My Saturday evening's entertainment didn't die with "Die! Die! My Darling!"
I should say not.
True, it wasn't going to be a light, sprightly tune-filled evening, but I was damned well going to watch something else.
So..what did I select?
You may well ask yourself what kind of film I'd have chosen to follow that grim-reaper of a "Die! Die! My Darling."
Well..considering the mood I was already in, I had the perfect solution.
I watched "Experiment in Terror!"
Oh! No, I'd never seen it. Had heard of it, rather than about it. I knew it had a jazz-ish score by Henry Mancini.
And it starred Glenn Ford and Lee Remick. Those two, alone, would make it worth watching, along with music by Mancini. AND it was directed by Blake Edwards...almost at his very PRIME!
And it was set in San Francisco...the one that existed before high rises destroyed much of its world-famous charm.
In total fairness to this film, it was a nice, taut suspense film (also starred a much more stalwart Stefanie Powers as Remick's younger sister) with some interesting characters and locations (and one HUGE major nod to Hitchcock in the big scene at Candlestick Park at the end of a baseball game).
But it still left a sour taste in my mouth. Yes. A sour taste.
And what was the source of that sour taste? That acidity? That acridity?
It was the bad guy portrayed by Ross Martin.
No...that's not right.
It was Ross Martin, who portrayed the bad guy.
If ever an actor appeared on the silver screen and begged to be noticed, it was Ross Martin.
It was Artemis Gordon without any charm. You always knew who he was and what he looked like, despite the "clever" (in the twee sense) disguises. But Artemis had charm. Ross Martin, when he wasn't ACTING and PLYING (read that "beating you over the head with") his CRAFT also exuded charm.
What Ross Martin never did for me was combine natural charm and the craft of acting....both were mutually exclusive elements.
I always enjoyed "The Wild, Wild West" MOST of the time. I enjoyed James West and I enjoyed the super-villains who plagued him and always managed to tie him up, in a rather S/M way, and always shirtless, for some reason.
But Artie Gordon....feh!
Now that I've seen him in "Experiment in Terror!", I'm certain it was because it was Ross Martin "plying his craft."
Mancini's score, despite all I've ever heard about it, struck me as rather loud at times and without any melody of note.
And I LOVE a nice melody...even in a taut thriller.
