Cornel Wilde produced, directed and starred, and wife Jean Wallace co-starred in this gripping hostage drama. This was I believe Wilde's first attempt at producing/directing.A wounded Charlie Blake (Wilde) and his cohorts Benjie, a psychopath (Steven Hill in his debut) and Edna Rogers (Lee Grant) Charlie's dumb blonde "travelling companion" are on the run and take refuge in Charlie's brother's isolated mountain side farm. The brother Fred (Dan Duryea) is a sickly unsuccessful writer, who lives with his wife Elizabeth (Wallace) and son David (David Stollery) on the farm. They also employ a hired hand, Hank (Dennis Weaver) who happens to be away when the group arrives.A snow storm ensues, isolating the gang for the time being. We learn that Charlie and Elizabeth have a past and although she believes him to be no good, still carries the torch for him. Benjie begins to bully Fred and the family until Charlie intervenes.When Fred sneaks away to find help, Charlie decides that the gang must flee as the storm subsides. He employs young David to lead them across a mountain pass to the highway to avoid the police in pursuit. Meanwhile Hank returns from town drunk and professes his love for Elizabeth and her son. He then sets off after Charlie and his gang.Several events befall the gang in their attempt to escape until Hank catches up and......................................................Cornel Wilde does a creditable job as the lead character showing compassion and toughness as appropriate. Jean Wallace, his "favorite" leading lady is surprisingly good as the beleaguered wife torn between the two brothers. Dan Duryea in an offbeat role, is excellent as the sickly Fred. However it is a very young Steven Hill who stands out as the slightly mad Benjie. Wilde's decision to cast Lee Grant was a gamble as she had been blacklisted by Hollywood as a result of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in the early fifties. She makes the best of her role as the flakey blonde. Young David Stollery plays the son caught between his parents and "Uncle" Charlie with conviction.The budget restraints are obvious but don't really detract from the film's effectiveness. Most of the story takes place in the small farm house with it's sparse furnishings and coal oil lamps which gives the film an interesting atmosphere. The trek through the snow at the film's climax brings out the conflicts within the group and heightens the hopelessness of their situation.Comparable to a point with "The Desperate Hours" with Bogart and March released around the same time.

Another of the 'home invasion' dramas so popular at the time, except with a twist. Here the fleeing criminals (bank robbers) invade the secluded mountain home of one (Wilde) of the robbers' old sweeties (Wallace) now married to a failed writer (Duryea) with an adolescent son (Stollery). Naturally, in these cramped quarters with a blizzard outside, emotions bubble over, especially with the consumptive, jealous Duryea, plus the unstable gunman Steven Hill. These are promising elements but the drama really fails to gel, because Wilde is too nice to project real menace, while the real menace, Hill, is never given the kind of emotional close- ups that would establish his danger. Instead, he just sort of prowls around in the background. Actually, the movie's mainly about the burgeoning Wilde-Stollery relationship, where you have to read between the lines about the actual source of the dog collar. Then too, it's Stollery stealing the movie in a poignantly shaded performance, while Wilde unwisely spends too much time showing off his manly chest.The second half moves to the great outdoors, where the gang tries to escape the approaching cops by fleeing over the snowy mountains. Here we get some suspense as the figures are reduced to little dots on a great white landscape. Now they're struggling not only with each other, but with an overwhelming nature. This part plays out in fairly effective fashion, though I never did figure out what exactly the errant snowplow was doing on an anonymous mountainside.All in all, it's an uneven, sometimes awkwardly filmed movie, whose chief virtue may be what it doesn't tell the audience about the relationships instead of what it does. And kudos to producer Wilde for giving the blacklisted Lee Grant a minor part as the gang's moll, at a time when the best this fine actress could get is TV walk-ons. My guess is Wilde took on too much for a first-time filmmaker (director-producer-star) and would have been advised to hire an accomplished director. But then this was a low-budget effort, (the interiors were filmed in a TV studio!). Wilde's real filmmaking talent would show up later in the acclaimed Naked Prey (1966), so I guess this was something of a learning experience.

A struggling writer and his family are visited at their remote mountain farm by his brother -- a wounded bank robber on the lam. Cornel Wilde directed eight films in his lifetime (seven of them, like this one, starring himself) and this was his first. And a superior first film it is, one I liked much more than NAKED PREY. Elevated far above the usual hostage drama by the strained familial relations and internal strife within each group. The interactions between the players are leaden with sorrow, failure and the ghosts of past regrets. Every character occupies a gray area, conflicted and/or damaged. Even the young boy plays a crucial role beyond being just an adorable moppet in jeopardy. The exception is the sidekick character who is pretty much your standard bad guy, but even he is given life with an engaging performance by Steven Hill. The whole cast is great: Lee Grant as the shabby dame, Jean Wallace as the wife with some secrets of her own, Dan Duryea again impressing me with a role outside his usual mold, Dennis Weaver as the hired hand, and of course Wilde. He makes an interesting choice to play the character with a slight stammer, hinting at the doubts that gnaw at him. The script is thoughtful and gripping, with a few great hard-boiled zingers for Grant and Hill. I also have to mention the music, yet another sublime score by Elmer Bernstein. This is an outstanding picture that takes unexpected turns and is heavy with melancholy and desperation. It needs a restoration and DVD release immediately.

Cornel Wilde is excellent in this dark drama about a group of hoods on the run who show up at the door of a remote home snow bound in winter. We learn more about the relationship between the leader of the hoods (Cornel Wilde) and the family he's holding captive as the move unfolds. Very tense, engrossing film that you won't want to take your eyes off.