I, the Jury (1953)

You don't mess around with Mike Hammer (Biff Elliot). Hammer is searching for the killer of one of his best friends, and he's bent on revenge. He's accosted by three ugly hoods in a bar. The dapper leader sneers at Hammer and asks, "All right, who are you, and why you been nosin' around all --" That's as far as he gets. POW! Right in the kisser. Hammer, who is built like Boulder Dam, or maybe his overcoat is, brawls with the two remaining goons until he's decked with a simple wooden coat hanger.I grant you, it doesn't seem plausible, but then the whole movie is not much more than a crude assemblage of events that Hammer bulls his way through, insulting people as he goes, scoffing at the women who throw themselves at his feet, and all the time wearing the same unchanging expression, as of a guy who can't act but has suddenly found himself playing the lead in a picture that's sure to make a bundle.In the 50s, everyone gobbled up Mickey Spillane's pulp fiction. They couldn't wait for the next book or the movie that would be made from it. This was the first, I think. And it's last conversational exchange was known by all. Hammer plugs the murderer in the stomach. "Mike, how could you do this to me?" "It was easy." The movie sucks in almost all respect, except maybe for its use of the Bradley Building in L.A. Over the years, the Bradley Building served as an office for, among others, Edward G. Robinson, Fred MacMurray, Jack Nicholson, and Douglas Spader.I enjoyed this flick when it was released but I was only a kid, excited by a gruff and inarticulate angry man who could beat everybody else up and kill them if necessary. All brawn and few brains. (That's adolescence in a nutshell.) Now, old and worn, I find it almost intolerable. Elliot cannot act. Peggy Castle can act, although she doesn't have to. The supporting cast overacts outrageously under the incompetent direction, even such usually reliable players as Nestor Paiva.John Alton was a fine photographer but his images here -- the stark shadows, the glistening pavements, the ominous alleyways -- only serve to mask the emptiness of the movie. Franz Waxman, also a talented craftsman, should be sent to jail for his musical score. What he does to a clarinet is what my mother-in-law used to do to me.Mike Hammer is a private eye. The noirs were filled with private eyes like Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade. They were experienced, intelligent, tough, vulnerable, and flawed. They made mistakes. This one is more of a caricature of noir films. Hammer has no weaknesses whatever, nor any thoughts that might interfere with the movement of his fists. Compared to this, "The Maltese Falcon" is a masterpiece of subtlety and nuance.Pfui.

****SPOILERS*** Based on the Mickey Spillane character from his book of the same name "I the Jury" introduced to the movie going public in film Noir black and white and 3D no less the very first glimpse at the Neanderthal like tough as nails private eye Mike Hammer,Biff Elliot, who shoots and beats his opponents brains out first and never bother to ask them any questions later. Since most if not all of them are in no physical condition to be able to answer them anyway. It's just before Christmas that Mike finds out that his good friend and army buddy the one armed Jack Williams, Robert Swanger, was found murdered in his Manhattan apartment. William an insurance investigator has been checking out a number of claims for missing or stolen jewelry at the time of his murder. Despite being told to stay out of the case by police Captain Pat Chambers, Preston Foster, Hammer has his own plans to find and bring to justice his good friend Jack Williams killer. Even if he has to turn the entire city as well as state of New York upside down in order to do it!Hammer going on the contents of a collage yearbook given to him by Captain Chambers that was found in Williams apartment at the time of his murder gets the feeling that his killer was one of those students in the yearbook and tracks down everyone in it to find Williams killer. As for Williams fiancée Myrna Devlin, Frances Osborne, Hammer finds that she's holding something back in why Williams was murdered and the reasons behind it. And as it later turned out the collage yearbook did have the clue to who but also why and what were the reasons for Williams being knocked off. Hammer also tracks down psychoanalyst Doctor Charlotte Mannings, Peggie Castle, who was treating both Jack Williams and his fiancée Myrna Devlin for severe emotional problems in her clinic. It's Dr. Mannings who's also been secretly supplying Myrna a recovering drug addict with illegal drugs!***SPOILERS**** Mike Hammer we also find out is being used by Captain Chambers as a battering ram to brake the Jack Williams murder case wide open without Hammer, who's too busy tearing up the whole place, actually knowing about it. What Williams found out about a secret jewelry smuggling operation that covered two continent's turned out to be his own death sentence. Now his friend Mike Hammer is determined to be the both judge and jury, thus the title of the movie "I the Jury, as well as executioner in having those who murdered him pay with their lives for it. Check out Film Nior veteran Elisha Cook Jr as the drunken department store Santa Clause "BoBo" who clues Mike Hammer into what were the reasons behind Jack Williams murder and what the mysterious collage yearbook had to do with it.

This is a Mike Hammer film written by Mickey Spillane—so you know you're in for a very gritty crime film. However, of all the incarnations of Hammer I have seen, this one has the most unknown cast I can recall—no one is an easily recognizable Hollywood actor in this film—though Alan Reed (Fred Flintstone's voice), John Qualen, Elisha Cooke and Joe Besser (the absolute worst of the Three Stooges—and so annoying that he only made a few shorts with them) appear in the movie. Whoever Biff Elliott is, he was cast in the feature role. The film does have some good things going for it—classic film noir lighting, fighting and dialog. Spillane sure knew how to write tough dialog and Hammer's commentary is quite enjoyable—that is, when Hammer isn't beating information out of suspects! "I, The Jury" begins with some poor shmoe getting shot at close range by some assailant—who the killer is, we do not know. It turns out the victim is one of Mike Hammer's friends—and Mike is determined to get them. This is personal…and Hammer is mad. Along the way he meets lots of odd characters as well as some ultra-hot and bothered women! It's all quite enjoyable but also a bit talky and the plot is a bit confusing unless you play close attention. Overall, it's worth seeing but not a great noir film.

I love this film. The noir imagery combined with Spillane's no nonsense character Mike Hammer works marvellously to create a mood and feel seldom found in low budget detective films of the early fifties. It may not be 'The Maltese Falcon' but this film makes it's own solid contribution to the genre. Spillane is often criticised for alleged misogyny etc, but his 'dames' are way above their male counterparts in terms of cunning and intelligence. Poor old Mike Hammer, as effectively played by Biff Elliott, is blinded by the beauty of the mysterious psychiatrist whom he meets when investigating the death of an army buddy. When the penny finally drops his face is a picture. Good to see that 50s censorship did not force the film makers to omit the famous last line. A bona fide low budget classic.