The Killer is Loose (1956)

What makes this film so fresh is the "different kind of bad guy" It's film noir, about a meek man whose wife is accidentally killed by police. He vows revenge.Now, this could have been a very ordinary story, but the writer, director, and actors make it a showcase for how to make a film.The mechanics are great. The robbery scene, and the shootout scenes are perfectly done. Much better than most big name directors do such scenes. Even on small screens, these scenes depict the viewpoints of the characters, as well as the description of the action.The action and drama is perfectly balanced. No dull moments, even for those of us who are attention deficit. In fact, like most older films, the illusion of action is given to non action scenes that make such films seem more animated than most of the high octane action movies made since 1970 or so.The big stars, Cotten and Fleming need no introduction, we all know Hale as the skipper, and Pate famous for playing sneaky looking henchmen as in "The Black Caste", these stars play the "stable" characters. It's great to see Pate as a good guy.The bad guy is what sets this apart. He really sticks out. He has to be one of the most three dimensional bad guys ever. He combines meekness with an ability to kill when he needs to, but not the one dimensional sadistic desire to kill that we usually get from more stereotypical Hollywood bad guys.While the film seems to be about him, it is also about the overconfidence of the people who work for the law. At the time of the film, the overconfidence was natural, and probably well placed.And that overconfidence still exists today, when it isn't well placed, which makes this film even more relevant today than it was in the fifties.

A bank robber escapes from prison and seeks out the cop who sent him up. Boetticher made this just before making his mark with a series of fine Westerns starring Randolph Scott. He really found his calling in Westerns, making only one non-Western after this one. He does OK in this short crime drama, but can't overcome the mediocre script. Cotten is earnest as the cop. Corey is effective as the disturbed, cold-blooded killer who targets Fleming, Cotten's wife, because the latter accidentally killed Corey's wife. Also playing cops are Hale (Skipper of "Gilligan's Island") and Beradino (long-time star of soap "General Hospital").

Are you kidding me? Wendell Corey usually played the boring, uptight second lead in his film roles so his character in this little "B" noir is a huge surprise. I never thought he was much of an actor but he really lets loose here as the bank clerk who goes off the rails and comes out killing everyone in sight. He is out for revenge on Joseph Cotten who sent him up the river for his participation as the "inside man" in a bank heist which resulted in Corey's wife being killed accidentally. After his escape from an Honor Farm where he was serving the remainder of his sentence, he starts stalking Cotten and his wife (Rhonda Fleming) with a few incidental murders along the way. The film ends as you would expect......it's not a complicated film but is somehow believable. A great addition to your noir library.

Respected western auteur Budd Boetticher is woefully out of place with this choppy modern day cops and robbers story that suffers from a strong lack of emotional believability. Boetticher seems to have waived rehearsal time and settled for the first take as leads Joe Cotton and Rhonda Fleming put little effort into their roles, delivering lines flatly and without energy. Mild mannered employee Leon "Foggy" Poole works as an inside man on a bank job that goes bad and gets his wife killed in the process. He escapes from prison and immediately sets out to kill the wife of the detective who killed his. Hundreds of cops are mobilized to keep him from getting to the home of the intended who has been moved to another location but wouldn't you know in the films final moments we have Foggy trailing feet behind the victim (who thought somehow that taking a bus back to the house was a sound move) while a company of cops observe and bicker over what action to take. Sound preposterous? You should see it. It's all of that and more. Lucien Ballard's camera work does a decent job of bringing noir to the suburbs but the editing is lackadaisical and shapeless and it drains the film of its suspense and pace. As Poole, Wendell Corey is the best thing in the film managing to evoke great sympathy as he transitions from gentle soul to murderer. These attributes aside Killer uniformly fails in construction and execution making its message clear. Go Western old Budd.