Days of Wine and Roses / Experiment in Terror

DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES, 1962, Warner Bros. 117 min. Dir. Blake Edwards. This tragic love story might come as a surprise to fans of director Edwards’ PINK PANTHER series and other comic masterpieces, but in its own way it may be one of his best films. Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick play a superficially perfect couple whose lives are shattered by alcoholism, and Edwards’ typical affection for his characters allows him to bring out both the romantic and the heartbreaking elements of their tragic story.

EXPERIMENT IN TERROR, 1962, Sony Repertory, 123 min. Lee Remick is a bank teller whose teenage sister (Stephanie Powers) is kidnapped by Ross Martin, a creepy, sociopathic crook brewing an extortion plot. Glenn Ford is the no-nonsense FBI agent who steps in to help. Director Blake Edwards’ skill at creating nail-biting suspense presaged his later seemingly contradictory focus on effervescent comedy.