(Some Spoilers) In between the movie "Godzilla" and the popular TV "Perry Mason" series Raymond Burr took the time out to go against type and play the part of the homely and love starved 32 year old momma's boy Harold Loftus in the 1956 crime thriller "A Cry in the Night".
Harold on his way to momma's Mrs. Mable Loftus', Carol Veazie, place drives up with his battered 1941 jalopy to Lover's Loop to not only eat his lunch but check out the young and hot to trot couples making out there. It's when teenage Liz Taggrt, Natalie Wood, and her boyfriend car dealer Owen Clark, Richard Anderson startle, in being discovered hiding in the bushes, Harold spying on them that he completely loses it! Knocking out Owen with his lunch box Harlod takes Liz, after also putting her to sleep, to his hideout in an abandonment brickyard on the outskirts of town.
Liz's concerned father L.A police detective Dan Taggert, Edmond O'Brian, takes out his frustrations on Liz's busted up boyfriend Owen for taking her out to that God forsaken place Lover's Loop where anything goes and usually does. Meanwhile back at his hideout Harold tries to make a play for the terrified teenager by offering her a piece off apricot pie. The very piece of pie he brought for his mom in order to keep her, by constantly breaking his chops, off his back.
With an all points manhunt out from the missing Liz and her unknown at the time kidnapper, Harold Loftus, Dan Taggert's boss Capt. Ed Bates, Brian Donlevy, gets a tip from non other then Harold's mom herself to who Liz' kidnapper is! Mrs. Loftus tells the captain that her son who's late from work with her apricot pie must be in some kind of trouble. It doesn't take long for Capt. Bates to figure out that Harold is the one who kidnapped Liz with his photo, looking like he's been lobotomized, positively identified by Liz's boyfriend Owen as the one who clobbered him!
One of Raymond Burr's best performance in him playing a cross between the mentally challenged Lenny in " Of Mice & Men" and the love starved and homely Marty of the Academy Award winning 1955 film of the same name. In his rat and roach infested hideout Harold tries to get Liz to understand his situation in him being an outcast from society with a overbearing mother who turned his life into a living hell. Even when Harold didn't show up from work his mom seemed to be far more interested in her apricot pie, that Harold was to bring her, then her son's own safety!
***SPOILER*** Tracked down at the brickyard Harold who was starting to get Liz to see things his way makes a desperate run from the police ending up bing cornered, after shooting and wounding a perusing policeman, by Liz's outraged dad Det. Dan Taggert! Hitting the by now helpless Harold with a series of lefts and rights, that have no effect at all on the bear like Harold, Dan soon realizes, by Harold crying out Mommy! Mommy!, that the guy has serious mantel and emotional problems! It's then the men with the white suites together with the LAPD take Harold away more for mental observation then for being put behind bars as a captured criminal! With Harold now in custody and Liz freed her dad Det. Dan Taggert invites her boyfriend and future husband Owen, whom he had a very strong disked for, to drive back home with them.
Harold on his way to momma's Mrs. Mable Loftus', Carol Veazie, place drives up with his battered 1941 jalopy to Lover's Loop to not only eat his lunch but check out the young and hot to trot couples making out there. It's when teenage Liz Taggrt, Natalie Wood, and her boyfriend car dealer Owen Clark, Richard Anderson startle, in being discovered hiding in the bushes, Harold spying on them that he completely loses it! Knocking out Owen with his lunch box Harlod takes Liz, after also putting her to sleep, to his hideout in an abandonment brickyard on the outskirts of town.
Liz's concerned father L.A police detective Dan Taggert, Edmond O'Brian, takes out his frustrations on Liz's busted up boyfriend Owen for taking her out to that God forsaken place Lover's Loop where anything goes and usually does. Meanwhile back at his hideout Harold tries to make a play for the terrified teenager by offering her a piece off apricot pie. The very piece of pie he brought for his mom in order to keep her, by constantly breaking his chops, off his back.
With an all points manhunt out from the missing Liz and her unknown at the time kidnapper, Harold Loftus, Dan Taggert's boss Capt. Ed Bates, Brian Donlevy, gets a tip from non other then Harold's mom herself to who Liz' kidnapper is! Mrs. Loftus tells the captain that her son who's late from work with her apricot pie must be in some kind of trouble. It doesn't take long for Capt. Bates to figure out that Harold is the one who kidnapped Liz with his photo, looking like he's been lobotomized, positively identified by Liz's boyfriend Owen as the one who clobbered him!
One of Raymond Burr's best performance in him playing a cross between the mentally challenged Lenny in " Of Mice & Men" and the love starved and homely Marty of the Academy Award winning 1955 film of the same name. In his rat and roach infested hideout Harold tries to get Liz to understand his situation in him being an outcast from society with a overbearing mother who turned his life into a living hell. Even when Harold didn't show up from work his mom seemed to be far more interested in her apricot pie, that Harold was to bring her, then her son's own safety!
***SPOILER*** Tracked down at the brickyard Harold who was starting to get Liz to see things his way makes a desperate run from the police ending up bing cornered, after shooting and wounding a perusing policeman, by Liz's outraged dad Det. Dan Taggert! Hitting the by now helpless Harold with a series of lefts and rights, that have no effect at all on the bear like Harold, Dan soon realizes, by Harold crying out Mommy! Mommy!, that the guy has serious mantel and emotional problems! It's then the men with the white suites together with the LAPD take Harold away more for mental observation then for being put behind bars as a captured criminal! With Harold now in custody and Liz freed her dad Det. Dan Taggert invites her boyfriend and future husband Owen, whom he had a very strong disked for, to drive back home with them.