Kill or Be Killed

If I had to remember a film reuniting Lawrence Tierney and Max Nosseck the director, it would be DILLINGER and why not THE HOODLUM, but strangely not this one, which remains however a good time waster, adventure drama very pleasant to watch. It is not a thriller, nor a crime film, and Lawrence Tierney was born to be bad, to kill on screen - as he was precisely in Robert Wise's BORN TO KILL; he was not the best choice for something else. But, I repeat, the whole result is not bad at all. So, if you are a great fan of Lawrence Tierney because of Dillinger, this movie is not DILLINGER, nor THE HOODLUM. Appreciate it anyway. Please.

This fast-paced and reasonably well-written noir is rare for a few reasons. One is simply that it's hard to find. Another is that it was shot on location in Brazil. Rarest perhaps is that quintessential noir bad boy Lawrence Tierney plays the hero for once.

Tierney, whose off-screen escapades rivaled those of the characters he played, had worn out his welcome in Hollywood by this time, but his performance here shows he could easily have become a leading man in action films. However, according to Wikipedia "In just seven years between 1944 and 1951, Tierney was arrested over a dozen times for brawling, frequently for drunkenness."

Here he plays an American engineer on assignment in a Brazilian river town. The familiar plot is one that was a favorite of Alfred Hitchcock among others: the innocent man, framed for a murder he didn't commit, tracking down the real killer, although in this case both the framing and tracking are accidental.

There's also the woman met along the way who believes him and helps conceal him, here a lackluster performance, perhaps intentional for a rather passive role, by little-known Marissa O'Brien.

At one point he joins an exploited plantation work gang, so there's even a bit of social commentary.

A must-see, if you can find it, for Tierney cultists.

Engineer Robert Warren (Lawrence Tierney) on assignment in Brazil, is set up for a murder when he discovers a client dead in his office and he is discovered standing over the body. After giving chase to the real killer and trying to elude the police until he can prove his innocence, Warren ends up hiding on a steam boat heading into the Amazon. Along the way he becomes involved with an unhappily married woman, her husband and his business partner (Marissa O'Brien, Rudolph Anders, George Coulouris) while trying to sort out the details of the crime.

The role is a bit of a departure from the usual for Tierney. Here he is cast as the man in peril. An innocent victim who through none of his own doing is caught up in the crossfire. As such Tierney does a serviceable job but clearly this type of role wasn't his long suit. Marissa O'Brien as Tierney's love interest gives us more disbelief to suspend as a concert pianist who for some reason moves to the remote jungle with her near psychotic husband who she doesn't love. To nobody's amazement things don't go well.

The movie is a fair to middling, tropical crime drama. While at the start the movie hints of a fast paced action, mystery / crime flick, it slowly chokes down to more sluggish melodrama and an anti-climatic resolution with little explanation of the crime itself. Lawrence Tierney fans are likely to be disappointed and there isn't enough beef on the bones of the story to build much interest otherwise.

A surprisingly nondescript effort for a movie titled 'Kill or Be Killed' with Lawrence Tierney.

Only Lawrence Tierney completists should subject themselves to this dull, inert and unengaging flick about an engineer wrongly accused of murder. A lot of the story takes place in ships or a jungle as he goes on the run, and falls for a dippy dame who protects him. The sappy dialogue hopes to make us believe there is a romantic spark between these two despite there being little chemistry between them and they both act stiff as ironing boards throughout. Then the coincidences pile up to make matters worse. However, I'll give it three points: (1) for some OK action (2) the exotic locations and (3) there is some curious plotting involving a mute youth. But that's about it. Although it has a very short run-time I found myself checking my watch several times before I gave up on it 45 mins through (and watched the rest a few days later). You've been warned!

I am a big fan of Lawrence Tierney and I look for all his films whenever I have a few hours to kill. In this film, Tierney is a protagonist rather than a cold-blooded killer, like he was in Born to Kill. The characters in this film are far less seedy and sleazy as well. The major weakness of the film is the music; it appears as if the film was hijacked by the people responsible for the music soundtrack. Instead of having foreboding music similar to that in Psycho, the composers for this sound track try to recreate The Sound of Music. "The River with Killer Fish is alive with the sound of music". would have been lyrics they might have created to further ruin what was a decent story line. The music is terribly overbearing and overwhelms the characters and the plot at times. Fortunately, Tierney saves us from this version of The Producers by sticking to his hard guy pesonna. Lesson: dont let music ruin your film.