The Killer Is Loose (1956)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Budd Boetticher

Writers:

John Hawkins (story)
Ward Hawkins (story)

Release Date:

2 March 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drama

Tagline:

The Story of a Cop Who Used His Wife as Bait for a Killer!

Plot:

An unhinged, deceptively mild-mannered bank robber escapes prison, seeking revenge on the cop who accidentally killed his wife.

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Prison | Trial | Detective | Police

Cast

Joseph Cotten	...	Det. Sam Wagner
Rhonda Fleming	...	Lila Wagner
Wendell Corey	...	Leon 'Foggy' Poole
Alan Hale Jr.	...	Denny (as Alan Hale)
Michael Pate	...	Det. Chris Gillespie
John Larch	...	Otto Flanders
Dee J. Thompson	...	Grace Flanders
John Beradino	...	Mac
Virginia Christine	...	Mary Gillespie
Paul Bryar	...	Greg Boyd
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Frank Gerstle	...	Holdup man (unconfirmed)

Runtime:

73 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #17446) | Sweden:15

Company:

Crown Productions

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When Poole pulls the stolen Ford truck into the farmer's yard, crew members and lights are clearly visible reflected in the side of the truck. As he moves away from the truck, the cameraman is seen moving along with him.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Trapped Ashes (2006)

Foolish Title, Good Movie

Budd Boetticher is usually thought of as the guy who directed several engaging, no-nonsense Westerns in the 1950s. Here, he directs an engaging, no-nonsense crime drama.

The writers put some effort into the script. Someone projects a head shot of Leon "Foggy" Poole on a screen and describes Wendell Corey's face in some anatomical detail, and correctly too. "Darwinian extensions" might be an out-of-date point but somebody went to the trouble of looking them up. At the same time, though, the writers wasted effort on the cliche of the cop's wife wanting a more secure life and leaving him because she hates the kind of work he does. I can't count the times this hoary conflict has been shoehorned into a plot. "Heat", a recent movie comes to mind, but there was "Bullit" before that and I don't know how many others. We won't count the number of times the same conflict crops up between a military man and his spouse. I don't mean to go on about the weaknesses of the script but a certain idiocy is written into Rhonda Fleming's wife. She is removed from her home because, as she is told, a trap is being laid there for Corey, who is expected to come there gunning for her. So she leaves her refuge and where does she go? She rushes home just in time to cross paths with Corey.

And what a home. It sparkles inside and out. You could eat off the kitchen floor. It's the kind of house you wouldn't want to set foot in for fear of leaving a footprint. It's a nice ranch-type house. And the neighborhood is a nice ranch-type neighborhood. The lawns are all mowed, the hedges all trimmed, the trees all pruned, and the streets entirely free of kids, dogs, porch potatoes, pedestrians, garbage cans, rubbish, or any sign of human passion. It's the middle-class equivalent of the Prison Honor Farm that Corey finally escapes from.

The performances. Cotten is his usual self, which is to say, okay. Rhonda Fleming looks like a pretty woman who once went to Beverly Hills High. But Wendel Corey is quite good. I can't say much for his real personality, a minister's son, he was a rabid moralist. But he's got "Foggy Poole" down pat. He always looks vaguely puzzled at the things that are happening to him, even at the things he himself does, as if he has trouble juggling ideas in his head because there is only room there for one idea at a time. He's slow and methodical in everything he does. And his actions are organized around only one goal at any given moment. First, he is devoted to his wife. She means everything to him. When she is accidentally killed, his goal becomes one of Biblical revenge. He's by far the most complex character in the movie, not entirely unsympathetic. (But I can't figure out what the heck he was involved in that robbery for.) John Larch, a likable and reliable actor, is present in what amounts to hardly more than a bit part. Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with bit parts. It all depends on the part that gets bit.

There's not much violence in the movie, just three shootings. But the middle shooting was a true shocker at the time. Corey blasts Larch with a.357 magnum, the mention of which was enough of a novelty at the time of snub-nosed .38s that remarks about "all that ordinance" could be made twice. It would be another 13 years or so before "Dirty Harry" would win the phallic sweepstakes.

The photography by Lucien Ballard is crisp and captures a rainy day nicely. The score adds nothing to the film.

I recommend this one. It has too many original features to dismiss.