I, THE JURY
US, 1953, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Biff Elliott, Preston Foster, Peggy Castle, Margaret Sheridan, Elisha Cook Jr.
Directed by Harry Essex.
I, the Jury comes from a 1947 novel by pulp fiction writer, Mickey Spillane. There were several versions of his novels, most especially, Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly, with Ralph Meeker as Spillane’s Detective, Mike Hammer. There was also my Gun is Loaded and the television series. In 1981, there was a remake of I, the Jury with Armand Assante.
This film was considered something of a junk movie when it was released in 1953, a lot of criticisms of Spillane and his tough detective and his tough action – although, it was in the tradition of the novels – Dahsiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe. Yet, it had strong credentials, a production by celebrated director and producer, Victor Saville (The Green Years, Green Dolphin Street). Photography is by John Alton, and the musical score is from the Water Brothers veteran, Franz Waxman.
The novel was adapted by its director, Harry Essex, a former journalist and prolific writer of screenplays and television shows. He uses the fast-paced, sometimes crackling tough dialogue that audiences familiar with film noir have enjoyed. This film has gained in reputation as the decades have gone on, audiences familiar with this brisk tough dialogue, even at times camp, have a longer history and can see this film in perspective. Ordinary moviegoers, who don’t have this background, will probably dismiss it as cheesy and poorly made. (Originally, the film screened in the 3D process.)
The story has a post-war setting, Hammer having served in World War II. He has a great friend in the police force who supports him, but is not against using him as bait to flash out the killer. This happens, but Mike Hammer does not realise it right until the end – although the audience probably suspects it almost from the beginning, the now-familiar femme fatale, in the Lauren Bacall vein. Mike Hammer goes into tough action and there are some strong fistfights. But, he is something of a romantic at heart and gets involved with a glamorous psychiatrist. Of course, she is ultimately the villain.
The film has a fairly seedy look, most effective black-and-white photography, light and shadow. And Franz Waxman’s score is not like his usual classic style but evocative of jazz and nightclubs. This kind of photography and sets and decor are probably much better appreciated nowadays.
One of the drawbacks of the film is the casting of Biff Elliott as Mike Hammer. He is not exactly charismatic. He is tough, intense, relentless, but is a man without any real charm. Ralph Meeker was much more effective in Kiss Me Deadly. And Armand Assante in the 1980s re-make.
Veteran Preston Foster is good as the old detective, creating a more interesting screen presence than Hammer himself. Margaret Sheridan is very good as Hammer’s assistant, especially in the struggles at the end, Velda. Another veteran, Elisha Cook Jr, from the 1940s and films like The Maltese Falcon, appears as a Santa Claus who was manipulated by the psychiatrist.
Basically, a close friend from the war is murdered and Hammer is determined to find the killer, using violence – hence the title, I, the Jury. The murdered man held a big party and various people who attended are suspects, including a set of glamorous twins who try to manipulate Hammer, an alleged professor and his associate who travel a great deal internationally, and the psychiatrist herself.
In fact, the professor and his associate run a jewellery smuggling operation which the psychiatrist learns about because she has in therapy the associate as well as the murdered man’s girlfriend, learning everything about the ring, killing off suspects, ingratiating herself with Hammer in order to take over the ring. Ultimately, she tries to kill him, but he is too quick and she dies.
In retrospect, not a bad piece of 1950s pulp fiction.
