City of Fear

‘After escaping from San Quentin Prison, Vince Ryker (Vince Edwards) wants to cash in on the contents of a steel capsule. But it is not heroin, as he had hoped, but radioactive cobalt. Ryker must be apprehended within 72 hours, but whilst the police, equipped with Geiger counters, are hunting down the criminal, he is struck down by radiation poisoning. For the capsule was leaking. Will the whole of Los Angeles now be contaminated? Can the police prevent panic amongst the population?” (Edward Dimendberg, Viennale, Oct 2008)

“City of Fear is a fast-paced, well-acted and gritty thriller that anticipates the 1960s – not least thanks to the jazz-influenced music of a young, unknown Jerry Goldsmith, (…) who composed his second film score for City of Fear. Steven Ritch appears as an actor, and he (…) also wrote the screenplay for City of Fear: ‘I’m not an animal. I’m a person. I want things. Especially you.’ Poignant dialogue, offering insights into the turmoil caused by deeply entrenched materialism combined with repressed emotions, portrays a generation on the brink of rebellion against the tutelage of increasingly antiquated value systems and social orders.” (der-film-noir.de)