Without Warning! (1952)

Director:

Arnold Laven

Writers:

William Raynor (story)
William Raynor (screenplay)

Release Date:

8 May 1952 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

All Blonde... All Beautiful... All Bait!

Plot:

Quiet, unobtrusive LA citizen Carl Martin picks up look-alikes for his estranged blonde wife and murders them with garden shears.

Plot Keywords:

Blonde | Garden Shears | Clue | Murder | Killer

Cast

Adam Williams	...	Carl Martin
Meg Randall	...	Jane Saunders
Edward Binns	...	Lt. Pete Hamilton
Harlan Warde	...	Police Detective Sgt. Don Warde
John Maxwell	...	Fred Saunders
Angela Stevens	...	Blonde
Byron Kane	...	Police Chemist Charlie Wilkins
Charles Tannen	...	Wolf
Marilee Phelps	...	Virginia
Robert Foulk	...	Wilson, Motel Manager
Connie Vera	...	Carmelita
Robert Shayne	...	Dr. Werner, Police Psychiatrist

Also Known As:

The Story Without a Name (USA) (original script title)
Without Warning (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Norway:16 | Finland:(Banned) (1952) | USA:Approved (PCA #15666) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Chávez Ravine, Elysian Park, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Allart Productions

Trivia:

Michael Fox's first film.

a decent thriller, an interesting look at L.A. in the early 50's

I'm not much for the "film noir" stuff, but I picked this one up because I like most of what Dark Sky Films has released, so thought I'd give it a look, and it is a decent thriller, and gives some interesting views of LA back in the early 50's.

Carl Martin, who is a gardener, is revealed to be the killer almost right off the bat, so it's just a matter of where & when he'll strike again, and the efforts of the police to find out who he is and track him down.

Carl has a thing for blonds, but they're all one-night stands, really. He's almost busted once too, but he manages to elude the cops & escape. He's a strange man, very quiet, appearing to be very pleasant, but he's a real lady-killer.

Eventually, through low-tech clues, the police do manage to track him down to a nursery where he buys all his supplies, but the lovely blond daughter of the nursery's owner has gone to deliver a special orchid that Carl ordered to him, as it's late, so things get a bit tense at that point, because Carl has had his eye on her. And she walks right into his lair. Oops.

A pretty decent film, rather obscure, but worth seeing if you like the older suspense thrillers. There is of course, plenty of killing but for the time & censor limitations, not much could be shown, but that's fine, sometimes it's better to NOT show everything. Most of the cast are not known to me, but they all do a creditable job with the material. The views of LA are interesting, as the tangle of freeways shown appear to still be under construction. The view from Carl's house is also interesting, being that it's way up in the hills so that it overlooks the freeways and all, which I thought looked pretty cool.

7 out of 10.