July 30, 2016

MURDER BY CONTRACT (1958)


From the film’s opening scene you experience the seemingly mundane life of an ordinary man. Perry Botkin’s minimalist guitar score, befitting an avant-garde film, fits the quirky central character, played by Vince Edwards. Not since the Zither from "The Third Man" has an instrument defined a film. Botkin slightly changes the tune and tempo during the climax to good effect. You may have the tune plunking in your head for another twenty-four hours. Added with some great camera points of view, this eighty-one-minute film has cult classic written all over it. The shoestring-budgeted film may bore you or suck you in. You will probably find the unlikely premise at least amusing.

Although Edwards, simply Claude here, has a decent job and pension, he wants to be a “contractor” to make money faster. He has a meeting with an undercover mobster. Out of respect for his occupation, Edwards is very well-mannered and admits he knows nothing about contract killing. Never done it before. But in a "CareerBuilder" upgrade, he would like to kill people for money. After waiting nearly two weeks for a return call, all the while staying fit by doing pull-ups and push-ups in his apartment, Edwards’ first contract has him posing as a barber in a period white banded collar shirt with its three-button closure on one shoulder. It would appear to be a costume screen test for television's Ben Casey. In fact, he is dressed the same for his second assassination actually in a hospital. His third contract is the operative who hired him. Directed by Irving Lerner, the actual assassinations are never filmed. The viewer's assumptions are violent enough, coupled with "Claude's Theme" by Botkin.

Now that Edwards has reached an acceptable level of murder, he is sent to Los Angeles where henchmen, Herschel Bernardi and Phillip Pine pick him up at the train station. Pine is already disgruntled because Edwards took a train rather than an airliner. With a tight window to do the hit, Pine's patience is running thin. I sense a Jack Lemon impersonation at times. He is beside himself with Edwards’ superior attitude. Exasperated, Pine calls the holier-than-thou hired gun, "Superman." Some truly humorous moments between these three. Barely acknowledging his companions, Edwards, in sunglasses and a calm, restrained voice, foreshadows the likes of Dirty Harry. Bernardi's reasoned character seems totally out of his element. Claude just wants to see the sights of Los Angeles before doing any killing. "Riding along" in a studio prop car signals budget restraints. But there is plenty of on-location filming for the transportation buff or the Los Angeles native. He is smart, cautious, and creative and it scares Bernardi. Edwards soon takes command of the daily routine and he will do the hit when he is good and ready.


Edwards is visibly upset when he is informed the hit is not a man. Men are creatures of habit. Predictable. Women are unpredictable. Hard to read. They are always moving about. His target is a high-profile witness, played by Caprice Toriel in her only acting role, before testifying against the henchmen’s own boss. She has a pretty nasty and ungrateful attitude toward her in-house police protection. To be fair, her lack of acting experience in finding the right balance between frayed nerves and anger is possibly due to her over-the-top performance.


Reminiscent of Wile E. Coyote, in a complicated process, he wires her TV to explode when she turns it on. But he did not count on a remote control keeping her a distance from the set. Drat! Next, Edwards searches a sporting goods store for the right weapon. A rapier? No. He considers a Gatling gun. Too much. He settles on a bow and arrows. Bernardi goes through intensive archery practice at a target inside Edward's motel room. A lot of woodwork damage will be noted later. Security is tight at the witness’s home. The only way to kill her is to shoot her as she instinctively opens the front door despite Edwards’ aversion to guns. As a distraction, Bernardi's bull's eye training allows him to shoot kerosene-tipped arrows randomly into the nearby brush, potentially setting half of California to flames. Claude pulls the trigger on the high-powered scoped rifle as the door opens. She falls.

The three operatives meet to share the good news based on the newspaper's headline. Then a shift that may leave you scratching your head, thinking the DVD skipped ahead several minutes or days. Somewhat out of the blue appears Kathie Browne, female escort when not typing by day. Edwards must have called an agency but why he is in such a foul mood is equally odd. Obviously, he has issues with women in general. His disrespectful comments roll right off her, however. No one could possibly live up to his superior expectations. Her role as a slightly ditsy, unassuming lady is noteworthy in her film debut, yet odd when after only a few sips of wine, she instantly becomes blotto. She freely shares inside information about who was actually murdered at the door and that the newspaper headlines were fake. All of which reveals why she was written into the script. Visibly rattled, Edwards now knows he actually killed the undercover policewoman. Double drat!

With this second foiled attempt, Bernardi and Pine now have orders to take out Edwards. Not to a diner. He suspects as much and the tables are turned. He obtains "ACME" survey blueprints of the estate and notes a large drainage pipe some distance away from the house. Once at the house, he then crawls through an outdoor grate that miraculously leads to the very room where a policeman is dozing. At this point, the film starts falling short of a perfect ending. Overtaking the officer with a blow to the head, he assumes the relief officer on duty as Toriel enters the room. Their scene together is implausible. An accomplished musician, she begins playing the piano to help calm her nerves. In fact, Edwards demands she play. And look straight ahead. She sees him take off his tie yet she still is able to play the correct notes. I said she was accomplished. Claude does not have the nerve to strangle her. She vows not to scream if he leaves. Thanks so much! The police throw tear gas down the drainage pipe during his escape. Triple drat! It makes for an abrupt ending.


Note: This is a B-movie that seems a decade ahead of itself in a number of ways. I recommend it. One of those quirky gems that few remember. Edwards is fine as a disturbed, angry human with no regard for the sanctity of life. To overcompensate for his aberrant behavior he has developed a superior attitude toward everyone else. I imagine this film disturbed a lot of young minds, including Martin Scorsese, who was highly influenced by it.

2 comments:

  1. Great post. Thanks for submitting to The Classic Movie Marathon Link Party

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  2. Not to repeat myself, Edwards career interests me, especially before his huge success with his moody, "Ben Casey" character on TV. Could even catch him singing on variety shows occasionally! I think his ego got out of hand for awhile.

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