*SPOILERS* This original version compares very tellingly with the Mel Gibson remake (which is also exciting). The most relevant difference is that the original is not a cathartic action movie because there is no info whatever on the kidnappers or their fate. They are not characters in their own subplot, and we never have the vicarious satisfaction of hunting them down with the vengeful father. They are just a mysterious, frightening, unknown force of fate. That arbitrary element of the kidnappers, and the depiction of the world around Glenn Ford as a grim and unsupportive place, almost tips this suspense film into the territory of film noir.
Instead of the dilemma of the criminals, it shows the reactions of the rest of society--press, friends, hangers-on, police, the mob. Ford can only operate by what he thinks is right without any guarantees. (His name is Stannard, sounding like Standard.) It might have been written to illustrate the idea that one shouldn't pay ransom, and also to present the existential crisis of the man who rapidly loses everything--son, wife, brother, business, social position. True, it comes rushing back after he tastes what it's like to hit bottom, but it seems arbitrary, as in the story of Job. (The butler compares it ominously with the story of Absalom.)
While the Gibson version has him fearing that he brought it on himself by illegal dealings, this version avoids that explicitly but has one speech that links Ford's success as a businessman with the business success of kidnappers: "The profit motive!" He's a vacuum-cleaner maven--which you can interpret as cleaning up the world or sucking up money from other people's dirt, like the reporter played by Leslie Nielsen. When we first see the family, the couple sit on their beds which collapse because the son has stolen the planks for a treehouse; this resonates with later talk about pulling the rug from under people. He tells the son he'll buy some wood, but the boy thinks it would be "unethical" unless the wood is stolen. Wife criticizes hubby for humoring the boy because kids don't know the difference between big and little things. So there's some vague implication about how their lifestyle in "the biggest house on the block" invites this trespass and exploitation. Again, that's not pressed as deeply as in the remake, but the original seems darker by concentrating on Ford's sense of helplessness. He can do nothing but make his decision and wait.
Instead of the dilemma of the criminals, it shows the reactions of the rest of society--press, friends, hangers-on, police, the mob. Ford can only operate by what he thinks is right without any guarantees. (His name is Stannard, sounding like Standard.) It might have been written to illustrate the idea that one shouldn't pay ransom, and also to present the existential crisis of the man who rapidly loses everything--son, wife, brother, business, social position. True, it comes rushing back after he tastes what it's like to hit bottom, but it seems arbitrary, as in the story of Job. (The butler compares it ominously with the story of Absalom.)
While the Gibson version has him fearing that he brought it on himself by illegal dealings, this version avoids that explicitly but has one speech that links Ford's success as a businessman with the business success of kidnappers: "The profit motive!" He's a vacuum-cleaner maven--which you can interpret as cleaning up the world or sucking up money from other people's dirt, like the reporter played by Leslie Nielsen. When we first see the family, the couple sit on their beds which collapse because the son has stolen the planks for a treehouse; this resonates with later talk about pulling the rug from under people. He tells the son he'll buy some wood, but the boy thinks it would be "unethical" unless the wood is stolen. Wife criticizes hubby for humoring the boy because kids don't know the difference between big and little things. So there's some vague implication about how their lifestyle in "the biggest house on the block" invites this trespass and exploitation. Again, that's not pressed as deeply as in the remake, but the original seems darker by concentrating on Ford's sense of helplessness. He can do nothing but make his decision and wait.