Le tueur s'est évadé

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).

Watching "A Killer is Loose" it's not hard to see how Budd Boetticher garnered a reputation as one of the top B movie directors. With the limited resources allotted to the makers of B movies, not to mention the casting of often second rate actors, a lot of skill went into creating the few B movies which have endured.

Boetticher gets good performances from leads Joseph Cotton and Wendell Corey (not strictly B movie actors) as well a surprisingly convincing Rhonda Fleming. The work of veteran cinematographer Lucien Ballard contributes much to the success of this taut, well written thriller.

While not a classic, its remains a fine example of its genre and worth a look.

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.

"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.

Budd Boetticher was getting his "Director's Day" salute on TCM when I watched this little known thriller starring Joseph COTTEN, RHONDA FLEMING and WENDELL COREY.

It's Corey who walks off with the film in what is really the central role as a crazed killer, angry when detective Cotten and his police officers accidentally kill his wife when trying to get him. He vows revenge when he's found guilty of a bank robbery where he was an accomplice, and the rest of the tale involves vengeance and a final comeuppance for Corey.

Joseph COTTEN gives only a middling performance, almost phoning in his job as though he knows his colorless role isn't worth much effort. The same for RHONDA FLEMING as his selfish wife, whose sole contribution is a shapely figure and a pretty face obviously ready for many a close-up.

What raises this above the level of an average B-film is Corey's nuanced performance as a nerdy man who appears almost sympathetic at times and chillingly ruthless when crossed. JOHN LARCH is especially good as an ex service buddy who used to taunt him for his lack of skill with a rifle. It's Corey's work in the film that puts it into a higher category and makes it a psychological crime melodrama worth watching.

Budd Boetticher's no-nonsense approach delivers a solid bit of film-making that lasts a mere one hour and thirteen minutes.

Note: The lower case for the name Joseph is either the fault of my keyboard or IMDb--I've been capitalizing it but it comes out each time as lower case for some unknown reason.