BBG ALERT! (BEST BAD GUY!),,,,,,,,,,,;RED' LYNCH OF "EXPERIMENT IN TERROR"

Experiment In Terror (1962)   I briefly touched on this film, a BQ fave, a couple years ago.....in a post on sporting events used for thriller climaxes........

                It's the perfect film to return to, kicking off  a new regular department here.... celebrating the all time BBG's.....(Best Bad Guys)........

                 First up......the creepy asthmatic Garland 'Red' Lynch, as ripely, richly played by character actor Ross Martin.....

                  Red's a murderous psycho who avoids robbing banks himself.......instead, he terrorizes bank tellers into stealing the cash for him, promising them a 20% cut of the haul.......

                  Yeah, right.........just like Trump promised his suckers Mexico would pay for his wall......

                 His latest teller-victim (Lee Remick) endures Lynch's usual reign of terror.......this includes threatening phone calls, a 'gotcha' physical assault, and best of all, a cameo ladies room appearance dressed yo in grandmotherly drag.

                  And a few extra nasty threats thrown in, directed at Remick's sweet innocent teen sister (Stephanie Powers)......

                  A stalwart, stolid FBI guy (Glenn Ford) and his platoon of agents try protecting Remick and Powers, but Martin's Red Lynch outfoxes them at every turn.....and has little or no trouble scaring the bejeezus out of Remick and abducting Powers for some strip-to-your-undies abuse....

                   Director Blake Edwards, armed with Henry Mancini's jazzy, ominous score, indulges in the same kind of noir-ish black-and-white moodiness that defined his hit TV show "Peter Gunn"....
.......a prime example: Lynch stalks one of his unlucky-in-love gal pals in an apartment, festooned with unclothed mannequins she refurbishes for a living.........(guess who ends up as dead as her dummies.....)

                     But let's get back to fabulous  Ross Martin, our wheezing, wack-a-doodle. He's really the whole show here......and more than earns his isolated actor's credit, held until the film's last shot.......(the film even humanizes him a tiny bit, offering a backstory of Red Lynch financing a crippled child's hip socket operation.....)

                   Blake Edwards not only doesn't want you to know who Martin is throughout the film, he effectively hides the actor in the first half, though shadows and only extreme closeups of his lips.  Halfway through the film, you start to see him at last......his huge expressive eyes bulging with madness and expected mayhem.

                    Ross Martin was one of those ebullient 'actor's actors' who fully embraced accents and costumes..... a talent which a few years later, made him the Robert Conrad's beloved sidekick 'Artemis Gordon' on  TV's "The Wild Wild West"......(sadly, his ongoing heart condition felled him at only 61)

                    So here's to you, Ross.....BQ couldn't think of a better villain portrayal to kick off our BBG department.....your Red Lynch lives forever as a 5 star (*****), FIND OF FINDS Best Bad Guy.