Cazador de policías

I have always been a great fan of books, novels written by Ed McBain, the most profilic and famous writter in terms of investigations and police procedural. He wrote fifty books about Steve Carella and his colleagues, cops like him in the 87th Precinct. Every crime books buff in the world knows Ed McBain, aka Evan Hunter, writer of BLACKBOARD JUNGLE. That said, I am not a great fan of William Berke's films, I watch them only because I crave for B movies, crime thrillers, adventures, horror...and Berke was also a prolific director. And this movie, adapted from Ed Mc Bain, as will be THE MUGGER, just after this one, also directed by Berke, this movie and THE MUGGER will be among the best that William Berke will offer us. Unfortunately by the end of his career. He died suddenly from a heart attack just after the editing of his last movie. The same tragic events occured in 1958 too, for two other directors, just after their last films were finished, before their releases: Fred S Sears and Kurt Neuman, what a coincidence. This movie doesn't have the Berke's trademark, on the contrary, it is very well made: characters, atmosphere, story, editing, everything very close to McBain's novel. Even to the heat - hot - atmosphere, with this gorgeous killed cop's widow who dreams only to undress because of the heat.... A must see, I assure you.

"Cop Hater" is an amazing film. After all, it's a cheap production from Allied Artists featuring complete unknowns at the time---and yet it's one of the best cop films I have seen. The film excels in realism, excitement and great twists--and it's a wonderful film for lovers of noir and those wanting to see future film and TV stars long before they were stars. In the film, you see lots of familiar faces from the 60s, 70s and beyond--such as Ralph Loggia, Gerald O'Laughlin (a VERY familiar face in cop shows), Vince Gardinia, Jerry Orbach and Glenn Cannon (the DA on "Hawaii Five-O"). I can't recommend this film strongly enough.

Because of the title, it's not at all surprising that the film begins with the murder of a cop. This guy is off duty and shot repeatedly in the head with a .45--making the man very, very dead. Who did it and why? There just don't seem to be any leads. Then, when another cop is killed with the same .45, there is the same problem--there just aren't any leads. And, when a third cop is killed, it still isn't a lot clearer. How are they going to solve a crime that just seems so random?! I could say a lot more about the plot, but don't want to give any of it away--just see the movie yourself.

The film is filled with great, realistic acting, wonderful and tough dialog and nice detail when it comes to forensics. It is just written masterfully and it came as a nice surprise. Why the film isn't more famous could only be because it slipped in under the radar when it appeared--with no big names and a paltry budget, it just didn't get noticed. Well, well worth your time.

By the way, there is a deaf character. While she doesn't use a lot of sign language, what she does use I was able to understand--meaning they were real signs. I hated hearing words like 'dummy' in regard to her, but appreciated having a deaf character and one they tried to get right.

Even longtime fans of Ed McBain's evergreen series of police procedurals set in the 87th Precinct may be startled to learn that they started out back in the1950s (and they're still coming). Cop Hater was the first of them to reach the big screen, in a bare-bones production directed by genre-movie veteran William A. Berke.

A heat wave has settled over The City (it's New York, but McBain never identifies it as such), bringing tempers to the flashpoint. An alarm clock wakes a cop for his midnight shift; when he descends into the soupy night, a shot fells him. The entire precinct mobilizes immediately - one of their own has been killed.

We encounter the familiar names of the Precinct's detectives (or some of them), most notably Steve Carella (here, Carelli), played by a young Robert Loggia; he's the bright cop engaged - not yet married - to the beautiful deaf-mute Teddy (Ellen Parker). His partner Maguire (Gerald O'Loughlin) has already tied the knot, but when he tries to keep cool in his undershorts to the whirr of a feeble fan, his wife (Shirley Ballard) brushes him off (`You're wet - oozing wet,' she sniffs).

When a second cop is gunned down in cold blood, attention turns to members of one of the gangs of young punks that were a fixture of post-war New York, but it's a dead end. Next, it's Maguire's turn to meet his very own dead end. Loggia, made indiscreet by too many `splashes' of Scotch to slake his thirst, tells his theories to a callow newspaper reporter and inadvertently puts Teddy in jeopardy....

Cop Hater gets the feel of the grimy streets and cramped apartments of a sweltering urban jungle just right (it also preserves the film debut of Jerry Orbach and very early appearances by Vincent Gardenia and Loggia). The puzzle of the murders may seem a little mechanical (it's a riff on Agatha Christie's The Alphabet Murders), and personalities don't emerge as vividly as we might like. But then this was early in the series, and McBain had only begun to sketch out the quirks of his recurring characters. McBain, of course, is the pseudonym of Evan Hunter (born Salvatore Lombino), who wrote the screenplays for Blackboard Jungle and The Birds. In Cop Hater, his anonymous City takes pride of place.

I believe these type of gritty police films started around ten years earlier with "Naked City." There is a lot of nice neo-realism. For example, a gang leader calls a police captain "Daddy" and he snaps, "Call me "daddy" again, and you'll be spitting teeth." However, there are also some really exploitative elements. For example, deaf-mute Teddy (Ellen Parker) stands around for about five minutes dressed only in a towel, while the bad guy threatens to kill/rape her.

Robert Loggia is quite likable as the detective who becomes more and more frustrated when he can't quite solve his crime. Ellen Parker does a wonderful job playing his deaf-mute girlfriend. She had a very short acting career doing a few television shows in 1958 and two movies in which she played the fiancé of Robert Loggia in both. It is too bad she disappeared after that. Anybody know what happened to her?

This is a fun little movie, much closer to the street-smart New York "Naked City" television series of the time than the hyper-straight Los Angeles "Dragnet." The film is about as lurid as mainstream films got in 1958.

Check out the great posters. Google "Cop Hater" and search "images." Shirley Ballad looks great in both her leopard skin bathing suit and negligee.

Enjoyed this 1958 film dealing with a serial cop killer on the loose in New York City and a horrible heat wave which has most of actors always complaining about the heat. Robert Loggia (Detective Steve Carelli) is a very dedicated policeman and he works with Teddy Franklin, (Ellen Parker) who is an attractive gal. Alice Maguire, (Shirley Ballard) plays the role as a very sexy wife to Detective Mike Maguire, (Gerald O'Loughlin) but Alice is getting tired of being married to a cop and she wants her husband to quit because of all the cops being killed by a mad man throughout the City of New York. There are some sexy scenes which were considered very naughty to see a girl naked with a towel wrapped around her and a few other scenes with girls showing plenty of their legs. This is a great mystery and very good acting by Robert Loggia. Enjoy.