Murder Is My Beat (1955)

Director Edgar Ulmer was a great hand at some great noir dramas on budgets as big as dental floss. But his task her with Murder Is My Beat was too much for him.Detective Paul Langton tracks down and brings in fugitive nightclub singer Barbara Payton wanted for murder of someone whose charred body is found in her fire place. After that Payton is tried and convicted, but says she saw the murdered man big as life outside on the train platform while Langton is taking her to prison. So what does this cop do? He chucks away his job and career because he has the hots for Payton. The last time anyone behaved so dumb in a noir film it was Robert Mitchum over Jane Greer in Out Of The Past. But that was light years a better film.Selena Royle is in this film and it's her farewell big screen appearance. She was having blacklist troubles and I will say that Murder Is My Beat was better than Robot Monster which she previously did after MGM dropped her. Robert Shayne took some time off from being Inspector Henderson on Superman to be Langton's captain and friend who tells him in no uncertain terms what a chump he is.So did Payton commit murder? For that you have to watch this classic inflicted on the public by Allied Artists.

The best film noir involves a sap of a man who is willing to give up his career and risk everything including his life just because of the femme fatale who may or may not be a killer, a crook or a tramp. Film historians explain that the vixens of "Double Indemnity", "Out of the Past" and "Detour" were able to destroy their men much like the vamps of the silent era through the promise of the best sex of their life. That is the case of "Murder is My Beat" where a detective gets all the evidence to arrest a blonde vixen for murder, follows her through the snowy wilderness, gets her on the train to take her back, and bam!, is all of a sudden under her spell and willing to risk everything because she claims that she has seen the supposed murder victim standing outside of the train on a station platform. A lie or her conscience playing tricks on her? That remains to be seen.A typical film noir narration moves the plot along and while this is definitely a cliché of these types of films, in this case, it works wonders. Paul Langton is both hero and narrator, telling his story as he tries to reason as to why he believed that the blonde and buxom cabaret singer Barbara Payton was innocent of the murder he has been collecting evidence on against her. Payton leaves little to the imagination in her tight sweater as Langton basically bursts in on her in the snow-covered cabin. He barely missed walking over the roof of it until he noticed a chimney sticking up out of nowhere. She looks pretty cozy there in spite of the fact that there's probably 10 feet of snow outside threatening to block her in for the winter.As directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, this is one of his lesser known classics (which includes film noir sleepers like "Detour" and "Ruthless"), and there is wonder as to why newer filmmakers have discovered his work to be artistically genius. What seems at first like a generic film noir as that era was winding down is actually a great find in itself, with tight editing, crisp dialog and characters you never know what side of moralistic laws they are on. That keeps you guessing all the way through and that is what great film noir is all about.

A detective chases down an accused murderess, but en route to prison he begins to have his doubts. Although another ultra-low-budget (including some of the shoddiest rear projection work I've ever seen) noir from Ulmer, early hopes that this might be another DETOUR were dashed. Like RUTHLESS, it's something of a disappointment. For the first half it seems to be going somewhere, but then it loses traction and meanders towards an unsatisfying conclusion. However, Ulmer pulls off a few terrific moments (especially those regarding trains), and I do think the first half is quite compelling. Paul Langton makes for a good leading man, with something of a Jean Gabin quality. More notably, this is the final appearance of the tragic Barbara Payton, whose work I've previously praised in TRAPPED and KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE. Her melancholy, passive performance here is pretty much the polar opposite of Ann Savage, but her vulnerability is an asset. I need to check out more of her films. The film definitely leaves something to be desired, but it has some charm and talent in it.

I have seen lots of Film-Noir movies but to call this one is a just rip-off. This is nothing more than a very low budget black and white movie. The storyline is predictable and sets are cheap. This was probably filmed in 2 days. It has none of that film-noir mystique. Don't waste your time on this one.