Ransom! (1956)

(On Cable TV, May 2022) I’ll be honest: My interest in watching this version of Ransom! had more to do with dim-but-positive memories of the 1996 remake and an interest in seeing how film noir it could be than any specific interest in the film itself. Under these expectations, it’s not much of a surprise if the film is a slight disappointment. For one thing it takes forever to get going – the lengthy introduction takes its time in setting up our wealthy hero (Glenn Ford) and his family, then how the situation gets going as his son gets kidnapped. Working with police in ineffectual attempts to talk to the kidnappers is next, with plenty of 1950s procedural details about call-tracing and how kidnapping for ransom usually goes. By the time we get to Ransom!’s most interesting moment – the protagonist taking to the airwaves to offer the ransom as bounty on the kidnappers – there’s scarcely ten minutes left to the film: the kid pops up a few moments later, and then we’re done. For twenty-first century viewers, there’s at least one act missing. It’s notable that the film never shows the kidnappers either – the focus is strictly on the protagonist, his family, police and an errant reporter (a young and darker-haired Leslie Nielsen in his big-screen debut). It may explain things to know that the film was based on an hour-long radio drama – such as why it feels padded even at 102 minutes. Ransom! is not a bad film per se, but it clearly feels like a prototype for the much denser and thrilling 1996 remake.