Location footage in a movie is great, particularly one from an era like the 1950s, but unfortunately, what should be expected for a complex but fairly easy story to follow a convoluted mess. Robert Bray, an actor I had never heard of before, is private detective Mike Hammer, and he gets involved in the murder of a prostitute he attempted to defend in a greasy spoon diner.
The case becomes more than he bargained for as he becomes involved with a group of sleazy International criminals involved in a mysterious racket, with Hammer dealing with a missing piece of jewelry that was on the murdered woman. certainly, the vintage footage of various Los Angeles location is interesting, even though many of them have been utilized in other low-budget thrillers of the same time.
A very tense scene in a junkyard with one of the characters in danger of being crushed by falling chunks of metal ends up being a complete letdown. The cast of complete unknowns meanders around, going through his emotions to do as they are directed and to recite the lines that they have learned, but there are definite problems with the linear construction the flow of the story, and this sinks quickly into the port of Los Angeles where it finally concludes after long sequences of complete silence with nothing but the repetitive musical score to keep the audience from falling asleep.
The case becomes more than he bargained for as he becomes involved with a group of sleazy International criminals involved in a mysterious racket, with Hammer dealing with a missing piece of jewelry that was on the murdered woman. certainly, the vintage footage of various Los Angeles location is interesting, even though many of them have been utilized in other low-budget thrillers of the same time.
A very tense scene in a junkyard with one of the characters in danger of being crushed by falling chunks of metal ends up being a complete letdown. The cast of complete unknowns meanders around, going through his emotions to do as they are directed and to recite the lines that they have learned, but there are definite problems with the linear construction the flow of the story, and this sinks quickly into the port of Los Angeles where it finally concludes after long sequences of complete silence with nothing but the repetitive musical score to keep the audience from falling asleep.