Shoot to Kill

Unremarkable but entertaining enough minor noir. Russell Wade is spirited as the newspaper man with a cause, Edmund MacDonald is the aspiring District Attorney but sales a little close to the wind and spends much time brooding in a Vincent Price sort of way. Luana Walters is the girl in the middle and halfway through the film brings everything to life with one of the very many twists. Unfortunately it has been a rather slow beginning and before the end tips back down. There is always an inherent problem with movies that are flashbacks and this one is no exception. Worth it though for Walters' performance when for a time the film revolves around her and we seem to be going places.

Edmund MacDonald wants to be the district attorney. It's not for love of the city or the law, but an opportunity to squeeze people for money. He sends mobster Robert Kent to prison, but Kent escapes and vanishes, and a crime wave begins. MacDonald's wife and secretary, Luana Walters gains information on what is going on. She cannot act overtly, because a wife cannot testify against her husband, but she can pass the word onto Robert Wade and let him investigate.

It's an intriguing idea for a film noir, but the script isn't up to it: it's confusingly written, with twists pulled seemingly out of nowhere to explain why someone is suddenly acting differently.

What director William Berke can do about it is to give cinematographer Benjamin Kline his head, and Kline produces a heck of a visual feast, lots of dark streets and low-lit actors that lend a beautiful gloss to the movie. It's not enough to save it. However, it makes it worth watching.

This low-budget thriller about the wife of a crooked Assistant District Attorney and a reporter who sets out to expose him has some effective moments and several good performances, notably by veteran character actor Charles Trowbridge as the DA and the usually bland Edmund MacDonald as the ADA. Russell Wade, as the reporter, doesn't comer off too badly--usually he's even blander than MacDonald--and Luana Walters turns in a serviceable job as the DA's wife, but it's really Trowgbridge's and MacDonald's show, and they they do well with it. Prolific "B" director William Berke keeps things moving swiftly, and despite some weak supporting performances and a few large-ish plot holes, overall this is a very entertaining little"B".

This has to be one of the corniest noirs to hit the screen. For the most part it was incomprehensible with the plot careening one way and then the other. The characters all spoke in a monotone advancing whatever was discernible about the plot by announcing their motives and plans. The dialog was made of one cliché after another suitably punctuated for effect such as when Walters (Luana Walters that is, here credited as Susan) announces to her husband Dixie Logan "Even if you were framed I know now that you're ROTten" (emphasis on ROT). Every character has his/her own agenda and proceeds to implement it with gusto without a care for their safety. Allegiances are formed and dissolved at lightening speed - nobody seems to be aware of the concept of loyalty. Without the score the viewer would be even more confused. At least it announced when something of interest was about to happen.

If all this makes "Shoot to Kill" seem like a turkey you wouldn't be far off the mark. It's so corny it's actually kind of funny, in a desperate sort of way. After a while you begin to wander what else they're going to throw in the mix. But it has its good points. There's a neat fistfight on a staircase, supposedly down two flights of stairs although I suspect it was filmed on the same one flight with the protagonists starting over at the top. Along with the fists so did the railings and I began to wonder whether it wouldn't collapse. On their budget they'd have to keep the footage. Punches and slaps were thrown that seemed to connect, especially the one on Walters toward the end. She disappears off camera falling down only to bounce back up unperturbed to deliver her memorable line quoted in the previous paragraph.

The real revelation is pianist Gene Rodgers who appears 9:30 into the movie. Previously unknown to me, he was magic, a god of boogie jazz. He plays two of his own compositions, "Ballad of the Bayou" and "Rajah's Blues", both unaccompanied pieces. A little research revealed that he was based in LA at the time the movie was shot and returned to NY where he lived and worked the rest of his life. He died in '87. If for no other reason see this film for Rodgers.

"Shoot to Kill" is a somewhat routine but fast-paced crime story. It begins with a car chase, and then flashes back to explain who is involved and what led up to the chase.

The plot is relatively complicated and involves a crooked politician, a gangster looking for revenge, a loyal wife trying to clear her husband in any way possible, and a crusading reporter who is trying to figure out what everyone else is up to. The characters are mostly stereotypes, and most are also unsympathetic, but the emphasis is on the action. A great deal happens in just over an hour's worth of running time, and there are a couple of surprises along the way.

Though mostly a routine crime drama, "Shoot to Kill" is fast-paced enough to keep your attention, and most film-noir or crime film fans should find it a decent way to pass the time.