The Night Holds Terror - Vince Edwards

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

directed by Andrew L. Stone
USA 1955

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?

Excerpt of review from Bill McVicar at imdb.com located HERE

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Theatrical Release: 13 July 1955 (USA)

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DVD Review: Sony Pictures (Screen Classics by Request) - Region 0 - NTSC

Big thanks to Gregory Meshman for the Review!

DVD Box Cover		CLICK to order from:
Distribution	Sony Pictures Region 0 - NTSC
Runtime	1:25:33
Video	1.82:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9 enhanced Average Bitrate: 4.32 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate
Audio	Dolby Digital Mono (English)
Subtitles	None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Sony Pictures Aspect Ratio: Widescreen anamorphic - 1.82:1 Edition Details: • None DVD Release Date: October 4th, 2011 Keep Case Chapters 9

Comments

The Night Holds Terror is a great little hostage thriller from Columbia Pictures that would not be out of place on one of Sony's film noir box sets. Instead, they opted to release it on made-on-demand DVD, and presentation is still pretty solid. An anamorphic progressive transfer has very little damage and is presented in correct theatrical aspect ratio.

The audio is good as well, but unfortunately there are no extras, not even a trailer. Like most feature-less MOD discs from Sony, there are no menus and the film starts playing after the logos. Per usual standard, there are no subtitles or closed captions and the film is divided into 9 chapters. A very strong release that can be recommended if the price is right.

- Gregory Meshman

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