Nightmare in the Sun (1965)

User Rating:

6.2/10   

Directors:

John Derek
Marc Lawrence

Writers:

George Fass (writer)
Fanya Foss (writer)

Release Date:

14 May 1965 (Finland)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

A young man hitchhiking through the desert is picked up by a beautiful woman. They have an affair, and he finds out that she's married. The consequences of the affair lead to murder and blackmail. |

Plot Keywords:

Independent Film

Cast

John Derek	...	Hitchhiker
Aldo Ray	...	Sheriff
Arthur O'Connell	...	Sam Wilson
Ursula Andress	...	Marsha Wilson
Sammy Davis Jr.	...	Truck driver
Allyn Joslyn	...	Rock Club leader
Keenan Wynn	...	Junk dealer
George Tobias	...	Gideon
John Marley	...	Hogan, Gas station owner
Lurene Tuttle	...	Gideon's wife
Robert Duvall	...	Motorcyclist
Richard Jaeckel	...	Motorcyclist
Chick Chandler	...	Bartender
William Challee	...	Old coot in bar (as Bill Challee)
Michel Petit	...	Philip (as Michael Petit)

Runtime:

USA:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Company:

Afilmco Productions

A very watchable and suspenseful film.

This was Marc Lawrence's first movie, made seven years before his second (and last to date) effort, Daddy's Deadly Darling aka The Pigs. Lawrence is mostly an actor, seeing as he's had small roles in almost 200 films. He's a fine director, though, and might have had a career in that field as well.

Nightmare in the Sun is the story of a drifter who comes into a small town and gets caught up in a rather messy affair. He has a fling with the local beauty (Ursula Andress), who is regularly cheating on her increasingly paranoid husband. Just after he leaves her to travel on her angry hubby blows a casket and shoots her with a rifle. Enter the town's sheriff who decides he'll frame our protagonist in exchange of some of the real murderers significant wealth. Soon a handful of cops, a local mob and two apparently gay bikers (one played by a very young Robert Duvall) are hunting the innocent man ...

It's a pretty basic story but Lawrence makes it work. He puts the barren desert locations to great use and gets some good performances out of his actors, most notably John Derek as the nameless drifter/hitchhiker. The score is a bit overbearing at first and takes some time to get used to but in the end it's pretty effective.

All in all a very watchable and suspenseful film that deserves better than to sink further and further into obscurity. I got it on a used VHS for a couple bucks but someone really needs to resurrect this for the DVD age!