The Night Holds Terror (1955) on Netflix
NR19551h 26mCrimeDramaThriller
Gene Courtier picks up hitchhiker Victor Gosset, a wanted criminal in Robert Batsford's gang. Finding only a few dollars on him, the gang forces Courtier to drive them to his house.
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- Netflix3.2/5
- IMDb6.3/101,242 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Gene Courtier works at Edwards Air Force Base and drives home. He stops for a hitchhiker, Victor Gosset, a wanted man who belongs to a gang of three robbers led by Robert Batsford, whose newest member is Luther Logan. The men find only a few dollars on Courtier and threaten to kill him, then decide he will sell his car and give them the proceeds. The dealer cannot produce that much money at that hour, so the gang has Courtier drive them to his suburban home. There they settle in with Courtier's wife Doris and the couple's two young children, meaning to stay until morning, take Courtier to the dealer for the cash and then get away.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Night Holds Terror (1955)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- During the trial of his kidnappers, Leonard Daniel Mahan asked for a mistrial and was denied it because the judge had not instructed the jury to disregard testimony that Eugene Courtier and his father physically attacked Mahan in the courtroom while the jury was out.
- The film is based on a real kidnapping: Eugene M. Courtier, an Edwards Air Force Base technician, was abducted on a Lancaster, California highway on February 13, 1953, and his car was sold there too. Leonard Daniel Mahan, James Bartley Carrigan and Don Eugene Hall were tried and convicted.
- The real crime was far less dramatic than the film: the record suggests Eugene Courtier and his family were under much less force and coercion than shown, and mentions no gunfight or violence when the kidnappers were caught and occupied his home.
