Experiment in Terror

Experiment in Terror (Blake Edwards - 1962)

By chance I read a favorable mention of this picture somewhere and decided to check it out.  I was not disappointed; the opening credit sequence was enough to convince me. Lee Remick driving through the night with San Francisco in the background accompanied by the soothing score by Henry Mancini. Memorable! 

The film is an efficiently told detective story where Glenn Ford gets to play the hero. Black and white photography has never looked so good and there is a lot of unusual angles and creative camerawork. The aesthetics is definitely Film Noir, but the world that the film depicts is not so dark and sordid that it qualifies to be placed on that shelf. If one had to insist on a Noir approach I’d label this one as a “transitional piece”.  

Watched on anamorphic DVD in the Columbia Classics series.