Ransom!

Directed by Alex Segal, Ransom! follows wealthy couple David (Glenn Ford) and Edith (Donna Reed) as they’re forced to make some tough decisions after their young son (Bobby Clark’s Andy) is kidnapped. It’s a fairly electrifying premise that’s employed to watchable yet entirely erratic effect by Segal, as the filmmaker, working from a screenplay by Cyril Hume and Richard Maibaum, delivers a deliberately-paced drama that boasts several engrossing sequences, including an absolutely riveting interlude in which David addresses the kidnappers on live television, and a raft of stellar performances – with, in terms of the latter, the movie benefiting substantially from Ford’s commanding turn as the progressively enraged central character. (Leslie Nielsen, cast as an all-too-nosy reporter, provides some amusement around the movie’s margins.) It’s clear, then, that Ransom!‘s path to wholehearted success is impeded by a midsection that contains just a little too much chatter, as the decision to emphasize the characters’ ongoing debates and conversations drains the proceedings of its momentum and tension – which, despite a relatively satisfying finale, cements the picture’s place as a decent-enough endeavor that could (and should) have been so much better.

**1/2 out of ****