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Overview
User Rating:
Director:
Writers:
Edna Anhalt (story)
Edward Anhalt (story)
more
Release Date:
9 May 1952 (USA) more
Tagline:
Hungrily, he watched her walk down the street...and then he squeezed the trigger! more
Plot:
Apparently rejected by women all his life, a loner with a high-power rifle starts on a trail of murder... more | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. more
User Comments:
A Noir Sleeper that Never Misses its Mark more (27 total)
Cast
(Credited cast)| Adolphe Menjou | ... | Police Lt. Frank Kafka | |
| Arthur Franz | ... | Edward 'Eddie' Miller | |
| Gerald Mohr | ... | Police Sgt. Joe Ferris | |
| Marie Windsor | ... | Jean Darr | |
| Frank Faylen | ... | Police Insp. Anderson | |
| Richard Kiley | ... | Dr. James G. Kent | |
| Mabel Paige | ... | Landlady | |
| Marlo Dwyer | ... | May Nelson | |
| Geraldine Carr | ... | Checker | |
| rest of cast listed alphabetically: | |||
| Ken Terrell | ... | Guy with glasses pressing clothes at machine | |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
87 min
Country:
Language:
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
USA:Approved (certificate #15575) | Sweden:15
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Movie Connections:
Referenced in A Tribute to Stanley Kramer (2004) (V) more
FAQ
This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.more (27 total)
Message Boards
Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for The Sniper (1952)| Recent Posts (updated daily) | User |
|---|---|
| Ahead of its time | richsass |
| Where is a DVD for this... | Wailmer1990 |
| how does it end? | kilmoonie-1 |
| 'prevention of sexually offensive criminology'? | mooncaine-1 |
Recommendations
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| The Night of the Hunter | The Fugitive | Too Scared to Scream | The Assassination of Richard Nixon | Down in the Valley |
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THE SNIPER is an atmospheric, well-produced minor Film Noir.
Arthur Franz gives a nicely shaded performance as a tortured soul who cannot control impulses to kill women. We gather his psychosis stems from maltreatment by his mother, but this is not delved into in any detail. There are several very effectively chilling scenes depicting the murders, fairly graphic for 1952. In one sequence, the killer chooses his victim after watching her interviewed on TV, when she announces her home address. Franz is particularly chilling here, we see him decide on his victim and then jump to the aftermath of the crime. Marie Windsor plays a relatively subdued character: a nice woman with a streetwise 'edge'. Several other character actors we all like to see fill out the rest of the film: Charles Lane, Jay Novello, Carl Benton Reid, Richard Kiley, Frank Faylen.
Best of all: the San Francisco locations. Roughly 60% of the picture was filmed on locations that are very well used. Films from this period ("Crime Wave" is a prime example) serve a non-entertainment purpose in their pervasive use of location material. With this much footage of SF in 1952, we can get a real sense of what the city looked like at the time.
Former Bad Boy of Music, George Antheil provides a sparingly used, but very expressive, late-Romantic-style score (main title is especially good)