Experiment in Terror (1962)

Directed by Blake Edwards, this moody and surreal Columbia noir couldn’t have been more different than his previous film. Made just after Breakfast at Tiffany’s, starring Lee Remick, Glenn Ford, Stefanie Powers and Roy Poole, and a hauntingly cool film score by Henry Mancini, this black & white psychological thriller is quite the hidden gem. “For the Blake Edwards thriller Experiment in Terror, [Henry Mancini] found a signature sound in the autoharp, which was ubiquitous on the era’s folk revival scene. Unlike the jaunty zither score of a precursor like The Third Man, his theme otherized the instrument by having his autoharp players use a metal pick, to chilling effect.” – Nate Chinen from “The Mancini Touch” essay in The Current by Criterion.