Apology for Murder (1945) User Reviews

Enjoyable....though the film is a complete rip-off.

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 11 November 2016]

"Apology for Murder" is a very good film with one problem...the plot is a complete ripoff of "Double Indemnity". In far too many ways does this PRC film mirror the Paramount film from the previous year.

The movie stars Hugh Beaumont as a murderer. Although he was such an incredibly nice ordinary guy as the father on "Leave it to Beaver", he often played scum-bags or hardboiled cops in films. In this film, he plays a reporter named Kenny who visits the elderly Harvey Kirkland to try to get a story. He meets a young lady named Toni (Ann Savage) and assumes it's Kirkland's daughter--but it's his young and conniving wife. She feigns interest in Kenny...all to try to get him to help murder her husband. But when he does the dirty deed, he learns she's already picked out another boyfriend and that someone else is being blamed for the husband's murder!

This story has so much from the previous film...and it's obvious they were copying. But even with this, Beaumont is still excellent and the super-cheap film still exudes a nice, noirish atmosphere. Totally unoriginal...but still worth your time.

A ten-cent copy-cat with no apology to Paramount

[melvelvit-1 · 5/10 · 22 May 2010]

Snappy "Daily Tribune" reporter Kenny Blake (Hugh Beaumont) falls hard for oddly attractive Toni Kirkland (Ann Savage) when he barges in her mansion to interview her tycoon husband, Harvey, and before you know it, she's suggesting he bump off her spouse. They rig the killing to make it look like an accident but when Kirkland's business partner is tried and sentenced to death for the murder, Kenny's editor gets a hunch something's not right and starts his own investigation...

According to Ann Savage in a 2002 interview, when prolific Poverty Row director Sam Newfield's APOLOGY FOR MURDER played Grauman's Chinese Theater, Paramount got an injunction against it and the movie was yanked after two days, never to play again for many years. PRC began the project as "Single Indemnity" (with uncredited script work by DETOUR's Edgar G. Ulmer) and Paramount was apoplectic because it was a shameless knock-off of Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY. It's all there -the first glimpse of Ann Savage in a wing-backed chair, legs crossed (the only thing missing is the ankle bracelet); the witty repartee between Ann and Hugh, the suspenseful near-snags in trying to make the murder look like an accident; the close-up of Ann's face as Hugh bashes her husband's head in off-screen; Hugh's editor-cum-mentor getting suspicious and starting his own investigation, the cat-and-mouse between him and Hugh as the noose tightens; the bloody denouement at Ann's house; a wounded Hugh staggering back to his office to type out a confession; the running bit with a cigarette & lighter between Hugh and his mentor...

As a ten-cent copy-cat of James M. Cain's Walter & Phyllis, "golly gee" Hugh Beaumont (LEAVE IT TO BEAVER's Ward Cleaver) and DETOUR's ruthless virago Vera acquit themselves well in tailor-made roles and PRC's road company redux is quite entertaining in it's own right -on a very low-brow level, of course. Monogram's ultra-cheapie DECOY (1946) was a surprise hit in a recent Warner Bros. Film Noir boxed set but due to legal hassles, APOLOGY FOR MURDER may never get the same chance.

Meet Cleaver...

[AlsExGal · 5/10 · 14 May 2021]

... as in Ward Cleaver of Leave It to Beaver, which costarred Hugh Beaumont. This is a blatant rip-off of the previous year's "Double Indemnity" by little poverty row studio PRC.

The outline of the story will look very familiar. Reporter Kenny Blake (Hugh Beaumont) goes to the mansion of industrialist Harvey Kirkland to get a story, but Kirkland throws him out. On the staircase outside of Kirkland's study, Kenny meets flirty Toni Kirkland (Ann Savage). He thinks he will strike it rich by wooing a wealthy heiress, but he is shocked to find out that Toni is actually the industrialist's wife rather than his daughter. He wants to break it off, after all he has values...or not. Then Toni suggests they could be free and happy and rich if they killed her husband. Kenny wants to refuse, after all he has values... or not. Toni has found her fall guy in the person of Kenny Blake who is a tower of jello.

The story plays out pretty much like Double Indemnity. There are a couple of things that are different. Mainly that somebody else is tried and convicted for the murder Kenny and Toni did. This bothers Kenny. Toni - not so much.

The rating is boosted by a star by the performance of Ann Savage. She is truly a cold somewhat convincing - to the men in the film - venomous viper. Beaumont is serviceable in his role. But Charles D. Brown as Kenny's boss and mentor is no Edward G. Robinson, and the cheap production values are obvious.

And then there are all of the little touches that make poverty row productions fun. When her husband is still alive, apparently Toni and Kenny have their rendezvous in her husband's study. Where is hubby? Aren't they afraid he'll come back? Aren't they afraid the servants will see? But apparently there are no servants, until near the end of the film when a solitary maid shows up just one time. Then there is the potential rural witness who looks and dresses like Ma Kettle. But for some reason she is speaking like she is the Queen of England.

Kind of odd and accidental kinship this film has with Double Indemnity. The fall guys in both films - Hugh Beaumont in this film and Fred McMurray in "Double Indemnity" - end up most renowned for their roles as wholesome fathers in early TV comedy/dramas to the point that it is weird today to see them in this kind of role in this kind of film.

It lacked in a lot of things but not talent...

[johnrhoten · 15 April 2003]

I too have seen this rather bad production and had a discussion with Anne Savage after. The film was shut down due to the larger, Paramount Pictures, who had just released Double Indemnity a year earlier. The story by James M Cain was actually based on a true story from the thirties. Appology was based on the actual story and not the Cain novel. Paramount wanted to sue the PRC studio because it felt that they stolen the story. This would have crippled the already small production house. And yes, while Double Indemnity is a much better movie, Apology is true to the real life story.

Inspired Rip-Off...Too Close for Comfort...Still...There's Anne Savage...Always Worth a Watch

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 5 June 2023]

Hugh Beaumont and Fred MacMurray...Migrated to TV to Play "Wonderful", Highly Successful and Enduring TV-Dads on "Leave it to Beaver" and "My Three Sons"...

But Both Played the Lead in Almost Identical Movies, One an Academy Award Multi-Nominee and Top-10 Film-Noir,

the Other a PRC (Producers Releasing Co..."Pretty Rotten Crap..."Poverty Row Cinema") Quickie.

"Apology" has All the Pitfalls and Baggage that Accompany Movies Made on the Cheap...60 min. Run-Time...Mostly One-Takes, and Not a Whole-Lotta-Time or Money to Make a Better Movie.

But the Low-Rent Studios "Reason to Be" was Making "Watchable Movies for the Bottom-End of a Double-Bill while Making a Dollar-Bill.

Providing Work for Out-of-Work Folks that Worked in the Movies,

and through No Fault, but Resources, Sacrificial Lambs for "No-Shame" Ghouls to Pick the Bones Clean Laughing at 'Primitive Art" for Not Being "Legitimate" Art...Bullies All.

But "Apology for Murder" Makes No Apologies and "Respects" the Billy Wilder Film..."Imitation is the Greatest Form of Flattery"...

Anne Savage will Never Apologize for NOT being Barbara Stanwyck,

Her On-Screen Persona is Something to be Proud. If there Ever was an Actress "Born" to Play "Femme-Fatales", She's the One.

Hugh Beaumont is Fine "Playing the Sap", and the Ending is a Violent and Peaceful Wrap where He Delivers and then Some.

Ignore the "Deja Vu" when it Surfaces in this "Homage" and Enjoy.

If "B-Movies" Didn't Exist...There would be No "A-Movies".

Definitely...

Worth a Watch.

He should have detoured away from this savage female!

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 29 July 2017]

Don't marry a much older man no matter how much dough you think he has. Chances are, you'll get bored, find yourself a lover and manipulate the suckered dimwit into offing the old coot for you! If it wasn't Barbara Stanwyck in a ridiculous wig, it was Lana Turner in a white tennis outfit and matching turban. The sucker here is Hugh Beaumont, as far from Ward Cleaver as you can get, and the sultry femme fatale with a weapon of sex at her disposal, is Ann Savage who entered film noir immortality the same year in "Detour". This one isn't as well known, even though both were made from PRC who proved with these two that the initials didn't stand for pretty rotten cinema.

Beaumont is a reporter who shows up at millionaire Russell Hicks and ends up with a meeting which he'll regret. Beaumont and Savage begin an affair, she uses her womanly wiles to get him to agree to the murder, and then finds himself playing cat and mouse in order to hide the crime, continue to see each other, and try to find out what the other is up to. The parallels to" Double Indemnity" are obvious, but this has its own unique way to tell this version of the story. It's raw and unglamorous unlike Paramount's elaborate vision, and in a sense, uses the low budget and lack of focus in filmdom's mainstream to be less tactful in every sinister and sensual detail. Still far from perfect, it has enough twists and turns and surprises which makes this even better than it could have been had it come from another A studio.

The newspaper reporter version of Double Indemnity

[blanche-2 · 5/10 · 18 May 2020]

Supposedly, get this from IMDb: In 1951 RKO was to start a crime thriller called "The Sins of Sarah Ferry" about a courthouse clerk in Binghamton, NY, who falls herself falling in love with a beautiful liar who's accused of armed robbery and a hit-and-run charge involving a death. This project never materialized because the plot was considered too close to that of Double Indemnity (1944)

Well, gee, that didn't stop PRC studio from doing "Apology for Murder" which is identical to Double Indemnity except that this time, the easily-led murderer, played by Hugh Beaumont, is a newspaper reporter. He's talked into killing the husband of Ann Savage, who else. And his boss, like Edward G. Robinson in Double Indemnity, is hot on the trail of the killer. In this version, a man is convicted and sentenced to death for the murder.

Not much to say - it's a cheap version of the real thing. That Ann Savage was sure something.

Pretty good thriller despite low budget and stolen plot

[csteidler · 7/10 · 30 October 2018]

Newspaper reporter Hugh Beaumont visits business magnate Russell Hicks, hoping for an interview. Instead he encounters Ann Savage, who starts right in flirting with him.

Her rich husband, she says, is always nagging her about money...she can't divorce him unless she wants to give up everything and she thinks she has earned his dough...so maybe Beaumont would like to help him have an accident? "It wouldn't be an accident then," Beaumont points out. Her reply: "But you could help me make it look like one."

It's really impossible to watch this tawdry murder tale without thinking of Double Indemnity, whose plot it brazenly copies. On its own merits, though, this is not a bad little thriller, featuring some sharp dialog, a compact story line, and a cast of B movie stalwarts:

Hugh Beaumont is quite good, dragged into a plot against his better judgment then trying haplessly to play it cool when his editor assigns him to write about the murder; Charles D. Brown is fine as the editor who smells something fishy; and Ann Savage is very unlikable but completely irresistible as the deadly female.

It's a cheap production but the story moves along swiftly. Savage's role is especially juicy in the passages in which she has to cajole Beaumont. And there are some great dialog exchanges--

Beaumont: "Sure, I know how you feel. But believe me, murder's not the right answer." Savage: "I guess you never really loved me."

Low-rent Double Indemnity Rip-Off Is Overshadowed by the Classic

[Denise_Noe · 4/10 · 23 February 2023]

Apology for Murder Review by Denise Noe

The movie opens with a uniformed maid answering a door. Journalist Kenny Blake (Hugh Beaumont of Leave It To Beaver fame) says he is with The Daily Tribune. Before he can continue, he is distracted by the sound of what is happening in a nearby room behind a closed door. A man is giving a tongue lashing to a woman about her "extravagance." He threatens, "If necessary, I'll cancel your charge accounts." Then we are inside the room. We see an aging and gray-haired fellow behind a large desk. The woman to whom he speaks sits with her back to us in a comfortable chair. We see her shapely legs, one going idly back and forth. She warns that his reputation could be damaged by the "rumor that you are in financial difficulties." Back to the pushy reporter who wants to interview Mr. Kirkland. The maid tries to restrain him but Kenny barges in. He informs business tycoon Harvey Kirkland (Russell Hicks) that the newspaper i interested in plans to join his business with another. Our entrepreneur is not interested in an article on his business. Kenny rattles off reasons why the story has "human interest" when his attention is caught by the shapely legs recently mentioned. Then Toni Kirkland (Ann Savage) shows her face, causing Kenny to become even more distracted. However, get-the-story reporter that he is, Kenny continues pitching the potential benefits of a newspaper article to old man Kirkland even as Toni rises from her chair and his lascivious attention follows her to the door. Nothing is going to persuade the entrepreneur to want a story.

Before Kenny can leave, Toni speaks to him in a flirtatious manner. Kenny has a strong interest in this mansion that is no longer professional. It is not too long before Kenny and Toni are dating. But things seem to go south. Kenny had assumed that young Toni was Kirkland's daughter. He is flummoxed to learn he has been "running around with another man's wife." Toni assumed he knew she was Mrs. Kirkland. As upset as he was at learning the truth, he is in too deep to skedaddle now. And things get much worse when a disillusioned and disappointed Toni Kirkland says she needs her husband's money - but wants him out of the way.

As others have noted, Apology for Murder is a low-rent Double Indemnity rip-off. It substitutes a newspaper office for an insurance office. It follows the original classic in so many ways that it becomes highly predictable. Overall, the movie is not bad as it moves at a brisk pace and keeps attention. Ann Savage is not quite as "savage" as she was in the classic Detour. Rather, she shows enough softness that we understand why Kenny is so entranced with her. However, Toni is a wicked piece of work and Savage is never at a loss to let loose with cinematic wickedness. Beaumont does well with the character of the romance-besotted man who reluctantly turns to evil. Other performers fill their roles in a satisfactory manner.

Apology for Murder is not a bad way to spend your time but it cannot get out from the shadow of Double Indemnity, a much better movie.

A 1945 Film Noir Starring Ann Savage And Hugh Beaumont

[film_poster_fan · 7/10 · 24 November 2023]

"Apology for Murder" is by no means a masterpiece and it is similar to "Double Indemnity" from the previous year. Second billed Hugh Beaumont appeared in over three dozen films, starring as private detective Michael Shayne in five times. As the authors of "Forgotten Horrors 3" (2003) note "it is an unfortunate cultural hangover that few people can watch Beaumont in anything today without feeling compelled to remark on the player's larger identification with the 1950's TV sitcom "Leave It to Beaver."

Yet that is exactly what many reviewers seem to do. One writes "although he was such an incredibly nice ordinary guy as the father on "Leave it to Beaver", he often played scum-bags or hardboiled cops in films." Another writes " meet Cleaver as in Ward Cleaver of Leave It to Beaver, which costarred Hugh Beaumont." Again, Beaumont played many roles in addition to Ward Cleaver. He should not be solely identified by this one character.

A Newspaper Reporter and a Rich Man's Wife

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 30 August 2021]

This film essentially involves an extremely wealthy businessman by the name of "Harvey Kirkland" (Russell Hicks) who has had the misfortune to have married a woman who is much younger than him and is interested in only one thing-his money. As it so happens, he is involved in a huge business deal and because of that the local newspaper sends a reporter named "Kenny Blake" (Hugh Beaumont) to try to get an interview with him. Although he is successful in meeting with him he is denied an interview and is asked to leave his house. On his way out, however, he meets Harvey's wife "Toni Kirkland" (Ann Savage) who immediately catches his attention. One thing leads to another and soon they become romantically involved. It's during this time that she convinces him to help her kill her husband so that they can have his entire fortune for themselves. But what Kenny doesn't know is whether she actually loves him or just wants to get her hands on her husband's money. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this film started off well enough but slowed down after the first 30 minutes or so and ended on a very corny note. Even so, I suppose it helped pass the time fairly well and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

brisk rip-off of DOUBLE INDEMNITY

[fiendz666 · 10/10 · 2 May 2002]

Fun, fast-paced imitation of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, with Hugh Beaumont in the Fred MacMurray role and Ann Savage in the Barbara Stanwyck part. Savage does as good a job at being nasty as she did in DETOUR and Beaumont is fine, too. Prolific PRC director Sam Newfield keeps it moving and keeps it very entertaining. This is very hard to see, but highly worthwhile. Supposedly Paramount sued PRC to keep this out of theaters because it was far too similar to DOUBLE INDEMNITY. Too bad because it's good in its own right.

Apology for Murder

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 1 June 2023]

Investigative journalist "Blake" (Hugh Beaumont) is looking into a lucrative business deal that might be in the offing for the wealthy "Kirkland" (Russell Hicks). An impromptu meeting, though, introduces him to a new proposition - the man's much younger wife "Toni" (Ann Savage). She's unhappy, soon seeking solace in his arms and plotting his demise. "Blake" is initially unwilling to co-operate, but she's a clever woman and... The question is, can they get away with it and manage to frame "Jordan" (Pierre Watkin) for good measure? At just over the hour, this is quite a watchable crime thriller with plenty of feminine wiles, manipulation, betrayal and an ending that delivers just desserts a-plenty. No, it's not a great or especially memorable film and I could have done with someone like Barbara Stanwyck in the lead (they could have too, I guess) but if you like the genre you'll enjoy this readily enough.

Whose Idea Was This?

[boblipton · 1/10 · 29 July 2019]

This is the movie you'd write if were Fred Myton instead of Billy Wilder, James Cain and Raymond Chandler. That meant you had no talent, but had just seen DOUBLE INDEMNITY and said "I could do that too!" and proceeded to, down to calling it SINGLE INDEMNITY before Paramount heard and threatened to sue. That's the story that PRC's resident auteur, Edgar G. Ulmer claimed years afterwards.

I'm not one to credit Ulmer particularly, but there the evidence was on the screen. Even the bits that were different were clearly done by reversing bits in Billy Wilders movie; instead of Fred MacMurray lighting matches with his nail for Edward G. Robinson's cigars, Charles Brown lights Hugh Beaumont's cigarettes with Beaumont's lighter -- which doesn't work for Beaumont, but does for Brown.

Otherwise, it's Bad Girl Ann Savage replacing Barbara Stanwyck, Hugh Beaumont replacing MacMurray, and Charles Brown replacing Robinson, Sam Newfield replacing Billy Wilder, and a newspaper replacing an insurance agency. None of them are bad in the roles -- except for the newspaper office -- but the brilliance of DOUBLE INDEMNITY is such that I can't even be bothered to hate this. I don't care enough.

No apology given to "Double Indemnity."

[horn-5 · 31 May 2001]

The minor Hollywood studios and companies usually waited a decent interval---say two or three years--- before they made their own version of a major company film, but good old PRC had an early-day version of the TV mentality that says if it was good last week, we'll make it again tomorrow. Rigor mortis hadn't set in on Fred MacMurray's "Double Indemnity" character before PRC had their own grind-house version playing. Nothing to it; just change the insurance salesman and company cop to a reporter and his editor; cast Ann Savage (who else?) in Barbara Stanwyck's scheming, double-dealing wife role and tell the exhibitors it will be ready in two weeks. And who needs Billy Wilder and James M. Cain when they have Sam Newfield and Fred Myton? Not any of us PRC-schlock lovers for certain. The super market scene-lovers could be disappointed.

Sorry Remake

[bnwfilmbuff · 4/10 · 28 April 2017]

It boggles the mind why something like this got made on the heals of Double Indemnity, which has become a film noir classic. It's not that the cast is bad - they're not, in fact they did a decent job given the absurdity of the situation. The modified storyline doesn't work. Charles Brown is never believable as the City Editor tracking down this story. By contrast Edward G Robinson as an insurance investigator dogging a life insurance claim makes all kinds of sense. Same for poor Hugh Beaumont. He had to be confused in this role: His drinking problem supposedly is getting in the way of his work so the boss has to step in to do his job? He had the relationship with Ann Savage and was in the ideal position to do a story on the murder and cover the entire thing up. Why wouldn't he aggressively do the story? It was his brashness in pursuing Savage's husband for a story that got him to meet her in the first place. How was he supposed to be incompetent? It doesn't make sense. Then there's the sappy background music that did nothing but cheapen this affair even further. If you've seen and enjoyed Double Indemnity, definitely take a pass on this. If not, this is a mediocre film with a good cast.

Triple Indemnity

[AaronIgay · 4/10 · 21 October 2013]

This film was an unapologetic rip-off of "Double Indemnity" which has been called 'The First Film Noir' and was released a year earlier. Not a total failure, but without the star power and amazing dialog of 'Indemnity' there really is just no comparison. Of course you still get Hollywood rip- offs today, but seems they can't get away with anything so blatant as this low-budget rush job from PRC productions. The film does give you another look at Ann Savage who also played the femme fatale in another fantastic noir "Detour." Perhaps it is worth watching as a good example of what the lower tier or 'poverty row' studios could produce on a shoestring before they all gradually disappeared in the 50s.

A Doubly Garrulous Indemnity

[JohnHowardReid · 5/10 · 16 October 2008]

Hollywood's casting quirks are well illustrated by the fact that Ann Savage's immediately previous movie role to her infamous Detour character, has many similarities. Not nearly as earthy for sure, but equally as vicious and totally self-centered. The movie, entitled Apology for Murder, scripted in a relentlessly dull fashion by Fred Myton, is P.R.C.'s answer to Double Indemnity. While Ann makes an excellent fist of the Barbara Stanwyck role, Hugh Beaumont never rises above the tiresomely inadequate as a mundane edition of smart-talking Fred MacMurray, while unflatteringly photographed Charles D. Brown comes over as a woefully colorless, if energetically over-talkative edition of Edward G. Robinson. Bland direction, minimal production values and glaring plot continuity gaps don't help either.

Irresistible temptation into a blind a blond alley of crime

[clanciai · 8/10 · 26 February 2023]

This is usually regarded as a paraphrase of Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" the year before, but it is actually a variation. Above all, Leo Erdody's music lifts this film a storey higher, and the story for all its improbabilities, is intriguing enough. You might well question the good sense of Hugh Beaumont in falling for the lurid deceits of Ann Savage, but they both pay the price of it, including her lover. The direction is inferior indeed to that of Billy Wilder, but the story and intrigue is clever enough anyway. You can't blame them for paying the price and taking the consequences, although you must question the competence if Hugh Beaumont as a journalist to fall for such a false lady.

Film noir quickie

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 14 December 2021]

APOLOGY FOR MURDER is a PRC quickie that feels very much inspired by DOUBLE INDEMNITY, the big hit of the era. It does pack an interesting storyline into the film noir template, but other than that it feels very much like a B-movie, made on the cheap and at speed; nothing particularly outstanding here, in other words, and as usual you're better off sticking with the classic.

Only Ann Savage survives blatant, el-cheapo knockoff of Double Indemnity

[bmacv · 11 November 2002]

Apology For Murder's chief claim to fame lies in its being an utterly shameless Poverty-Row knockoff of Paramount's big hit of the year before (at least within Industry circles), Double Indemnity. Movies have always tried to hitch their hopes on emulating earlier successes, no matter how fast or loose (and continue to do so). But this programmer from PRC steals so blatantly, not even bothering to wipe away its fingerprints, that it becomes fascinating in its own right.

Then of course it casts, in the Barbara Stanwyck role of the duplicitous siren, Ann Savage (the shrew in Detour), who remains the sole reason for giving it a look.

And the first look we get of Savage is of the provocatively arched instep she dandles, framed in an ankle-strapped pump, while otherwise she stays shrouded in the recesses of a wing chair. She's seated in the office of her wealthy older husband, who has granted an interview to young reporter Hugh Beaumont (the Fred MacMurray part of the lust-crazed stooge; Beaumont takes to it as a sitting duck to water). When, with a pouty mouth and a frizzy coif that makes her an eerie preview of Bette Midler, Savage gives Beaumont the Big Eye, he tumbles hard.

From then on we retrace the familiar road from adultery to murder to betrayal, its details firmly etched in memory by Billy Wilder's inexpressibly superior film. There's Savage barely flinching at the cold-blooded murder. There's the eye-witness who fails to identify Beaumont even when standing next to him. Instead of ulcer-ridden insurance investigator Edward G. Robinson, there's Beaumont's editor with his gut-instinct that something's not right. There's the lethal falling-out of the killers (surprisingly, not to the strains of Tangerine). In place of a dictaphone recording the deathbed confession, there's a typewriter in the newsroom – and, as in Double Indemnity, Beaumont's last cigarette gets lighted by his perplexed but still doting editor.

Apology For Murder is instructive as a glimpse into the ethics and economics of the movie business in the mid-1940s, but merits attention by preserving one of the rare appearances of the pitifully underused and unappreciated Ann Savage. Hers was one of the great camera faces.

Waste of an hour and whatever minutes

[tiffanie_says_stay_in_your_lane · 1/10 · 25 March 2023]

This movie had a great premise, but it was executed poorly. News reporter Kenny Blake (Hugh Beaumont) falls in love with a woman named Toni Kirkland (Ann Savage), and he helps her kill her husband, Harvey (Russell Hicks). The beginning was decent, but as the story progressed I found myself not paying attention. It's like one of those films you put on and then start cleaning or doing other housework. The length is relatively short, so it doesn't take much concentration to follow, but I do wish it contained more substance. It was melodramatic and dumb. The only positive is that it was interesting to see Hugh Beaumont in something other than Leave It To Beaver. It's apparent he was a versatile actor. However, he didn't have the best material to work with for this movie. The character development was nonexistent, the story was rushed, and the ending made absolutely no sense. I was quite disappointed. I was expecting the film to be suspenseful, but it didn't meet my expectations. If you don't see this you're not missing out on anything.

B pic doesn't entitle you to plagiarize

[adrianovasconcelos · 5/10 · 26 September 2022]

I have to admit that I know nothing about Director Sam Newfield but, having watched this out and out ripoff of DOUBLE INDEMNITY, which came out in 1944, I am not likely to look for any more of his work because there is never a good reason to plagiarize, and that is what his studio and he did with this B pic.

I am amazed that no legal proceedings were started against the studio on the grounds of theft of intellectual property, plagiarism, and related charges.

It's a pity, because Ann Savage is quite convincing as the murderous merry widow who convinces naif Hugh Beaumont to murder her hubby so she can chalk up his fortune. Russell Hicks and Charlie Brown also deliver credible performances, though the fact that a newspaper editor should be allowed so much freedom to investigate does extend to snapping point your suspension of disbelief. Edward G Robinson as an insurance company investigator made far more sense in DOUBLE INDEMNITY.

The script deserves a fat zero, it is a blatant copy.

True adaption is better?

[tlkiefner · 8/10 · 11 January 2017]

Ann Savage, Hugh Beaumont, Charles Hicks, and Charles Brown star in a PRC production directed by Sam Newfield and adapted from a true story by Fred Myton about a man who falls in love with a married woman, married to a much older man who she wants to kill for the insurance on him. After killing him, his business manager is accused and sentenced to die. The conclusion is exciting. The 67 minute film moves quickly and I've ranked this one #19 on my top 100 list. Beaumont and Savage are good co-stars and seem to work well together. A honorable mention goes to Charles Brown as the editor of the newspaper where reporter Beaumont (Kenny Blake) works for. I believe that this film shows that a lot of money is not necessary to produce a very watchable film. My copy was in good quality condition and the score uncredited to Leo Erdody was very passable. Forget the comparison to "Double Indemnity" and enjoy it. Wasn't "A Postman Always Rings Twice" by Cain also similar?

Pretty good for anyone; GREAT for PRC

[mmallory-89926 · 8/10 · 25 May 2020]

"Apology for Murder" is such a ripoff of "Double Indemnity" that apparently its working title was "Single Indemnity." Paramount (producer of the classic film) was not amused. Hugh (Ward Cleaver) Beaumont plays the Fred MacMurray role, this time a reporter instead of an insurance agent, while the most fatal of femme fatales, Ann Savage, takes the Stanwyck Barbara prototype role. Here she's just as cold and calculating as in "Detour," but not quite as demonic. She and Beaumont are terrific, and the supporting cast is largely fine, too. The production values are far above the standard PRC fare, meaning them must have thought they had something special here. The only problem is the script which, in addition to its derisiveness, puts forth often inconsistent characters. The actors, though, prevail. Definitely worth a look.