Cristi_Ciopron A refreshing and well written movie to enjoy, with obviously cool and superior acting, not only from the couple of leads (he got 2nd billing), Foran has a supporting role, everything in a genre now perhaps less used, the cool urban suspense movie, which is the bourgeois side of the age's trend (no low lives, thugs, gangsters, and it requires both strong plot and acting), cool enough and enough dramatic, set, like another very good one, 'Jordon', in a bourgeois milieu, with the leads aware that they are giving signature roles, it uses the device of a recorded confession from a broken man, and for a time there follows a courtroom drama, enlivened by excellent performances, with Burr wholly convincing as an attorney, the plot seems very simple, with the twist being the murderess' love for the painter, so that the lawyer's vindictive jealousy comes across as petty and mean, the widow makes up for her 1st murder, by a 2nd one, but this time out of love and care, which shows that the lawyer's claim that the painter would be another, 3rd fall guy, is false, he expects her murderous burst precisely out of her love for the young painter, so that while the lawyer remains in the sphere of the vindictiveness, she ascends to proving her love, albeit by losing, presumably, her own life; the whole is less about what the director does, than about what the movie itself does to you.There are semitones of eeriness in the scenes with the three characters (the lawyer, the widow, the painter), the menace, the lawyer's game. The sets give a deep joy.Burr looked intelligent and shrewd; Angela L., chilling for a while, then humane, more so than her defendant. Far from being convinced that the woman doesn't love the painter, he's sure that she does, and uses even this to get his revenge. Her second murder proves that she genuinely loves the painter; her love is intense, she kills the lawyer, to keep the painter, which ingratiates her to us. She cares about being with the painter. So, it's she who gets the upper hand. Why did the unsparing lawyer claim she doesn't care for her lover? Foran (a legend of the unpretentious westerns) is the murdered husband; Lamont Johnston plays the 3rd man, the painter.

madmonkmcghee Rather tepid noirish courtroom drama that is mainly saved from forgettability by Raymond Burr's performance. As for Angela Lansbury, well.....let's just say unfortunately she's not the victim. In truth the real victim is the viewer for having to sit through a more than usually tedious courtroom scene that d-r-a-g-s along for about a third of the movie. After that things kinda pick up, but not quite enough to save the movie. The final plot twist is a real stretch of anyone's credulity, and most movie fans will not be overly surprised. I'm sure many noir addicts will want to see this just because of Burr's presence, and hey there are far worse movies to waste your time with. But why not watch a better movie instead?

sol ***SPOILERS*** Pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr as defense attorney Craig Carlson is tortured by the fact that he's fallen in love with his best friend Joe Leeds', Dick Foran, wife Myra, Angela Lansbry. It was Joe who saved Craig's life during the bloody assault on Iwo Jima by almost ending up, with a Jap bullet in his lung, killed himself! Now Craig has to somehow break the news to Joe that he's been having an affair with his wife and want's him to give her a divorce so he can marry her! Joe for some strange reason is not at all feeling hurt that Myra want's to leave him but is very concerned that it's his best friend Craig that she's got her hooks into. Joe knows what Myra's like and doesn't want Craig to find out about her before it's too late for him!With Joe showing up at his apartment to talk things over with Myra about their so to be break-up a shot is heard and before you know it Joe's on the floor as dead as a Mayfly in June! With Craig taking on the murder case as Myra's defense attorney he blows the jury away by proving to it's satisfaction that Joe was a violent person capable of murdering his wife who had no choice but to shoot him in self-defense! The biggest surprise,in fact his ace in the hole, in Craig's defense plan was to reveal that he was the other man who Myra was cheating on Joe with! With the jury verdict, Innocent, a forgone conclusion and Craig now free to marry Myra things come up that get Craig's very disturbed in not only his both love and defense of Myra but himself as well! We already see the condition that Craig's in when we first see him in the movie. With him going down to the red light district in town to buy himself a handgun and planning to use it on himself! What we later find out is the person he plans to use it on him is non-other then Myra! ***SPOILERS*** Craig had since found out that Myra was no good from a letter that Joe left but didn't mailed to him. At first thinking it was just sour grapes on Joe's part Craig soon finds out that Myra is already planning to dump him for artist Carl Holt, Lamont Johnson, whom she was already having an affair with while he was her lawyer defending her against murder charges murder in her husband Joe death! Troubled that he helped get a murderess off in the murder of his best friend Joe Leeds Craig could only make things right for himself by setting himself up to be murdered by Myra and having air-tight proof that she in fact murdered him! This elaborate plan is put into action at the very start of the movie "Please Murder Me" by Craig tricking Myra in that he got the goods on her! In that if it doesn't put her behind bars since she can't be tried twice for the same crime, the murder of her husband Joe Leeds, it will at least convince Carl Holt not to marry her. It's now up to Myra to see if she'll go so far as murder to keep the truth about her from getting to Carl and thus facing a possible life sentence if she does. Unknown to Myra Craig covered all the bases in making sure that there's proof of her murdering him by giving her all the reasons as well as murder weapon to commit the crime. Craig is banking on Myra's sense of invincibility, in already getting away with murder, to go through with his plan. A plan to finally bring her to justice by using himself as bait.

sflynn22 The movie starts with Attorney Craig Carlson dictating the circumstances of his own upcoming murder into a tape recorder. Through a series of flashbacks we find out that he has a problem - his best friend's wife (Lansbury) comes to him for help in a divorce. Then another problem - he falls in love with her. Then another problem - she shoots her husband in self-defense. Now he has to defend her from a murder rap.He gets her acquitted and they get engaged. All is well!! Of course not - why would the movie be over in twenty minutes? Let's just say that his tidy little circumstances rapidly grow complicated. His awareness of his changing situation, and his reaction to it, make for an interesting psychological development.Burr was a good actor and the camera focuses in on his brooding face. It takes a while to find out that Lansbury's performance is more subtle than you might think.The movie is economically directed - witness how the attorney picks up his gun in the opening shots. No dialog, just a brief sequence of visuals, and the plot advances. Well written, with good supporting performances, including a youngish and slim Denver Pyle. Nice unknown movie.