L'assassino è perduto

"The Killer is Loose" is a 1956 B film directed by Budd Boetticher, and it's pretty good. It stars Wendell Corey as Leon Poole, a man who is working in a bank when a robbery occurs. It doesn't take long for the police to determine that he's the inside man. They go to his house to arrest him, and he refuses to answer the door, shooting through it. The police break in, the lights are off, and Detective Wagner (Joseph Cotten) sees a form emerging from the bedroom and shoots, killing Poole's wife. When Poole is sentenced, he promises to pay Wagner back for killing her.

I've never understood what happened to Joseph Cotten's career, but by the '50s, he was appearing in B movies after being part of so many important films in the '40s. He's good in this, as is the beautiful Rhonda Fleming, who plays his wife. Corey is excellent as Poole, a disturbed man with a flat affect; he never knew any happiness until he got married and goes crazy when his wife is taken from him.

Good noir.

During a shootout with the police, Leon "Foggy" Poole (Wendell Corey) loses his wife in the hail of bullets. Captured and imprisoned, Poole bides his time until making good his escape. He then sets out to find the man he holds responsible for his wife's death.

Now, Detective Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten) must protect himself and his pregnant wife Lila (Rhonda Fleming) from the vengeful Corey.

THE KILLER IS LOOSE is a wonderful crime thriller with lots of tension and a memorable finale. Cotten is his usual, dependable self. His Det. Wagner -somewhat- foreshadows Gregory Peck's Sam Bowden character in CAPE FEAR.

One thing that sets this movie apart from other, similar films is the quiet, low-key demeanor of the bespectacled antagonist. Corey underplays the role, making Poole far more frightening than he would have been as some raving maniac!

Highly recommended...

Two twists change this movie from what you expect to something else completely. In fact, the title doesn't even seem to match the plot, until those twists transpire. Then it hits its stride with a sense of lingering dread hanging over the proceedings, even when the antagonist is not on screen; actually it seems their absence simply serves to ramp up the tension - such is the skill with which this is directed and shot. Rhonda Fleming gives her usual slightly overwrought performance but it works for this movie as she senses the dangers others around her don't . Surprisingly, many scenes are written in far more depth and are acted with way more seriousness and earnestness (by Joseph Cotten and Wendell Corey) than they have any right to be in just a B-movie - but it works to add depth and empathy. Even the "killer" is not two-dimensional but seems plagued by doubts and confusion - all the while being quietly menacing, disturbing, and on the edge of an outburst of violence at any moment. There are touches of pathos, taut high-wire tension, intrigue and action - with at least one very memorable scene that still flashes in my mind - that make this a very worthy watch. Fans of Hitchcock will also enjoy the hints of perversion and cynicism - and some other key elements which that particular auteur would find appealing. A minor gem.

Although Andrew Sarris italicized it in the list of Boetticher's films in The American Cinema (meaning he recognized it as one of the more notable films on the list), I've never run across any critical comment on this film. Nevertheless, it's a real discovery-- imagine Cape Fear with Wally Cox in the Mitchum role and you get some idea. Corey (who usually played stiff bureaucrats and cops himself) gets the role of his life as a mild-mannered clerk turned crook who becomes unhinged and escapes with the plan to kill the cop who sent him up. What's creepy about him is that, like Norman Bates, he never even raises his voice-- and like Norman Bates, eventually he winds up in a dress (oh, it seems logical enough as a disguise, but it introduces an unmistakable air of sexual confusion and perversity into the violent climax that catapults the film into Fullerian ranks of psychosexual luridness). And if you want to know what Brian dePalma's been trying to do all these years with movies like Blow Out and Snake Eyes, just watch how effortlessly Boetticher plays out the climax over walkie-talkies (a sequence to rival Touch of Evil).

Wendell Corey is superb in this. He's scary in the title role. In some ways, the costume or prop department deserves a lot of credit, because the glasses he wears makes him seem bland yet steady and menacing.

Joseph Cotten and Rhonda Fleming are not convincing cast as a cop and pregnant wife. Ms. Fleming seems ready to burst out of some of her costumes; but not in areas where babies are carried.

Both are good, though. John Larch and Dee J. Thompson are a c couple in the killer's path who are extremely hard to find sympathetic -- as unappealing the script calls for them to be.

Everyone is good in this frightening noir.