Tonight's Movie: Edge of Eternity (1959)

EDGE OF ETERNITY (1959) is a solid action thriller, attractively filmed, per the opening credits, "at one of the Wonders of the World, the Grand Canyon."

Cornel Wilde stars as Deputy Sheriff Les Martin, who works in a rural mining area near the Grand Canyon. As we will later learn, he's a former attorney struggling to get over the death of his wife and subsequent career difficulties.

Martin's flirtatious relationship with feisty mining heiress Janice Kendon (Victoria Shaw, THE CRIMSON KIMONO) is continually thrown off track due to a strange series of murders in the area. The killings were all committed in very different ways, but the timing of the deaths coming in rapid succession alarms local community leaders; Martin and his boss, Sheriff Edwards (Edgar Buchanan), are under increasing pressure to solve the crimes.

Les begins to make some headway, but the evidence leads him to the Kendon home to pose some uncomfortable questions to Janice's father (Alexander Lockwood). She's also got a brother (Rian Garrick) who's been drinking way too much lately...

This was a good, well-paced film directed by Don Siegel. I've been enjoying catching up with Siegel's work over the last couple of years, most recently THE GUN RUNNERS (1958) and MADIGAN (1968).

Siegel turns out a colorful, fast-paced film which is a visual feast for the eyes, filmed by Burnett Guffey. He makes great use of the Grand Canyon and the aerial tramway to the Bat Cave Mine.

There are also some wonderful "Southwest Americana" shots of places like a gas station and the Mohave County Courthouse in Kingman. I also loved the way Janice's colorful wardrobe vividly contrasts with the desert exteriors. The movie's look is really top-notch.

The Kendons live fairly modestly in a small brick home, but it's got an attractive pool and barbecue. The wealthy family and the desert mining exteriors combined to make me think a bit of the second half of A KISS BEFORE DYING (1956), filmed in different areas of Arizona a few years previously.

The climactic fight sequence on an aerial cable car called to mind the Robert Mitchum film SECOND CHANCE (1953), which was shot in Mexico. The aerial scene is pretty well done, mixing long shots of the cable car with process shots; it's convincing enough that I gasped at one point!

Dabbs Greer turns up as a gas station attendant in a beautifully filmed dawn sequence, and Jack Elam has several scenes as a mining employee.

The screenplay was by Richard Collins and Marion Hargrove (under the pseudonym Knut Swenson), from a story by Hargrove and Ben Markson. The 80-minute film actually could have stood to be a few minutes longer in order to flesh out Martin's past and his relationship with Janice more fully, but it's first and foremost a mystery-action film and what made it onto the screen is quite enjoyable.

I watched this film on a good-looking DVD from Sony Choice.

EDGE OF ETERNITY also had a limited edition Blu-ray release from Twilight Time. The Blu-ray includes a commentary track by C. Courtney Joyner and the late Nick Redman.