Delitto al microscopio

Van Heflin plays the head of the police crime lab who investigates the murder of a district attorney and a mayor. His assistant (Marsha Hunt) is in love with him but he doesn't show her that kind of attention. So when his friend (Lee Bowman), a special prosecutor working for the mayor, starts romancing her we get ourselves a good old-fashioned love triangle.

Heflin is terrific and has great chemistry with lovely Hunt. The killer's identity is easy to figure out. It's pretty much the most obvious suspect. But thankfully the film doesn't expect that mystery to play out too long and we're let in on his identity relatively quickly. Pretty good B movie from director Fred Zinnemann (his first film). The script is smart and the forensic angle is fresh for the time. The love triangle part of the story is weak but that sort of thing was very common back then.

The category for this movie might be 'mystery', the plot however certainly isn't. Within the first five minutes of the film you found out that Jerry is corrupt and you meet McKay, the man who'll certainly solve the crime. This makes you wonder why the movie would be interesting.

Still, like most of Hitchcock's features, it's not what the movie is about, it's what you do with the plot that makes the movie. Zinneman's first is quite good for a debut: the film is sober but effective. The relation between McKay and his female assistant Mitchell is more interesting than 95% of the working relations you normally get to see. McKay's forensic quest is quite interesting too.

Bear in mind that it's a debut and watch a very nice film.

Everything about KID GLOVE KILLER is extremely dated. And yet it's fun to watch VAN HEFLIN and MARSHA HUNT go about solving a crime using old techniques and spouting a lot of artificial dialog, 1940s style.

Both of them also smoke frequently. "Match me," becomes a standard line. A cast of standard MGM B-players keeps things going nicely as Heflin and Marsh investigate the murder of a politician, when all the time we know who the killer is--LEE BOWMAN. Bowman is one of those actors who never quite made it to big time stardom, but he's completely at home here in the role of a ruthless heel.

All of the suspense in a story of this kind lies in wondering how the killer will be caught--since he's very manipulative and very cunning. His charm makes his criminal nature very deceptive to both Bowman and Hunt.

Favorite line: "Just bury me with one of your swell hamburgers on my chest." Reply: "With onions?"

If you watch carefully, you can spot BOBBY BLAKE as a youngster listening to a car radio and AVA GARDNER as a car-hop waitress.

This one, and GRAND CENTRAL MURDER made the same year, are well worth watching and nicely directed by Fred Zinnemann who later went on to A-film assignments.

This is a wonderful little picture from MGM as it delivers on all levels. Unlike many "B-pictures", this film features better production values, better characters and a much better written script than usual. While MOST B-movies have plot holes and logical errors, this one is very tight and interesting and seems superior to the usual detective films.

Van Heflin plays a brilliant forensic scientist who works for the police. In many ways, he seems like a 1940s version of the TV show CSI--but his assumptions and equipment seem rather realistic and less fantastic than the shows we see on television today. For example, when Van finds what MIGHT be evidence, he is very hesitant to make huge logical leaps and is very cautious and thorough. In addition, he uses standard equipment of the day to investigate the crimes (whereas, CSI often features procedures that are NOT really used today).

Van is ably assisted by the pretty Marsha Hunt--who Van seldom seems to recognize for her many talents. Finally, after seeing no reaction from him, she begins to date the District Attorney and they become quite serious.

There's a lot more to the story than this, but I don't want to spoil it. Just be prepared to be impressed by an intelligently written and acted film--and much of the credit should go to the great director, Fred Zinneman, who is able to get the absolute most from the material. It's not surprising to find that Fred went on to better and more prestigious projects--probably thanks to his success with little films.

FYI--Although the forensics are pretty good, at one point Van picks up what's left of a pipe bomb with his bare hands. What about fingerprints?!

This low-budget MGM crime flick is surprisingly entertaining. The best way to enjoy it is to suspend what you know about today's film-making and settle into a more innocent time when plots—like the movies themselves—were in black and white, when characters were labeled good or bad, when dialog was crisply effective (though artificial) and when even the deadliest dramas ended with wedding bells. One thing that separates "Kid Glove Killer" from similar films of the 1930s and '40s is the fact that its protagonist, Gordon McKay (Van Heflin) is not only a cop. He's in charge of a police crime laboratory. With the aid of his assistant, Jane Mitchell (Marsha Hunt), McKay solves murders and rids the city of corruption by using a microscope, a spectrograph and other tools that—mutatis mutandis—will be used again in crime-scene-investigation stories for decades to come, up to and including the current "CSI" television series. McKay scrapes beneath fingernails, vacuums people's hair and analyzes fibers to get trace evidence that will nail the crooks. The fact that you know all along who the crooks are doesn't spoil the fun—it's that kind of movie. Embedded in the investigation is a love triangle whose outcome is so obvious that you can go for popcorn without missing a beat. The acting is above par. Van Heflin's performance is adept if unspectacular. (That same year Heflin won a best-supporting-actor Oscar for "Johnny Eager.") Lee Bowman is suavely manipulative as a power-seeker. Marsha Hunt makes what she can of a role that has her wearing a lab coat one minute and an evening gown the next. In those days, of course, it was a Hollywood cliché that a professional woman would slog away at her job only till she could junk it in favor of marriage. This movie observes the cliché, but there is a hint of feminism in the fact that Jane Mitchell—whom everyone calls simply "Mitchell"—works as a chemist, a job more often held by men. Notable among supporting players are John Litel as a crime boss and Eddie Quillan as a victimized citizen. If you look fast, you can see Ava Gardner and Robert Blake in uncredited bit parts. This was Fred Zinnemann's first feature film, and he keeps the whole thing moving to a time clock. The bare-bones production and its repeated use of the same interior sets are not major drawbacks. "Kid Glove Killer" was never intended to be pâté de foie gras. It's a ham sandwich. Pass the mustard.