Please Murder Me (1956)

Director:

Peter Godfrey

Writers:

David T. Chantler (story)
Ewald André Dupont (story)

Release Date:

March 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir | Thriller

Tagline:

THE DEADLIEST PACT EVER MADE! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

A lawyer wins an a acquittal for his client, a woman accused of murder. After the verdict, he finds...

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Adultery | Theremin

Cast

Angela Lansbury	...	Myra Leeds
Raymond Burr	...	Attorney Craig Carlson
Dick Foran	...	Joe Leeds
John Dehner	...	Dist. Atty. Ray Willis
Lamont Johnson	...	Carl Holt
Robert Griffin	...	Lou Kazarian
Denver Pyle	...	Det. Lt. Bradley
Alex Sharp	...	Sgt. Hill
Lee Miller	...	Policeman on witness stand
Russell Thorson	...	Trial judge (as Russ Thorson)

Runtime:

78 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Movie Connections:

Edited into "Muchachada nui: (#2.9)" (2008)

Murderous, Tawdry Fun! High Camp Hilarity!

I give this one a 10 and dub it a diamond in the rough, worthy of rediscovery by today's gay cynics. After this one gets going it pays off with unintentional laughs again and again. The acting is stilted, to be sure! The plot is preposterous, and Angela Lansbury's performance will have you in stitches (too good to be true - isn't it true she has the mouth of a truck driver in real life?). The cherry on the sundae is queer-in-real-life Raymond Burr's character's immense, almost obsessive love for his dead male friend (WINK WINK) as well as his idiotically masochistic obsession with Justice (oh, Ye Gods!). His Karl Rove-like calculated and infallible retaliation against Lansbury for her arch treachery wears the crown of high camp. It all seems perhaps more fresh than it ever could have before due to the current climate in US politics (with Machiavellian maniacs like Rove guiding the destiny of a country onto the rocks for purely spiteful and self-serving reasons). Fire up a BIG batch of popcorn, mix up a gallon of Mai-tais, and have over all the snippiest gay men you know for cocktails and 78 minutes of PURE TRASH you can sink your claws into. I kid you not. When you least expect it, this movie pays off out of left field again and again. You'll be sitting there asking yourself, "what were they on when they made this thing?" It's kinda like an episode of Perry Mason, except I never sensed that Perry would have reacted so self-destructively over losing a case (not that Perry ever would lose a case!). Okay, enough said. You know the drill. Track it down on eBay or at your local video store if they can find one (mine had a copy and I rented it on a whim, based on the title. By the way, if the title alone doesn't get your girlfriends to show up to see what all the fuss is about they're sorry sports, indeed).

Suggested co-features include...Fritz Lang's film noir masterpiece, SCARLET STREET (1945) in which bad girl Joan Bennett takes soft-hearted chump Edward G. Robinson on the ride of his life...The saucy pulp fiction, CRIME OF PASSION (1957) in which desperate housewife Barbara Stanwyck inexplicably casts aside a torrid love affair with hard-as-a-rock Sterling Hayden for a cheap fling with Raymond Burr (yeah, can you believe it???)...or John Waters' FEMALE TROUBLE (1974) which always pairs well with any other girl-gone-bad film.