Based on the novel and play by Joseph Hayes, who based it on a real incident. William Wyler mechanically but efficiently directs this unpleasant drama of a family taken hostage in their homes by ruthless escaped felons. It reflects America’s paranoia in the 1950s over strangers and those not endorsing the American Dream, but reassures the public not to fret that the typical American middle-class family can overcome any terrorism directed against them. An aged fiftysomething Humphrey Bogart is in his element as the snarling desperate fugitive, a role played on Broadway by the much younger Paul Newman. Dennis Schwartz