Edge of Eternity (1959)

Very well executed

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

While flipping channels before leaving a hotel room, I caught sight of a screen view of Kingman's court house (Mohave County, AZ) and, moments later, a view of old main street (Beale Street). I hadn't time to watch the film, but as I'd lived in Kingman 25 years, I ordered the DVD out of curiosity to see what other old scenes it might offer.The film appears, indeed, have been shot entirely in the Kingman area of 1959, and the city is far smaller than the one I moved to in 1982. The Grand Canyon location within the film is today that of Grand Canyon West, a touristic site belonging to the Hualapai Reservation. Remains of the funicular link to what was once a guano mine below, as well as an auto that crashed to the bottom, are still visible as a part of the GCW tour loop. A few scenes appear to have been shot in old Oatman (a picturesque ghost mining town) and some others north of Red Lake on the way to Lake Mead.In regards to the film, I feel that 1.) its script lacks what might have been some obvious and logical improvements, 2.) its runtime needs extension by about 10 minutes to allow denouement of a number of subplots, and 3.) overall, the film is structured in a rather amateurish, low-budget fashion. Compared to many a Western film of the 1950s, however, this one is not so badly done and provides entertainment.Despite the above criticism, I - like another reviewer - found myself looking into Victoria Shaw's biography, wondering if I might explore her appearance in other films. Unfortunately, they are very few.

Ah... This is a gem of a movie! Panned by most, but it remains one of my favorites! A bit short on plot, it has a plenitude of familiar faces, including Jack Elam, Edgar Buchanan, Victoria Shaw, Mikey Shaughnessy, the superb Tom Fadden, and of course, Cornell Wilde.Look for the director, Don Siegel (The Shootist, Dirty Harry, Invasion of The Body Snatchers, The Killers) sitting by the pool wearing a red sweater at the motel where one of the murder victims stayed.With the action set in the Grand Canyon of Arizona, as well as Kingman and its environs, Edge of Eternity provides a delicious time capsule of the late 1950's, as well as great location photography! So glad it was made available on DVD! Don't miss this one!

Like all of Don Siegel's movies we are immersed in the action from the beginning of this spectacularly shot mystery thriller.Not a single frame,word or gesture is wasted just like in all of Don's films.No wonder Clint Eastwood attributes his own economical movie-making style to him. Cornel Wilde's deputy sheriff carries the whole film very well like in a old school noir mystery he is in almost every scene piecing the puzzle along with us and we are not given any information other than what he learns therefore the final revelation is as shocking to us as is to him. Like of all Don Siegel movies the supporting cast is great; including the late and great Edgar Buchanon, Siegel regular Jack Elam and the very beautiful and charming Victoria Shaw.But like in all his films the bad guy (revealed at the end)is awesome. Kudos to Don Siegel ,one of my all time favourite directors. Special mention has to be made of the film's stuntmen's work in the climax.I won't spoil it but it's a nail biting sequence.

One thing you have to say for Don Siegel -- he managed to work in some scenic locations, in this case in and around the Grand Canyon. But this is a formula film, not an identifiably Siegel product. His favorite theme seemed to revolve around a person caught between the law and the underworld, siding with neither, on his own trip so to speak. And he was not a camera artist. There are no fancy shots in his movies, no epic explosions, no artsy compositions. It's all craftsmanship -- but it's really GOOD craftsmanship at its best. It's difficult after the fact to pin down exactly what his contribution was to his best films but he seemed to add something of his own to the script and to pull out unusual performances from otherwise ordinary actors.Take "Line Up", made about the same time as "Edge of Eternity." It's a relatively plain movie about dope smugglers but Siegel managed to put something extra in it. There's Robert Keith, nobody's idea of a finely tuned performer, doing something very odd with his intellectual reserve. And Siegel even manages to turn Vaughan Taylor (!) into a figure of menace even though he has no more than one or two lines of dialogue.Nothing like that happens here. Cornell Wilde is the upright sheriff. Edgar Buchanan his folksy boss. Mickey Shaughnessy is the heavy posing as the comic relief. There is the drunken wastrel of a son. There is the pure (if rather aggressive) girl after Wilde. Jack Elam as a regular hard hat. The plot is simplicity itself. A small group of nogoodniks are trying to smuggle gold out of an abandoned mind and commit a couple of murders along the way. The plot is foiled by Wild, ending in a fist fight aboard one of those dangling trams over the Grand Canyon, done better than the one in "Second Chance" but not as lengthy or exciting as the one in "Where Eagles Dare." No unusual guns are in sight. No bitterness or betrayal. The actors hit their marks, say their lines, and depart. It's as if Siegel were shadow boxing, warming up a bit.If there is anything outstanding about the film it's the gorgeous photography, crisp, colorful, sunny, and the scenery itself. The cars are equally magnificent, especially a long yellow convertible that glistens under the day-for-night sun. Yet it's engaging as these things go. It's formula movie making but it's not bad, anymore than Pythagoras' theorem is bad. It's just -- well -- just THERE. On the plus side, I never knew that bat guano was worth so much that even a considerable quantity would justify building a tram across the Grand Canyon. What would we do without bats?