Please Murder Me!

This is a small film, in that the stars weren't big-name stars of the day. PLEASE MURDER ME stars Raymond Burr (just before he made it big as Perry Mason), Angela Lansbury and Dick Foran--all capable actors, though hardly starring actors of the day. Despite this lack of star power and an apparent small budget, it's not a bad film--especially when there is a twist and the plot quickly changes about midway through the movie.

The film begins as Burr is sitting in his office in the darkness--dictating to a tape recorder that he's about to be murdered. Both the lighting and the idea of a man talking about his impending demise are very much in keeping with a Film Noir piece--as is the direction the film goes in the second half. As for the first half, it starts off with Burr telling his best friend that he has fallen for this friend's wife and wants to marry her! Oddly, instead of punching Burr in the face, the guy says he'll get back with Burr in a few days. However, after a few days, his wife shoots him--claiming he was trying to kill her. Did she do this in self-defense and what will her lawyer (Burr) do? While some of this is a bit predictable, it certainly all isn't and makes for a nifty little film. It's not 100% believable, but given that it's so entertaining, why worry about this? If you are interested in seeing it, it's in the public domain and can be downloaded for free from the IMDb site.

By the way, look for Denver Pyle in a small role as a detective testifying in court. It's interesting because Pyle lacks his usual heavy Southern accent and he seems quite at home playing a man living in the big city.

A wife kills her husband, while she carries on an affair with his best friend who also happens to be a defense attorney.

Inexpensive little programmer that would work just as well as a movie made for TV. Still it has a good tight script, with a few twists, and two fine actors. It's Raymond Burr a year before Perry Mason and I expect his courtroom scenes here did a lot to win him the lead in Mason. He carries them off with real authority. Then there's Lansbury as the calculating ice queen, and I stopped counting her smiles after one. She does make a convincing spider woman, however.

There's little action, while the courtroom scene takes up a lot of time. Still the plot line is an interesting one of intrigue and misdirection. So there are compensations to the talky format. One does have to wonder, however, about attorney Carlson's (Burr) iron sense of retribution. It appears a key plot contrivance, but an interesting one given the circumstances of his guilt. Should mention, at the same time, the presence of the great John Dehner in the key supporting role of county DA. His is a familiar face from that time, and I don't think he ever turned in a second-rate performance, no matter the role. Anyway, it's highly obscure little movie, but not without compensations.

... and I say that because the actors, usually good in what they do, seem so flat here. That's usually the director's fault.

Attorney Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr) tells his best friend, successful businessman Joe Leeds (Dick Foran) that he and Joe's wife Myra (Angela Lansbury) are in love and that she wants a divorce so that she can marry Craig. Joe says he is surprised by this revelation and needs a few days to decide what to do. Those "few days" pass, and end with Joe lying dead on his bedroom floor, shot to death by Myra who claims self-defense, saying Joe got violent over the impending separation and attacked her. Craig defends her and gets her acquitted. But then somebody who worked for Joe hands Craig a letter, written by Joe the night that he died, and it puts an entirely different spin on the situation.

This was made the year before Burr became famous as Perry Mason, and there are things in common with this performance and his performance as Mason. His character is pensive but gloomy, befitting a noir. The courtroom scenes are the only place where Burr becomes animated, and I could see flashes of his Perry Mason character here. I really don't feel any chemistry between Burr and Lansbury like I did between Burr and Barbara Stanwyck in "Crime of Passion", made later the same year, but when the story moves past that, his grim conviction works very well. Part of this could be because Lansbury has a rather stern screen presence, or maybe it's the bad direction I mentioned. This one has flashes of Double Indemnity with a wonderfully brief ending that leaves much to the imagination.

This film is in the public domain and thus there are no restored copies that I've run across, thus the film is dark and at times the dialogue is tough to hear. Yet the rather intriguing premise of the script makes it probably worth your while. Also note that the supporting actors who appeared here - Dick Foran, John Dehner, Robert Griffin, and Denver Pyle - all made appearances on Perry Mason over the years. I wonder if there was a connection with this film?

After receiving an acquittal for Myra Leeds (Angela Lansbury), the woman he secretly loves who, lawyer Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr) finds out that it wasn't such an open and shut case. She is guilty of murdering her husband (whom she'd been offered a divorce from), and Carlson's conscience won't allow her to get away with it. He now swears to devote his life to proving her guilt.

Oh man...

This is one of the most original murder mysteries I've ever seen. Even the beginning grabs you, as Burr goes into a pawn shop, buys a gun, then starts speaking into a tape recorder, explaining that in a short while, he'll be dead. From there, it just gets more and more interesting. This is super solid overall, as were the performances, which also included Dick Foran as the murdered husdand, and John Dehner as the D.A.

The overall rating is kinda average, but I'm so glad I didn't let that throw me off when I came looking up the synopsis before I watched. To say I was impressed by the story is an understatement. I'd love to see this one again someday once I've forgotten all the new revelations it throws at you.

Don't know where this picture originated. There is no studio at the beginning of the credits and it doesn't look like a TV production, although several of the players went on to successful careers in Television. Besides Burr and Lansbury, John Dehner and Denver Pyle did lots of TV work on many different shows. It also May have been a 'B' from an obscure studio and played with a weak 'A' picture.

In any case, the end result is a watchable film well-acted by some old pros and without any outlandish plot device acting as a Deus Ex Machina - surprisingly well-written. The engrossing storyline makes up for some dead time in the middle. Not a bad effort all around.