THE SNIPER

US, 1952, 87 minutes, Black and white.
Adolphe Menjou, Arthur Franz, Gerald Mohr, Richard Kiley, Frank Faylen, Marie Windsor.
Directed by Edward Dmytryk.

The Sniper is a very impressive film of 1952. It is not frequently seen, which is a pity, especially in an era where so many films are devoted to serial killers.

Arthur Franz is a young criminal, released from jail for assault. However, he develops a compulsion to kill women, with a stolen military rifle. The film focuses on him, his personality, the experience of aiming his rifle at couples and at women. The two police tracking him down are played by Adolphe Menjou and Richard Kiley (with Menjou’s character called Frank Kafka).

The film also introduces some psychological themes, an analysis of the psyche of the killer – which is very much of the 50s rather than the more sophisticated explanations of later decades. However, in its straightforwardness and simplicity, it stands comparison with such films as Seven, The Silence of the Lambs.

The film was an early production by Stanley Kramer (The Men, Streetcar Named Desire) who moved into direction himself with Not as a Stranger and directed a number of big-budget films and blockbusters in the 1960s and 70s. This film was directed by Edward Dmytryk, one of the Hollywood Ten, noted for a number of very strong film noir including Murder My Sweet and Crossfire. After his rehabilitation, he made The Caine Mutiny, Raintree County and moved again into bigger-budget and spectacular films.

1. Interesting thriller of the early 1950s? Portrait of social and mental illness? Police work? The tradition of social documentary style dramas? Comparisons? The introduction and its explanations - later insights into psychological disorder? The moralising of the film? Its validity? The value of the case study and its portrait of a human being in torment? With disastrous consequences?

2. The small budget, brevity of running time? The black and white photography and the documentary style? The quality of the B budget thriller? The strength of the cast? The strong screenplay by Harry Brown, Edward and Edna Anhalt? The direction?

3. The straightforwardness of the plot and the portrait of Eddie? His point of view? Understanding him? The gun and the release from prison? His fighting against the compulsion to kill? The burning of his hand and his pleading? His not understanding his feelings? The mystery of his motives? The drive to act? To continue? To want to be caught? The young man, his appearance, presence? The intercutting of his background and the investigation for the dramatic development of the thriller?

4. The film as a police thriller and investigation? Documentary style? The presentation of the police - sympathetically? The detail of Sergeant Ferris' work? Lieutenant Kafka and his influence?

5. The stance of the film for psychological treatment of the mentally ill? How much would a film like this have contributed in the '50s?

6. The stance of the screenplay against the papers, their harsh judgments, their pressures, political influence, hysteria and sensationalism?

7. The portrait of the victims: Jean and her story, Mary? Mrs. Fitzpatrick? The girl in the park? How well were the characters delineated? Audience sympathy for them as victims? The man and his brutalising women?

8. The portrait of Lieutenant Kafka? Understanding? Control of the investigation? Final confrontation?

9. Was sufficient explanation given for Eddie's mental state? His past, convictions, his not being helped? His torment? The burn and his plea, setting the sights against the women? Seeking them out?

10. Eddie at work? Jean and her companionship? The bar and his story? Wandering the carnival? The shooting of the wife of the influential citizen?

11. The line between sanity and insanity? Right and wrong? Self-image? Sex and sexuality? The influence of parents? Social education?

12. Violence and the control of violence? Firearms?

13. The sad climax of the film? The build-up for the dramatic police thriller and the pathetic image of Eddie - glad to be caught?

14. The film's insight into social situations, human beings? Later versions of this kind of thriller?