Heston checks into a dingy little fleabag motel, where a local gang kidnaps his wife. Legendary director Orson Welles stars as the drunken and corrupt sheriff of a town on the Mexican border who locks horns with a federal drug agent, played by Charlton Heston. Touch of Evil (1958) Orson Welles wrote and directed this story taking place in a corrupt Mexican border town. The film’s tension revolves around Johnson’s escalating frustration with a dangerous situation he knows is real but is unable to see. He rushes to the police, but neither they nor his friends believe him. 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956) Henry Hathaway made this 1956 film about a kidnapping.įamed American actor Van Johnson stars-in heavy makeup to gloss over real scars he received during an auto accident in the 1940s-as a blind American writer who lives in London and accidentally eavesdrops a discussion a kidnapping and extortion ring.

Despite all the great performances, the true star of the film is Monument Valley, a visually captivating backdrop used in several classic Westerns. Ethan’s moral dilemma involves whether or not to kill the girl after rescuing her, seeing as how contemporary mores dictated she was tainted after being abducted and raped by Native Americans. In what is considered the finest Western film ever made and one of America’s greatest cinematic achievements overall, director John Ford and actor John Wayne team up to tell the tale of Ethan Edwards, an unreconstructed Civil War veteran whose niece (Natalie Wood) is kidnapped by a roaming tribe of Comanches out in the picture-perfect cinematic American West. Old Kidnapping Films The Searchers (1956) Director John Ford also directed classics such as Stagecoach (1939) and The Grapes of Wrath (1940). In the following films, the terror of kidnapping plays a central role to the plot. Controlling someone’s freedom of movement is also the dominant feature of slavery, which is why kidnapping often results in longer prison sentences for any other crime besides murder.

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