Storm Fear

Cornel Wilde produces, directs, and stars in Storm Fear, a low-budget adaptation of Clinton Seeley’s novel that feels more like a play until the final act. The buff Wilde plays wounded bank robber Charlie Blake, who shows up at the New England farmhouse where his brother, the tortured writer Frank (Dan Duryea in a very non-Duryea role), lives with his wife Elizabeth (Jean Wallace in her second 1955 pairing with real-life husband Wilde after 1955’s The Big Combo) and young son David (David Stollery). Charlie arrives with his sociopathic partner Hank (Dennis Weaver) and their moll Edna, played by the excellent Lee Grant, and the cramped quarters reignite sibling rivalries, old love affairs, and violent tendencies. While Frank seems to be the malevolent ringleader who’s so tough that he barely winces while Elizabeth removes the bullet from his leg, we soon realize the real troublemaker is Hank, who sees human beings as commodities and wants all the stolen loot for himself. Once the roads are snowed in, the gang must find their way over the mountain to their escape. Death ensues. While the chiaroscuro is minimal, the story keeps viewers gripped, and the final mountain trek is brutal and tense.