A common sight in noir movies is seeing Dan Duryea being a creep, but surprisingly, this movie changes things and makes him almost the least threatening character. Storm Fear, true to its name, involves a large snowstorm which helps to create one of the most unique settings I've seen in a noir yet. The story begins in a farm house located in an isolated snowy area. A hired hand named Hank takes a kid named Davie (David Stollery) to the house after a day of fun in the snow. Also in the house are Davie's mother, Elizabeth (Jean Wallace) and father, Fred (Dan Duryea) who is sick. Soon, two guys and a woman show up to the house. One of them is Charlie (Cornel Wilde), brother of Fred and uncle to Davie. The other guy is Benjie (Steven Hill), a criminal who has a moll named Edna (Lee Grant). At first, Fred and the others aren't really sure why Charlie has come here, but when the latter reveals he's been shot in the leg, it becomes pretty obvious. Fred is adamant his brother get a doctor, but Charlie rips the phone off the wall and beats his brother. He is bullied both by Charlie and Benjie into giving in to their demands. Edna manages to pull the bullet out of Charlie's leg, and Davie tries to get to know his uncle a bit better. Despite hearing a radio broadcast about how one of the suspects fleeing a recent bank robbery has been shot in the leg, Fred is forced to keep these fugitives in his house for the time being. At one point, Hank comes back unexpectedly and Elizabeth must someone get him to go away, lest he discovers armed thugs are in the house. Benjie and Charlie are both ready to shoot him at a minute's notice, but thankfully they don't need to. After Hank leaves, Elizabeth talks to her son in private and says his uncle Charlie is no good, never has been, and that he needs to stay away from him. Davie promises he will. When Charlie learns the cops are scouting the area trying to locate him and his associates, he decides he needs to make his move now. Charlie wants Davie to show him, Benjie and Edna the path over a mountain which leads to a highway, the whole distance being around 15 miles. Without Davie, they won't find their way in the awful weather and drifts. Davie says no, citing the promise he made to his mother, but later relents. They try to leave without making any noise, but Elizabeth sees what's going on and tries to stop her son from departing. Charlie ties her to a chair. Fred tries to warn the cops about what's going on, but freezes to death. Meanwhile, Davie leads the trio of criminals through the mountains. Benjie gets into an argument with Edna which culminates in him pushing her off a ledge. While still alive, she breaks her ankle and Charlie decides to leave her there to die. Hank finds out Fred is dead, then checks on Elizabeth. After untying her, she says Davie and the others left about 3 hours ago and are going through the mountains. Hank sets off in pursuit. Benjie gets increasingly more agitated and wants to kill Charlie once he finds the highway, so Charlie does what he can to stall him. Davie attempts to mislead Benjie on the way to the highway so that Charlie can shoot him, but Benjie realizes it's a trick and fights Charlie. As they wrestle in the snow, Davie gets ahold of Benjie's handgun and shoots him. Charlie then puts his nephew in a nearby cabin, trusting he will be found soon by the police. As Charlie tries to gather the stolen bank money for himself, he is spotted by Hank and shot with a scoped rifle. At a hospital later, Charlie dies and Davie says he'll never forget him. Were it not for the unique setting, I probably wouldn't rate this movie so high. It never occurred to me when I was watching it that Davie was actually fathered by Charlie (as is heavily implied), but the latter's previous relationship with Davie's mother speaks volumes. Cornel Wilde (who also directed) did a good job portraying a criminal that you feel sorry for, as he says he has a gun, but never shot anybody. Charlie was never given a chance to get back on his feet, and as a result he needs to run from the police constantly. Steven Hill on the other hand portrays a character so obnoxious and despicable I think I'll be avoiding any films with him in them from this point on. Benjie is true scum, and has no problem whatsoever with hitting Charlie's sick brother, threatening to shoot a kid, and even pushing Elizabeth to the floor. Overall, I found Storm Fear to be a good enough movie because of its frigid setting and chemistry between Davie and Charlie, but the rest of it is quite uninspired.
Review of Storm Fear
