either of those films, but looked over their reviews just now and they sound very interesting to me.

[jrsl76]

I've never seen this, but that trailer is fanastic. This is a definite buy.

[ROclockCK]

Originally Posted by CoopFilm

Wow, thank you for that . I haven't seen either of those films, but looked over their reviews just now and they sound very interesting to me.

Almost no one had seen Rapture before TT's Blu-ray edition CoopFilm...it really was that obscure to begin with, and 'lost in the vault' for several decades...apparently even to the director of the film, John Guillermin. In fact, during one of Nick Redman's visits to the "Twilight Time Schedule" thread he shared the following little anecdote:

"Several times in the past year I've received a late-night phone call--at the other end of the line is a crusty British voice, usually well-oiled by a few stiff ones. The conversation goes something like this: 'Nick, John Guillermin here. Had some friends round. We ran Rapture again. It looks f***ing marvelous. Can't believe this bloody film is on Blu-ray.' Click."

So Rapture ends up being a blind buy for almost everyone CoopFilm, but I don't know many who have taken a chance on it regretting the purchase. If nothing else, it's one of the finest Blu-ray transfers to date of B & W 'Scope.

At the other end, The Big Heat is just a flat out Noir classic with one of the best female performances I've ever had the pleasure of seeing (Gloria Grahame). Unlike some of TT's more esoteric catalogue choices, this title doesn't require any gamble whatsoever for a blind buy. I hate fatuous fan statements like the following, but enough of it is true in this case that I'll say it anyway... "Anyone who doesn't like Fritz Lang's Noir masterpiece, just doesn't like moooovies."

Experiment in Terror is classic too, but in different kind of way. Cat-and-mouse suspense thrillers like this weren't routinely tackled by A-list studio talent back in the early 60s. Although Hitchcock's Psycho kind of opened up the range of possibilities for awhile, genre scripts like this typically landed in the laps of the 'B' producers or hungry up and comers. But just look at what you get with some top drawer talent on board:

EOT

What's interesting about this scene is that for almost the first half of its running time, it is completely stripped of dialogue with only modest incidental sounds - in effect, nothing of importance right up until we first hear the 'old woman's' asthmatic breathing. And then, except for a single line question by Lee Remick, the villain does all of the talking! Essentially, the whole thing is just exposition for plot advancement, but how many lesser directors would have taken a more mundane approach, including all sorts of idle restaurant chatter, the waitress taking an order, even a cross-cut to Remick excusing herself from her tablemate, etc? I suppose including all of that would have been more realistic, but movies aren't reality, and for something like this, Edwards' expressionist approach worked so much better. Although the guy was better known for his comedic works, he sure knew how to build an effective sequence...in this case leaving its biggest shock for the end, which was an otherwise harmless action at that.

Slick, savvy stuff, which is why Experiment in Terror has been on my TT wish list since day one. Now that Criterion will no longer be doing Nicholas Ray's In a Lonely Place, I hope that Noir classic is back on TT's radar too.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Super film and being a Lee Remick fan a definite purchase (just seen it is region free ). Thanks to Arkadin for making me aware of this.

[ROclockCK]

Twilight Time has always been a Region free label Marcus Aurelius...both their Blu-rays and DVDs. If I recall correctly the initial run of Picnic was accidentally Region A encoded by the disc manufacturer, but they corrected it.

[Marcus Aurelius]

Originally Posted by ROclockCK

Twilight Time has always been a Region free label Marcus Aurelius...both their Blu-rays and DVDs. If I recall correctly the initial run of Picnic was accidentally Region A encoded by the disc manufacturer, but they corrected it.

Thanks for the information ROclockCK. It's nice to know. Just ordered my copy, which with registered delivery is the priciest individual blu ray I have ever bought.

Hope the PQ/AQ is up to snuff. Do you know why it is such a limited run of copies though ?

[lolwut]

This is a film I've been wanting to see and that trailer looks great. Blind buy!