The Night Holds Terror (1955)

The Night Holds Terror (1955) is a true-incident-based American crime home invasion exploitation procedural youth violence epidemic extortion hostage drama thriller with John Cassavetes and Vince Edwards noiring up the mid 1950s with a crazed taste for disturbin the suburban peace of the era. 

The Night Holds Terror (1955), directed by Andrew Stone, dramatizes the terrifying ordeal of Eugene M. Courtier, whose real-life kidnapping in 1953 inspired the film. On February 13, Courtier, an Air Force technician, was abducted along a highway in Lancaster, California, by three criminals: Leonard Daniel Mahan, James Bartley Carrigan, and Don Eugene Hall. 

Murder by Contract (1958)

Murder by Contract (1958) is classic hitman film noir starring Vince Edwards and directed by Irving Lerner. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Ben Maddow did uncredited work on the film which looks at an existentialist and nihilist hit man assigned to kill a woman.

Famous for its brand-new-at-the-time raw style, employed by Irving Lerner, Murder By Contract is considered a B-movie classic, lauded by Martin Scorsese and others for its almost home-made independent style. 

It’s a little like Allen Baron’s Blast of Silence insofar as everything that it lacks in polish, it makes up for in commitment and style.