Bearing a 1960 copyright date and released the following year, by which time Hammer Films had made a superb, overlooked little thriller called 'Cash on Demand' in which the emphasis is on the bank manager and his tormentor, whereas here it's the wife (Cay Forrester) and psycho henchman (Johnny Cash) that comprises the film's core. Having supposedly spent months planning this caper, mastermind Victor Tayback seriously crashs and burns with his careless last minute choice of Cash to provide the muscle - although despite killing two cops and a chattering female before the main event has even started in order to demonstrate what an itchy trigger finger he has, dear old Johnny Cash never really makes a convincing sadistic killer.
The basic situation dates back at least as far as 'The Petrified Forest', and as the wife held hostage, Cay Forrestor's ordeal may have been inspired by Inger Stevens' at the hands of Neville Brand and then Rod Steiger in 'Cry Terror!' (now there was a scary pair!); although it's probably just coincidence that Terry-Thomas in 'Too Many Crooks' had recently shown a similar initial indifference to the use of his wife as a hostage as Donald Woods does here when he first gets the bad news.
Although the end result isn't really terribly good, one gets a sense that everyone involved is trying hard (in the case of the annoying score by Gene Kauer, too hard). As scriptwriter, producer Ludlow Flower's wife Cay Forrestor makes up for years of usually minor film roles by writing herself a showy part that she really gets her teeth into in which she also scripts herself some pretty rough handling (as well as a brief interior monologue at one point), and the rest of the cast are generally good too (including fellow country legend Merle Travis as Tayback's blustering, put-upon inside man).
Historical note: in 1960 the silenced pistol that Cash spends much of the film waving in Ms Forrester's face is described by Tayback as having a "muffler" on it.
The basic situation dates back at least as far as 'The Petrified Forest', and as the wife held hostage, Cay Forrestor's ordeal may have been inspired by Inger Stevens' at the hands of Neville Brand and then Rod Steiger in 'Cry Terror!' (now there was a scary pair!); although it's probably just coincidence that Terry-Thomas in 'Too Many Crooks' had recently shown a similar initial indifference to the use of his wife as a hostage as Donald Woods does here when he first gets the bad news.
Although the end result isn't really terribly good, one gets a sense that everyone involved is trying hard (in the case of the annoying score by Gene Kauer, too hard). As scriptwriter, producer Ludlow Flower's wife Cay Forrestor makes up for years of usually minor film roles by writing herself a showy part that she really gets her teeth into in which she also scripts herself some pretty rough handling (as well as a brief interior monologue at one point), and the rest of the cast are generally good too (including fellow country legend Merle Travis as Tayback's blustering, put-upon inside man).
Historical note: in 1960 the silenced pistol that Cash spends much of the film waving in Ms Forrester's face is described by Tayback as having a "muffler" on it.