Shoot to Kill

Better than most of the low budget thrillers, this is fun because it involves a series of flashbacks which explain why a woman has been badly injured due to her connection with a corrupt district attorney. The story is pretty well put forward with a minimum of stereotyping. The woman is really a fireball, putting herself in harm's way over and over. It's odd she survived as long as she did. Most of the characters are bad guys with their own agendas. There is some double crossing and an effort to expose a frame-up. I felt the ending was pretty well done, which isn't always the case in this genre. The acting is quite good because the bad guys are presented as human beings, with human failings and emotions. Not that they aren't pretty evil and pretty cold. It's worth a look.

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.

This cheapie noir thriller about crooked district attorneys and gangster chiefs is surprisingly good, considered it was made on a zero budget with no reason to aim high. Of course, it is completely corny, but there are a lot of expressionistic camera angles, and the many dollying shots of men walking at night are surprisingly effective with a single bright spotlight on the face and everything else pitch black. As is usual with these over the top late forties cheapies, the impact depends largely upon an excessive, almost parodic, use of 'mood music'. When things begin to get dangerous, don't worry about looking for clues on the screen, as the orchestra will tell us instead. One wonders if the script actually said: 'At this point, the musical score will become hysterical, so that the audience knows someone is about to get killed.' The chief reason for watching this film is to see and hear the spectacular performance on the piano of Gene Rodgers, a black boogie player who was one of the best. It is jaw-dropping stuff. Fats Waller, eat your heart out! Rodgers plays two of his own compositions, 'Ballad of the Bayou' and 'Rajah's Blues'. His fingers move faster than the speed of light, and he isn't even looking. If only the whole thing had been Rodgers, we could have done without the film. The film's script is surprising in its ingenuity in places, and has some snappy dialogue, showing that somebody tried. The most innovative scene is where an assistant district attorney dictates a letter to his secretary. It is a passionate love letter proposing marriage, and she wonders to whom he intends to send it. He asks her if she thinks it is OK, and she says she thinks it is beautiful. Then he tells her it is for her! Great scene! If only the romance had been genuine, however, as both turn out to be crooks in their own way. This film contains serious contradictions, as it oscillates between making some characters appear sympathetic and then suddenly exposing them as baddies. The story must have started out as a tough crime thriller and then some frustrated sentimentalist wrote the script and could not help himself, he just had to have some love scenes, and the fact that the characters were all wrong for this could not and would not deter him. The producer clearly didn't notice. Well, if you like brilliant boogie, you really can't afford to miss this. And there will be people who will also enjoy the film. It is all a matter of what you expect, and if you start out expecting a corny mini-budgeted noir thriller with some unexpected good points, you will be happy.

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.