MURDER BY CONTRACT

Pine, Bernardi and Edwards

MURDER BY CONTRACT (1958). Director: Irving Lerner.

"Us two, we don't claim to be Superman. Me, I don't even claim to be Mighty Mouse." -- Marc.

Claude (Vince Edwards) isn't making enough money on his job, so he decides to pile up the cash quickly by becoming a hit man. After several successful assignments, he is offered far above his usual rate to travel to California where his latest victim is waiting. Claude takes his time mulling over his game plan, which worries his boss' associates, Marc (Phillip Pine) and George (Hershel Bernardi). Then the whole plan hits a snag when Claude discovers who -- or rather what -- his latest victim is to be. Will Claude go ahead with this hit that is very important to his unseen boss, and even if he does will he be able to get past dozens of cops to pull it off? Murder By Contract is a simplistic film with modestly developed characters, but it works because it's completely absorbing as well as unpredictable. The performances help a lot, with Edwards solid (if hardly perfect) as Claude, and Pine and Bernardi giving expert support. There is also fine work from Kathie Browne [Happy Mother's Day, Love George] as a hooker; Frances Osborn as a drunken former maid; Michael Granger [Pier 5 Havana] as Moon, who gives Claude his earliest assignments; and Joseph Mell in a nice bit as a room service waiter who temporarily excites Claude's ire. Caprice Toriel plays a nightclub singer who was once involved with Claude's boss and she is competent; she only appeared in this one movie. Lucien Ballard's cinematography is top notch, although I don't think Perry Botkin's guitar score works all that well. Oddly, Lerner also directed Edwards (and Browne) in City of Fear the following year, yet that was a terrible picture.

Verdict: Unusual crime suspense film. ***.

THE FRONT

Zero Mostel with Woody Allen in background

THE FRONT (1976). Produced and directed by Martin Ritt. Written by Walter Bernstein.

Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy), a blacklisted writer, asks his friend Howard Prince (Woody Allen) if he will "front" for him, submitting teleplays under his own name and giving him the money minus a 10% commission. Howard decides to do this for other blacklisted writers as well and before long he has become one of the top names in the industry, with plenty of money, a beautiful apartment, and a girlfriend in Florence Barrett (Andrea Marcovicci), who works for the live anthology show to which he sells most of his teleplays. But then the star of the show, comic Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel) is let go because of alleged communist ties, and told that he just might get his career back if he learns all he can about Howard Prince ... The Front is an absorbing picture with a deceptively light tone at first but it leads to a shocking suicide and a dramatic resolution. Mostel gives a knock-out performance as Hecky, bottling up rage and despair until it comes violently loose, and he pretty much wipes the top-billed Allen off of the screen. Allen's casting is problematic. After some early negative experiences when he was not in charge, he has mostly only appeared in his own films, and The Front is a very rare exception. Obviously he respected and trusted director Martin Ritt [Hud], but while his name might have brought more people into the theaters, it's obvious that he's still playing "Woody Allen" (if playing it well) and one can only wonder what another performer might have brought to the role. Still, he doesn't ruin the film and may have helped get its message across. Ritt, writer Bernstein, and several actors in the production were themselves blacklisted in the fifties, including Mostel, Hershel Bernardi [Peter Gunn], and Lloyd Gough [The Green Hornet].  The movie has humor and heart but never forgets the seriousness and tragedy of the fifties witch hunts.

Verdict: Mostel's finest hour and a half. ***.

A COLD WIND IN AUGUST

A COLD WIND IN AUGUST (1961). Director: Alexander Singer.

Iris Hartford (Lola Albright) has been disappointed by the men in her life, so she decides to slap the make on a boy this time, the super's 17-year-old son, Vito (Scott Marlowe). The two fall in love, but Vito can't deal with Iris' profession. Right away the movie has a problem because Scott Marlowe was actually 29 at the time of filming, and looks considerably older, so the whole idea of a supposed twenty year age difference is completely lost; Albright was 36. Marlowe gives a good performance, but can't quite compensate for his miscasting. Albright is much more interesting in this than she was in her white bread role on Peter Gunn, but the greatest actress in the world would have trouble making the confused and confusing, underwritten Iris come alive. Joe De Santis scores as Vito's father, Mr. Pellegrino, and Herschel Bernardi, also from Peter Gunn, is excellent as a "friend" of Iris who is clearly in love with her. Perhaps the most notable performance is given by Clarke Gordon as Iris' desperate ex-husband, Harry. This script should probably never have been filmed, at least not with these leads. Singer also directed Love Has Many Faces with Lana Turner.

Verdict: Under-baked, with titillation that goes nowhere slowly. **.

PETER GUNN Season 1

Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn

PETER GUNN Season 1. 1958.

"I hear when she wants to look at pictures of her friends, she just drops into the post office." -- Mother

The action of this private eye series, which was created by Blake Edwards, takes place in an unnamed coastal city. The first season consists of 38 half hour black and white episodes. The central location is a waterfront night club called Mother's [after the owner, "Mother," played by hefty Hope Emerson], which Gunn uses as an office, despite the fact that he is highly successful at his trade -- judging from the way he throws fifty dollar bills around to various sources on virtually every episode. Gunn (Craig Stevens) is not a comparative "lout" like Mike Hammer, but is cut from the same urban cloth as Richard Diamond, albeit west coast style. The other regulars on the show, besides Emerson, are Herschel Bernardi as Lt. Jacoby, who practically seems like Gunn's unofficial partner [stretching credulity], and Lola Albright as his girlfriend and a singer at Mother's. [Although Albright is very pretty and a competent actress, and has a pleasant singing voice, as a vocalist she is hopelessly bland, singing every song with the same inflection and lack of panache.] Albright's character, Edie, seems a bit childish at times, when she gets jealous over practically every female client of Gunn's. Although no one could ever accuse Stevens of being a "great" actor, he's fine as the "cool" [i.e. rather unemotional] Gunn [or is Gunn unemotional because he's played by Stevens?], but when he's given a chance to show some versatility, such as an episode in which he pretends to be a naive country boy, he delivers the goods.  Bernardi is quite good as the cop; other semi-regulars include Billy Barty as stool pigeon Babby, and Morris D. Erby, who shows up late in the season as the likable and highly positive black police officer Sgt. Davis. Like most fifties detective programs, Peter Gunn could be fairly violent at times, and there are some wonderful fist fights and well-choreographed action sequences.  

While Peter Gunn is not quite as good as the aforementioned Mike Hammer, most of the episodes are at least of a "B" quality and some much better. Among the more memorable episodes are "The Frog," in which an old lady (Jean Inness) wants revenge for the killing of her friend and companion (Whit Bissell scores as a mobster); "Death House Testament," in which an inmate tells Gunn about some money; the borderline homoerotic "The Jockey," with an excellent Frankie Darro and Robert Gist; "The Lederer Story" involving skulduggery on a yacht with a family headed by a notable Otto Waldis [who was in everything from Attack of the 50 Foot Woman to Judgment at Nuremberg]. An especially delectable Mara Corday is featured in "Keep Smiling;" "Skin Deep" involves a missing sister and a gigolo; "Family Affair" features a death plot against a wealthy old man (John Hoyt); "Killer from Nowhere" spotlights Wesley Lau from Perry Mason; and "The Painting" concerns a plot to "embarrass" a senator via his philandering and desperate wife. The three best first-season episodes, arguably, are ""Pay Now, Kill Later," with Torin Thatcher as a man wrongly convicted of the murder of a business partner who's actually still alive; "Vendetta," in which Edie is shot by a man bent on vengeance against Gunn; and especially "Love Me to Death," a twisted tale with Jeannette Dolan as a wealthy spinster and Robert H. Harris as a fortune hunter. Directors for the series include Boris Sagal [Mike Hammer], Lamont Johnson, the aforementioned Robert Gist, and even Jack Arnold [Tarantula].

And then there's that sensational, sexy theme music by Henry Mancini, which seems to be fondly remembered by people who can barely remember the show or have never even seen it!

Verdict: Okay, maybe not a great show like Perry Mason, but often very entertaining and well-done. ***.