The Killer is Loose

While some directors are known for their rather lengthy movies -- David Lean, Francis Ford Coppola -- others are known for keeping their flicks pretty short. Take Budd Boetticher who over a long career in Hollywood directed 22 movies, many of them westerns and cop stories. Of the 22, just three actually run longer than 90 minutes. In fact, many barely top out at 80 minutes. But Boetticher was a director who packed everything in, made those short running times full of action and suspense.

Saying someone is a good B-movie director might seem like an insult, but what's wrong with knowing the formula, sticking to it, and releasing taut, well-told stories that don't dawdle with unnecessary scenes and stories? Boetticher is mostly known for his collaborations with western star Randolph Scott as the director-actor combo teamed up for a handful of classics like Seven Men from Now and Ride Lonesome. I haven't seen many non-western Boetticher movies but caught his police thriller The Killer Is Loose this week.

Trying to solve a bank robbery, detectives Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten) and Chris Gillespie (Michael Pate) and beat cop Denny (Alan Hale Jr) discover that the bank manager was involved with the hold-up. Heading to his house before the manager can run, they corner him, but Leon Poole (Wendell Corey) isn't going quietly. But in the standoff when the police finally burst in, Leon's wife is shot and killed by Sam when she runs into the room. Poole is sent to prison for a 10-year sentence, but not before delivering a message to Sam, "I'll settle this." Poole bides his time in prison, gets sent to an honor farm and promptly breaks out, killing several people in the process.

Wagner gets the call that Poole has escaped and knows that the convict turned murderer is going to come for his wife Lila (Rhonda Fleming). With the whole LA police force looking for him, can Poole still reach Wagner's house and even up the score? Sam certainly thinks so and sets up a dangerous trap with himself as the bait. Not a wasted moment here with a suspenseful manhunt story. Still, the police are pretty clueless at times, having Poole in their grasp several times only to let him slip through. Especially in the end, which is otherwise nicely nervewracking, the police see to not want to catch Poole. Just take him already!

Boetticher is guilty of one of my biggest pet peeves in the movies; the plot device necessary to keep the story moving because it doesn't make any sense in any other way. When cornering Poole in his apartment -- door locked, lights turned off inside -- Wagner and Gillespie smash through the door that Poole has already fired through twice. The detectives hit the ground and when someone enters the room (yes, Poole's wife), Wagner opens fire and kills her. What exactly was Poole's wife hoping to accomplish? Did she not hear the gunfire and yelling from her spot in the bedroom? Of course, Poole needs something to set him off and this episode does nicely.

Other than the rather forced twist, the story works well. Cotten does well with the world weary cop trying to protect his wife and keep her in the dark as to how much danger she's in. Fleming pulls the shrill wife off well who wants to know what is going on, but when she does find out, freaks out in a big way by threatening to leave her husband. The strongest casting is Corey as Poole, a pretty average guy with a normal life who is transformed into an eeriely calm murderer after his wife's death. He doesn't want to be pushed to violence, but when he is, watch out because he explodes in a big way. The character had to have some influence on Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Perkins for the portrayal of Norman Bates in Psycho as well. Good but not great police thriller with a few flaws.

The Killer Is Loose (1956): ** 1/2 /****