Step Down to Terror

Last updated
Step Down to Terror
Step Down to Terror poster.jpg
Directed by Harry Keller
Written by Mel Dinelli
Czenzi Ormonde
Sy Gomberg
Based onstory Uncle Charlie by Gordon McDonnell
Produced byJoseph Gershenson
Starring Colleen Miller
Charles Drake
Rod Taylor
Cinematography Russell Metty
Edited byFrank Gross
Production
company
Universal Pictures
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • September 1958 (1958-09)(United States)
Running time
76 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Step Down to Terror (also known as The Silent Stranger) is a 1958 American film noir crime film directed by Harry Keller and starring Colleen Miller, Charles Drake and Rod Taylor. It is a remake of the 1943 Alfred Hitchcock film Shadow of a Doubt . [1] [2]

Contents

Plot

Johnny Williams (Drake) is a psychotic serial killer who returns to his hometown to visit his mother (Hutchinson) and widowed sister-in-law Helen (Miller), both of whom are ignorant of his criminal past. Johnny hopes to settle down and start life anew, but Helen, her suspicions aroused by visiting detective Mike Randall (Taylor), discovers the truth about her beloved brother-in-law. Failing to talk Helen out of turning him in, Johnny methodically plots her murder. When all his plans fail he drags Helen into his car and drives off with her. Knowing Johnny is going to kill her, Helen grabs the keys, and he is forced to swerve to avoid hitting a boy riding his bike, and is killed in the resulting accident. At the memorial service, as Johnny is lauded as a model citizen, only Helen and Mike know the real truth.

Cast

Production

At one stage Ross Hunter was going to produce and Donna Reed was going to star. [3]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Shadow of a Doubt</i> 1943 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Shadow of a Doubt is a 1943 American psychological thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten. Written by Thornton Wilder, Sally Benson, and Alma Reville, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story for Gordon McDonell.

<i>Lifeboat</i> (1944 film) 1944 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Lifeboat is a 1944 American survival film directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story by John Steinbeck. It stars Tallulah Bankhead and William Bendix, alongside Walter Slezak, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Henry Hull, Heather Angel, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee. The film is set entirely on a lifeboat launched from a passenger vessel torpedoed and sunk by a Nazi U-boat.

<i>The Skin Game</i> (1931 film) 1931 film

The Skin Game is a 1931 British drama film by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1920 play by John Galsworthy and produced by British International Pictures. The story revolves around two rival families, the Hillcrists and the Hornblowers, and the disastrous results of the feud between them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Taylor</span> Australian actor (1930–2015)

Rodney Sturt Taylor was an Australian actor. He appeared in more than 50 feature films, including The Time Machine (1960), The Birds (1963), and Inglourious Basterds (2009), and voiced a lead role in One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961).

<i>The Birds</i> (film) 1963 film by Alfred Hitchcock

The Birds is a 1963 American natural horror-thriller film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Loosely based on the 1952 short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier, it focuses on a series of sudden and unexplained violent bird attacks on the people of Bodega Bay, California, over the course of a few days.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Drake (actor)</span> American actor

Charles Drake was an American actor.

<i>That Darn Cat!</i> 1965 thriller comedy film by Robert Stevenson

That Darn Cat! is a 1965 American thriller comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and starring Hayley Mills and Dean Jones in a story about bank robbers, a kidnapping and a mischievous cat; produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film was based on the 1963 novel Undercover Cat by Gordon and Mildred Gordon. The title song was written by the Sherman Brothers and sung by Bobby Darin. The 1997 remake includes a cameo appearance by Dean Jones.

<i>Blackmail</i> (1929 film) 1929 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Blackmail is a 1929 British thriller drama film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Anny Ondra, John Longden, and Cyril Ritchard. Based on the 1928 play of the same name by Charles Bennett, the film is about a London woman who is blackmailed after killing a man who tries to rape her.

<i>Murder!</i> 1930 film

Murder! is a 1930 British thriller film co-written and directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Herbert Marshall, Norah Baring and Edward Chapman. Written by Hitchcock, his wife Alma Reville and Walter C. Mycroft, it is based on the 1928 novel Enter Sir John by Clemence Dane and Helen Simpson. It was Hitchcock's third all-talkie film, after Blackmail (1929) and Juno and the Paycock (1930).

<i>Easy Virtue</i> (1928 film) 1928 film

Easy Virtue is a 1928 British silent romance film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Isabel Jeans, Franklin Dyall and Ian Hunter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bill Williams (actor)</span> American actor (1915–1992)

William Herman Katt, known as Bill Williams, was an American television and film actor. He is best known for his starring role in the early television series The Adventures of Kit Carson, which aired in syndication from 1951 to 1955.

<i>The Thirty Nine Steps</i> (1978 film) 1978 British film

The Thirty Nine Steps [sic] is a British 1978 thriller film directed by Don Sharp, with screenplay by British playwright Michael Robson, based on the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It was the third film version of the 1915 novel.

<i>The Living and the Dead</i> (Boileau-Narcejac novel)

The Living and the Dead is a 1954 psychological mystery novel by Boileau-Narcejac, originally published in French as D'entre les morts. It served as the basis for Alfred Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo.

<i>The Catered Affair</i> 1956 film by Richard Brooks

The Catered Affair is a 1956 American comedy-drama film directed by Richard Brooks and produced by Sam Zimbalist from a screenplay by Gore Vidal, based on a 1955 television play by Paddy Chayefsky. The film stars Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, Debbie Reynolds, Barry Fitzgerald and Rod Taylor. It was Taylor's first film for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after signing a long-term contract with the studio. The film score was by André Previn and the cinematographer was John Alton.

<i>Alfred Hitchcock Presents</i> (1985 TV series) American anthology series which started airing in 1985

Alfred Hitchcock Presents, sometimes called The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, is an American anthology series that aired on NBC from 1985 to 1986 and on the USA Network from 1987 to 1989. The series is an updated version of the 1955 eponymous series.

<i>Raintree County</i> (film) 1957 film by Edward Dmytryk

Raintree County is a 1957 American epic historical romance western film adapted from the 1948 novel of the same name by Ross Lockridge Jr. The film was directed by Edward Dmytryk and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Set in the American South against the backdrop of the Antebellum South and the American Civil War, the film tells the story of a small-town Midwestern teacher and poet named John Shawnessy, who meets and marries a beautiful Southern belle named Susanna Drake; however, her emotional instability leads to the destruction of their marriage. The leading roles are played by Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor, Eva Marie Saint, Nigel Patrick and Lee Marvin.

<i>Ask Any Girl</i> (film) 1959 film

Ask Any Girl is a 1959 American romantic comedy film directed by Charles Walters and starring David Niven, Shirley MacLaine, and Gig Young. It was produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and based on a novel by Winifred Wolfe.

<i>The Hell with Heroes</i> 1968 film by Joseph Sargent

The Hell with Heroes is a 1968 American drama film directed by Joseph Sargent set in Africa immediately after World War II. The film stars Rod Taylor, Claudia Cardinale and Kevin McCarthy.

<i>The Farmers Wife</i> (1941 film) 1941 film by Norman Lee

The Farmer's Wife is a 1941 British comedy drama film directed by Norman Lee and Leslie Arliss and starring Basil Sydney, Wilfrid Lawson and Nora Swinburne. It is based on the play The Farmer's Wife by Eden Phillpotts which had previously been adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for a 1928 film of the same name. It was produced by ABPC at Welwyn Studios, at a time when the company's main Elstree Studios had been requisitioned for wartime use. The film is not widely known.

<i>Trader Horn</i> (1973 film) 1973 film by Reza Badiyi

Trader Horn is a 1973 Metrocolor film directed by Reza Badiyi and starring Rod Taylor as the African adventurer Alfred Aloysius Horn (1861–1931). It is a remake of the 1931 film, also released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Neither picture is faithful to the original memoirs of Horn, who was 53 when World War I began.

References

  1. Stephen Vagg, Rod Taylor: An Aussie in Hollywood, Bear Manor Media 2010 p. 58
  2. Vagg, Stephen (March 25, 2023). "A Brief History of Hitchcock Remakes". Filmink.
  3. Schallert, Edwin (May 3, 1957). "Kennedy, Field 'Peyton' Favorites; Big Global Group to Honor Disney". Los Angeles Times. p. 25.