Ransom! (1956)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Alex Segal

Writers:

Cyril Hume (written by) and
Richard Maibaum (written by)

Release Date:

27 August 1956 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

The Stannard's son is kidnapped for ransom. Plot centres around Ford's (the father) efforts to find him.

Plot Keywords:

Ransom | Suspense | Kidnapping | Based On TV Movie | Beautiful Woman

Cast

Glenn Ford	...	David G. 'Dave' Stannard
Donna Reed	...	Edith Stannard
Leslie Nielsen	...	Charlie Telfer
Juano Hernandez	...	Jesse Chapman aka Uncle Jesse
Robert Keith	...	Police Chief Jim Backett
Richard Gaines	...	Langly
Mabel Albertson	...	Mrs. Partridge
Alexander Scourby	...	Dr. Paul Y. Gorman
Bobby Clark	...	Andy Stannard
Ainslie Pryor	...	Al Stannard
Lori March	...	Elizabeth Stannard
Robert Burton	...	Sheriff Jake Kessing
Juanita Moore	...	Shirley Lorraine
Mary Alan Hokanson	...	Nurse
Robert Stevenson	...	Fred Benson (as Robert Forrest)

Also Known As:

Fearful Decision (USA)

Runtime:

109 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (certificate #17828)

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

This film was based on an episode of "The United States Steel Hour" (1953) called "Fearful Decision" that first aired live on June 22, 1954. It was so well received it was restaged on May 10, 1955. After this film was made, it was remade by 'Ron Howard' as Ransom (1996).

Quotes:

David G. Stannard: That's the barrel they have me over. They don't have to trust me. I have to trust them.

Movie Connections:

Version of "The United States Steel Hour: Fearful Decision (#2.18)" (1955)

Taken out of the headlines----

This film was more or less taken from a famous midwest case of a boy kidnapped from a rich auto dealer's family in K. C., Mo. He was taken from a private school by a woman in a nurses uniform and the press in K. C. did hold off on the story until the ransom had been paid. The kidnappers were caught within 4 days, and the little boys body was found soon after. He had been killed the day he was kidnapped.

Now to the film. The point of the story is that it is 50-50 whether you get the victim back or not. Glenn Ford as the father who makes his decision to not pay but offer the whole ransom as a bounty on the kidnappers head, was very pertinent in 1956. There had been other cases like this, but the K.C. case was so brutal that it made headlines all over America for months.

As a woman who is old enough to have read about the case, and seen it on the new medium of TV for months, while it was going on, this film is heartbreaking and to me, almost perfect.

The mother and father and their anguish, the servants, who love the family, and the police and other people who interact with the family, and the company people, all are first rate. It is a slice of life as lived in an affluent mid-American family crisis, and all the principle actors are fine. The criticism I have read here does not stand up because the film is a thoughtful and serious look at a dilemma and not a flashy showcase for action fans. 9/10