Step Down to Terror (1958)

Step Down to Terror (1958). Step Down to Terror: Directed by Harry Keller. With Colleen Miller, Charles Drake, Rod Taylor, Josephine Hutchinson. A killer on the lam takes refuge in his childhood home where his mother and widowed sister-in-law are ignorant of his criminal past.

“Avoid any comparison with Hitchcocku0026#39;s masterful u0026quot;shadow of a doubtu0026quot; ,its remake would suffer ; nobody here can match the Teresa Wright/Joseph Cotten pair ,and the director canu0026#39;t begin to touch the masteru0026#39;s genius of suspense of psychological tension .Thornton Wilder and Alma Hitchcock had dramatically enriched the original story ,by creating lots of new characters ,all more colorful than the one before .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn the family where the uncle takes refuge, there are only three persons; the mother ,the widowed daughter-in-law and her son ; the detective (played by Rod Taylor ,later star of Hitchcocku0026#39;s u0026quot;the birdsu0026quot;) plays a more prominent part than in the 1952 version,and he quickly falls in love with Helen ,the niece (thereu0026#39;s no love/hate relationship between her and her uncle ) ; the ring is a good trick , so is the crushed bike .The film is rather short (about 75 min) and sometimes the events are too hurried for comfort; the denouement is rather poor and implausible .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eCharles Drake is handsome and quite convincing when he charms the old ladies .u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNeedless to say ,you will always be better off with the fifties version.”