THE KILLER IS LOOSE
US, 1956, 73 minutes, black-and-white.
Wendell Corey, Joseph Cotton, Rhonda Fleming, Michael Pate, John Larch.
Directed by Budd Boetticher.
The Killer is Loose is an effective crime, police thriller from the mid-1950s, a small-budget feature, with reliable actors rather than stars and directed by Budd Boetticher who made a lot of films during the 1950s, about bullfighting like The Magnificent Matador and The Bullfighter and the Lady, and, especially, a half dozen westerns with Randolph Scott.
The film opens with a bank robbery, meek teller intervening – but soon revealed as the inside man on the job. When the police go to his house and are assured his wife is not home, they shoot and kill the wife. After the court case, the teller threatens to kill the police officer’s wife. He goes to prison, escapes from the low-security farm and makes his way back to the city, first visiting the home of his officer during the war in the Pacific who tended, good-humouredly, to tease him, and was visiting him at the bank when the robbery occurred. He kills him, terrorises his wife and then goes in pursuit of the policeman’s wife.
The film is a tour-de-force for Wendell Corey, one of his best performances, usually a soldier or a policeman or a serious character. Here he is quite repressed, silent and meek, with anger inside. Bespectacled and seemingly unthreatening, he is all the more sinister because of his quiet behaviour and his ruthlessness in his killing. Commentators note that he borrows a wife’s coat and scarf to disguise himself as he pursues his target, perhaps some premonitions of Psycho.
Joseph Cotton is the policeman, Rhonda Fleming his wife and Michael Pate appears as one of the police.
1. An effective crime thriller? Of the 1950s? Small-budget? Modest cast?
2. Black-and-white photography, city locations, homes, courts, the farm, the roads? The musical score?
3. The work of the director, tight and small-budget films, westerns and dramas?
4. The situation of the bank, Leon and his being quiet, gentle with the customers, the assistant warning him about the robbery going on, the thieves, the manager, Leon’s intervening, his being bashed? The police suspecting him, going to his house, his refusing to come out, the landlord saying the wife was not home, the police shooting through the door, killing the wife?
5. The court case, his being found guilty, the sentences? Going to prison, his model behaviour, the authorities agreeable, his going to the low-security farm? Working there? Trusted? His being given the job for special carrying? In the truck, his finding the edge of the hoe, attacking the driver, pushing him out, taking the truck?
6. His going to his superior’s house, terrorising the wife, wanting something to eat, quietly spoken, the television? Husband coming home, assessing the situation, trying to talk Leon down, his being shot? Leon taking the coat and scarf?
7. Waking Sam, the news about the escape, his going to work, his discussions with Lila, and her not wanting him to go? The guards? His taking her to the friend’s home, thinking she was going to the beach? At home, the boy watching the television, the sympathetic wife, her eventually telling Lila off, telling her the truth?
8. Lila leaving, the rain, the taxi, taking the bus, walking home? The police and their watching, using the walkie-talkies for information? Building tension? Decisions? Leon and his disguise, hiding, following Lila, and noticing, her walking past the house and confusing him, her running back, the police shooting, his death?
9. Lila, the policeman’s wife, the risks, her husband trying to save her, her not realising it, the other wife telling her off? The happy ending and reunion?
