Killer Is Loose, The (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Jan 28, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
Budd BoetticherRelease Date(s)
1956 (December 31, 2024)Studio(s)
Crown Productions/United Artists (Kino Lorber Studio Classics)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: B
Review
The Killer Is Loose brings to mind the adage “Revenge is a dish best served cold.” This noir thriller is a police procedural involving a bank robber’s obsessive drive to avenge himself against the cop who caused the death of a loved one.
Detective Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten, Shadow of a Doubt) learns that the inside man on a bank robbery was mild-mannered, bespectacled teller Leon Poole (Wendell Corey, Sorry, Wrong Number). Wagner and other officers try to arrest Poole at his apartment, but Poole has barricaded the door and refuses to come out. The cops break down the door and a gunfight ensues in the darkened apartment. Poole’s innocent wife is caught in the crossfire and accidentally killed by Wagner. Poole blames Wagner for her death and swears to get even.
Banking on good behavior to get himself out of prison early, Poole conducts himself with exemplary self-discipline and in two and a half years he’s offered the opportunity to work on the prison’s honor farm. This is his moment. Alone with a guard in a truck to deliver and unload boxes of produce, he kills the guard, escapes, and embarks on a path of deception and murder to reach Wagner’s home. But Poole’s target isn’t Wagner. It’s Wagner’s wife, Lila (Rhonda Fleming, Serpent of the Nile). Poole wants Wagner to experience the pain of loss he has harbored for years.
Wagner is unconcerned about Poole’s escape. With multiple police forces on high alert for the escapee, it’s unlikely that he will evade them all. Days go by and Poole remains at large but Wagner resists taking steps to protect himself. It’s only when he learns that it’s Lila who’s the target that a sense of real urgency takes over. Cotten deftly conveys Wagner’s evolution from quiet confidence in his ability to defend himself to fear for his wife that he masks behind subterfuges to save her from worry.
Corey, usually cast in secondary parts, gets a chance to sink his teeth into the meaty role of Poole. He’s adept at conveying the malevolence beneath Poole’s meekness. With a calm demeanor, soft tone of voice, and dead eyes, his Poole is frightening in his blandness. Without histrionics or mad outbursts, he conveys a deranged obsession nurtured for years of a seething desire for retribution.
Fleming plays the damsel in distress who doesn’t know it yet. Her Lila is convincing as the loving wife who wants nothing more than for her husband to leave the police force for a safer line of work. She seems too smart, however, to believe her husband’s elaborate ruse to keep her safe. It’s a problem with the script that Lila is dull enough not to recognize the danger she’s in but bright enough to devise a split-second strategy to protect herself when her life is on the line.
Director Budd Boetticher, known for a series of Randolph Scott Westerns, has created an uneven film noir in The Killer Is Loose. The police investigation that leads to Poole is treated routinely, as are the scenes between Wagner and his wife. Most of the action takes place indoors, likely for budgetary reasons. This gives the picture a claustrophobic look, more like a TV episode than a feature film. The director uses long takes to save money by avoiding multiple camera set-ups. Suspense escalates as Poole gets closer to the Wagner home and seems unstoppable. There’s one especially well staged, suspenseful sequence when, even with lots of cops staking out the Wagner home, a disguised Poole eludes them and closes in on his long-sought target.
Boetticher presents The Killer Is Loose as an unraveling nightmare as predator closes in on his prey despite the efforts of the authorities to find and stop him. Poole’s uncanny ability to avoid detection and stay several steps ahead of his pursuers builds tension and keeps the pace brisk and lean. The screenplay by Harold Medford shifts back and forth between the police attempts to capture him and Poole’s clever, sometimes deadly means, to avoid detection.
The Killer Is Loose was shot by director of photography Lucien Ballard on 35 mm black & white film with spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Newly remastered in 2K, the film looks fresh and sharp. Contrast and clarity are impressive, with moody lighting and night scenes giving the picture its noir quality. Structurally, the back-and-forth editing and quicker cutting between the cops trying to catch Poole and Poole closing in on Lila builds suspense leading up to the climax.
The soundtrack is English 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. Dialogue is clear and distinct. Corey adopts a gentle tone when he speaks, contrasting with his desire for murderous revenge. Lionel Newman’s score is serviceable but not especially memorable. It sounds like generic TV background music. Sound effects include screeching cars, gun shots, police sirens, a truck engine, and a door being smashed in.
Bonus materials on the Region A Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber Studio Classics include the following:
- Audio Commentary by Gary Gerani
- Trailer (2:18)
- Naked Alibi Trailer (2:18)
- Human Desire Trailer (1:57)
- Touch of Evil Trailer (2:12)
- The Killing Trailer (1:49)
- 99 River Street Trailer (2:14)
- The Turning Point Trailer (2:01)
- Detective Story Trailer (2:21)
- Odds Against Tomorrow Trailer (2:21)
- The Enforcer Trailer (2:06)
Commentary – Film historian and screenwriter Gary Gerani jumps back and forth between plot description and making-of information, resulting in a disorganized, if informative, presentation. He provides a brief career overview for Wendell Corey, mentioning his better-known films Rear Window, Harriet Craig, The Rainmaker, and Alias Jesse James. In the 1960s, Corey did lots of work on TV. The character of Poole becomes a “zombie” after his wife is killed, fails to accept his own part in the tragedy, and becomes driven by vengeance. Both Poole and Wagner are “relentlessly by the book, methodical to a fault, cool-headed, doggedly committed.” Poole is deeply wounded and in the position of striking back. The basis of the film is a story that appeared in the Saturday Evening Post in 1953. Appreciating its straightforward story line, 20th Century-Fox optioned it and scheduled it to be shot in the then-new process of Cinemascope. Originally Orson Welles was considered for the role of Poole and Victor Mature for Wagner. Filming was to start in March, 1955, but was delayed. Eventually Budd Boetticher was hired as director and the film wound up being produced by United Artists. Boetticher completed the film in less than three weeks. Reviews ranged from mixed to negative. Bosley Crowther in The New York Times thought the film was nothing new, praised Corey’s performance, but called the it third-rate. As with many B pictures of the 40s and early 50s, The Killer Is Loose has been regarded more highly in subsequent years as audiences rediscovered it. The film is “a little gem that was mostly forgotten for decades.”
The Killer Is Loose is a taut thriller with a fascinating villain, different from the usual gangsters and bad guys who inhabit films noir, but with lapses in logic and obvious plot contrivances. At a modest length of 76 minutes, it flies by, heightening suspense and underscoring the race against time to stop a determined murderer from connecting with his target.
- Dennis Seuling