cstotlar-1 It's interesting to see what Boetticher was doing when he started his famous Western cycle. He didn't have a scriptwriter like Burt Kennedy or an unobtrusive composer at the service of the script. Harry Joe Brown was somewhere else. The studio-bound locales creak of the B-movie certainly and don't come close to matching his outdoor photography in the Westerns and the man-to-man showdown at the end was compromised in just about every way possible. This seemed to me just another studio assignment, over-scored, a script that needed tightening and most of characters we don't actually care much about. But Wendell Corey had his day here as a man who doesn't so much act as react to the surroundings and other characters. The photography from the famous Lucien Ballard was really quite ordinary. I'm glad to say I've seen it but not much more.Curtis Stotlar

Bucs1960 Are you kidding me? Wendell Corey usually played the boring, uptight second lead in his film roles so his character in this little "B" noir is a huge surprise. I never thought he was much of an actor but he really lets loose here as the bank clerk who goes off the rails and comes out killing everyone in sight. He is out for revenge on Joseph Cotten who sent him up the river for his participation as the "inside man" in a bank heist which resulted in Corey's wife being killed accidentally. After his escape from an Honor Farm where he was serving the remainder of his sentence, he starts stalking Cotten and his wife (Rhonda Fleming) with a few incidental murders along the way. The film ends as you would expect......it's not a complicated film but is somehow believable. A great addition to your noir library.

st-shot Respected western auteur Budd Boetticher is woefully out of place with this choppy modern day cops and robbers story that suffers from a strong lack of emotional believability. Boetticher seems to have waived rehearsal time and settled for the first take as leads Joe Cotton and Rhonda Fleming put little effort into their roles, delivering lines flatly and without energy. Mild mannered employee Leon "Foggy" Poole works as an inside man on a bank job that goes bad and gets his wife killed in the process. He escapes from prison and immediately sets out to kill the wife of the detective who killed his. Hundreds of cops are mobilized to keep him from getting to the home of the intended who has been moved to another location but wouldn't you know in the films final moments we have Foggy trailing feet behind the victim (who thought somehow that taking a bus back to the house was a sound move) while a company of cops observe and bicker over what action to take. Sound preposterous? You should see it. It's all of that and more. Lucien Ballard's camera work does a decent job of bringing noir to the suburbs but the editing is lackadaisical and shapeless and it drains the film of its suspense and pace. As Poole, Wendell Corey is the best thing in the film managing to evoke great sympathy as he transitions from gentle soul to murderer. These attributes aside Killer uniformly fails in construction and execution making its message clear. Go Western old Budd.

Neil Doyle 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.