Without Warning!

This is a virtually spotless transfer and for Film Noir fans who have to put up with beaten up prints of unjustly forgotten films that alone I think perhaps has lead other writers here to rate the movie a bit too highly. It is a police procedure picture (with a surprising amount of forensics used for the time) that unfortunately comes to an obvious ending that reduces what came before it. It is especially well scored and photographed on real(and unique) locations that make it seem very fresh.

It is like THE SNIPER, though that film deals with wider issues and has a harder edge and most distinct style, where this plays out like a really good episode of something like THE NAKED CITY, or DRAGNET. The ending is safe and small. The characters although well acted are really stock "types" and don't really become three dimensional.

That said the first half of the film is very good and all the positives other writers on IMDb have said are true. But this doesn't ever become a drama, staying safely in melodrama land and that keeps it as mostly by the numbers B picture. Everybody does their job well but also safely within the confines of a programmer. The script just can't let them break out into a real classic noir.

This is the oldest sort of serial killer stories ( not based on a true story ) that i have seen ans it is a more than good suspence thriller abouth a killer that only murders blonde beautiful women because his ex was blond and now he hates them . unfortunately this back up story is only be given us by the specialist who gives advice to the police . It would have been even better to see some sort of back up story from the murderer his past or something like that . The suspence is well writen and a few chasing scenes are very good .

This story of a serial killer came out 55 years ago. It's dated primarily in that it isn't gory and graphic. At moments, it feels as if it's about to go that way. But of course the censors wouldn't have allowed it.

The director, though not in anyone's pantheon, has great noir cred. "Down Three Dark Streets" alone is something to be very proud of.

The pace is just right. The acting, by people wholly unknown to me, is professional and convincing.

We know almost from the start who the killer is. It's a matter of whether and when he will be caught. The film languishes more on his bland good looks than on the appearance of any of his victims. He's nice enough looking: rather baby-faced. We see him without his shirt in a long, not extraneous, scene.

The attention paid to the killer reminded me of "The Sniper," which came out at the same time. "The Sniper" is better known and was done on a higher budget. But I wouldn't say it's better. This is a very good, scary movie.

Found this on youtube--thought it might be campy and funny.... hardly! It's low-budget yes--but very well done. Wonderful to see what Los Angeles looked like in the very early 1950's!! Serial killer before that term was invented. Worth your time!!

Like most people, probably, I had never heard about "Without Warning!" before, but it's a surprisingly tense and bleakly atmospheric mixture between film-noir and drama. The plot follows both a frustrated serial killer, who scouts for lurid blond women in sleazy Hollywood bars, and the police inspectors that are trying to catch him via profiling and the little pieces of forensic evidence that he leaves behind at each crime scene. I'm certainly not an expert of CSI-cinema, but since this film was released in 1952 already, it simply must be one of the earliest productions to make use of advanced & specialized researching techniques. The story of crazed killer Carl Martin is quite an unsettling one. With his good manners, baby-faced appearance and admirable job as a city gardener, he's the last person one would suspect to be a homicidal maniac. But at the beginning of each month, right after he cashed in his paycheck and can afford to dress up nicely and offer drinks to ladies, he prowls for pretty blonds that resemble his unfaithful ex-wife and lures them to remote places to stab them with his gardening shears. Police lieutenants Hamilton and Wade quickly figure out his patterns and profile, but can they arrest Martin before he unleashes his angers again on the innocent store owner's daughter Jane? Perhaps the film could have done without the redundant and overly dramatic voiceover guidance, but director Arnold Laven ("The Monster that Challenged the World") maintains a steady pace as well as a good balance between serial killer suspense and intriguing police work. The escape of Carl Martin following the murder of the stunningly hot nameless victim (Angela Stevens) that almost went wrong, as well as the entire finale up in the Hollywood hills, are genuinely exhilarating; - especially taking into consideration "Without Warning!" is a low-budgeted B-movie.