When I saw that this was directed by Blake Edwards and with music by Henri Mancini, I was a bit worried but things turned out OK. Edwards works wholly within the established conventions of the film noir genre and he is very competently supported by camera and lighting work. There is no brilliant innovation but everyone definitely knows what they are doing. Mancini's music is completely appropriate and as good as one could ask for.
Thus, if you are studying film noir and how to produce such films, this is a good representative technical example. In 1962, the elements, however well executed must have been very familiar to its audience. However, if you are coming to it without having seen many others, it will grab you.
In fact, the opening scene will grab anyone. The various elements work very well and the viewer is pulled right in. However, the strength of that opening scene is one of the reasons the film falls short of a top rating. Great suspense and sense of threat is created there but it cannot be sustained. Instead of building to a crescendo, we are dropped solidly into the deep water but allowed to meander our way to the shallows until we emerged relatively relaxed at the end. The film does throw in twists and turns that keep you guessing at times but the level of tension ebbs away. The contrast with other films of this type that succeed in genuinely having you on pins-and-needles toward the end is strong.
One of the reasons for that could be that we see Ford and his FBI colleagues so numerous and well mobilized on the case. Much of the film consists of their earnest investigations and support of the intended victims. We thereby get the sense that they will inevitably prevail. We also see Ross Martin's villain as multifaceted and not as all-threatening as he might be despite the very convincing start up.
The acting as noted by others is good from top to bottom and in the case of Martin, top notch. If we could only get that more often today!!
