The Killer Is Loose (1956) User Reviews (53)

A Budd Boetticher B

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 21 December 2008]

"The Killer is Loose" is a 1956 B film directed by Budd Boetticher, and it's pretty good. It stars Wendell Corey as Leon Poole, a man who is working in a bank when a robbery occurs. It doesn't take long for the police to determine that he's the inside man. They go to his house to arrest him, and he refuses to answer the door, shooting through it. The police break in, the lights are off, and Detective Wagner (Joseph Cotten) sees a form emerging from the bedroom and shoots, killing Poole's wife. When Poole is sentenced, he promises to pay Wagner back for killing her.

I've never understood what happened to Joseph Cotten's career, but by the '50s, he was appearing in B movies after being part of so many important films in the '40s. He's good in this, as is the beautiful Rhonda Fleming, who plays his wife. Corey is excellent as Poole, a disturbed man with a flat affect; he never knew any happiness until he got married and goes crazy when his wife is taken from him.

Good noir.

Monk on the wrong side of the law

[bkoganbing · 8/10 · 26 January 2007]

For those of you who are fans of the TV show Monk, The Killer Is Loose just might be a film to see. The film belongs to Wendell Corey in the title role.

Now I'm not saying that Corey's character is anything like the lovable, multi-phobic Adrian Monk. For one thing, Monk is on the right side of the law. But in the way that Monk was so fanatically attached to his late wife who was killed it strikes a similar note in me when I watched this film and Wendell Corey's performance.

The film begins with a bank holdup in which teller Corey tries to stop the bandits and is pistol-whipped. These guys however left a number of clues that point to an inside man. Police detectives Joseph Cotten and Michael Pate put a tap on all suspects. The tap points the finger at Corey as the inside man.

But in trying to take him, Pate is wounded and then Cotten fires through the closed door. When they open the door it's Corey's wife that is dead and Corey numbly and meekly surrenders to the police.

At his sentence Corey vows vengeance and later on much into his sentence he's given the honor farm for good behavior and kills a guard in his escape. He told cell-mates he was going to kill Rhonda Fleming who is Cotten's wife in retaliation.

The key scene in the film is when he holds his former army sergeant John Larch and his wife Dee Thompson as hostages while he figures how to get to Cotten. While they were in the service Larch did not really hold Corey in high regard in any case. He starts talking about his past and basically that he'd been an amiable screw-up, never really amounting to anything. The one person in his life, the one good thing he had was his marriage. His wife apparently was a lot like Trudy Monk, able to put up with a lot of insecurities. Like Monk, his whole world was shattered when she was killed.

Corey is a frighteningly ordinary man which makes his psychotic behavior all the more frightening.

Director Budd Boetticher, known primarily for those Randolph Scott westerns, gets a good performance out of the cast. But the film is dominated by Wendell Corey. It's a really good B noir film and shouldn't be missed.

Corey, the man with a murderous mission, could give you nightmares

[Handlinghandel · 8/10 · 17 November 2003]

Wendell Corey is superb in this. He's scary in the title role. In some ways, the costume or prop department deserves a lot of credit, because the glasses he wears makes him seem bland yet steady and menacing.

Joseph Cotten and Rhonda Fleming are not convincing cast as a cop and pregnant wife. Ms. Fleming seems ready to burst out of some of her costumes; but not in areas where babies are carried.

Both are good, though. John Larch and Dee J. Thompson are a c couple in the killer's path who are extremely hard to find sympathetic -- as unappealing the script calls for them to be.

Everyone is good in this frightening noir.

Skill and Economy

[grahamclarke · 27 February 2003]

Watching "A Killer is Loose" it's not hard to see how Budd Boetticher garnered a reputation as one of the top B movie directors. With the limited resources allotted to the makers of B movies, not to mention the casting of often second rate actors, a lot of skill went into creating the few B movies which have endured.

Boetticher gets good performances from leads Joseph Cotton and Wendell Corey (not strictly B movie actors) as well a surprisingly convincing Rhonda Fleming. The work of veteran cinematographer Lucien Ballard contributes much to the success of this taut, well written thriller.

While not a classic, its remains a fine example of its genre and worth a look.

Very mixed bag, the best parts making it worth the worst of it!

[secondtake · 6/10 · 9 December 2010]

The Killer is Loose (1956)

The first hour of this movie is really tight, very believable, nicely low key but still with some narrative excitement. Joseph Cotten is very good, and if the filming is straight forward, it's effective all the same. Then the last twenty minutes come along and what is supposed to be high drama (very intense stuff) is just so clumsy and fake you can't believe it's the same movie.

That, in a nutshell, is what will strike you. There are some elements of a cop being loyal to his job and the cop's wife not liking being a cop's wife. And the bad buy, a weirdly detached and offbeat killer, is played to perfection by Wendell Corey. There's even a cross dressing moment at the end which is fun and almost high camp.

But now I'm dredging for dollars. Enjoy the ride, but don't expect too too much.

Wendell Corey steals low-budget B-film as crazed killer...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 25 June 2009]

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.

Psychopath seeks revenge on cop who killed his wife.

[bmitchell94619 · 6/10 · 18 October 2003]

Very tight movie until the end. At that point it becomes completely illogical to drive a dramatic finish. However, it is still very enjoyable. Very different from todays crime movies. It's clear that the code is at hand with the separate beds for Cotten and Flemming and very little up close violence.

Terrific, perverse unknown B noir

[mgmax · 9/10 · 12 October 1999]

Although Andrew Sarris italicized it in the list of Boetticher's films in The American Cinema (meaning he recognized it as one of the more notable films on the list), I've never run across any critical comment on this film. Nevertheless, it's a real discovery-- imagine Cape Fear with Wally Cox in the Mitchum role and you get some idea. Corey (who usually played stiff bureaucrats and cops himself) gets the role of his life as a mild-mannered clerk turned crook who becomes unhinged and escapes with the plan to kill the cop who sent him up. What's creepy about him is that, like Norman Bates, he never even raises his voice-- and like Norman Bates, eventually he winds up in a dress (oh, it seems logical enough as a disguise, but it introduces an unmistakable air of sexual confusion and perversity into the violent climax that catapults the film into Fullerian ranks of psychosexual luridness). And if you want to know what Brian dePalma's been trying to do all these years with movies like Blow Out and Snake Eyes, just watch how effortlessly Boetticher plays out the climax over walkie-talkies (a sequence to rival Touch of Evil).

"Someday I'm gonna settle with you"

[nickenchuggets · 7/10 · 24 March 2023]

Once again, I can't help but draw comparisons between this rather lackluster film noir and Cape Fear, one of my favorite movies of all time. This film, while not having any of the big name actors of classic cinema I'm used to seeing (like Gregory Peck or Robert Mitchum) still manages to seize the audience with palpable suspense. Unfortunately, this only happens at any noticeable extent towards the end of the film. Before I get to that, I have to go over the rather generic storyline. A savings company gets held up by guys who have received insider knowledge from a bank worker named Leon Poole (Wendell Corey). Policeman Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten) and some of his men arrive at Poole's apartment to arrest him for his part in the crime, but after breaking in his door, his wife is accidentally shot to death. Despite this tragic loss, Poole is still sentenced to 10 years in prison. Before he's sent away, he vows to Sam's face that he's going to get even with him one day. Two and a half years go by. Sam is now working at a desk because his wife Lila (Rhonda Fleming) was worried he was going to get killed after Poole's vow of vengeance. At the same time, Poole has been assigned farming duty in prison for good behavior. Even though he looks like a mild mannered, awkward nerd at first glance, Poole hitches a ride with a farmer in a cabbage patch, and then murders him with the blade he broke off his hoe earlier. Using the farmer's truck, Poole closes in on the town where Sam lives, managing to bypass roadblocks because he looks unrecognizable without his distinctive glasses. After Sam is brought back to the police force to track down Poole, he learns that he wants to make him suffer the way he did by killing Lila. With no reason, Sam sends Lila to a hiding place, which leads her to believe he is using himself to attract the attention of Poole. The latter gets into the house of Otto Flanders and finds his wife in the kitchen. Otto was Poole's superior when they were in World War II, and Poole hates Otto now for saying he could never do anything correct back then. When Otto arrives home, he is held at gunpoint by Poole, who proceeds to shoot him and then steal his wife's raincoat. As Poole tries to hunt down Lila, Lila gets mad at Sam for appearing so absorbed in his job, thinking he loves it more than her. She has sense talked into her by another wife staying with her in the hideout. Finally understanding how stressed her husband must be, Lila decides to walk to his house and make up with him. As she arrives on his street, Poole, posing as Otto's wife with the stolen raincoat, shadows her as she goes down the sidewalk. Unbeknownst to him, numerous cops are having a stakeout and watch his every move. However, they can't take the chance and shoot this person with the outward appearance of a woman just in case it isn't Poole. Sam deduces that the way he's walking is proof enough that it's Poole and the cops open fire before he has a chance to shoot Lila. Poole collapses and dies on Sam's front lawn, and he and Lila are reunited. I noticed some other people who reviewed this movie have been saying it's unoriginal, and I'd probably have to agree. Although this film predates Cape Fear (and believe it or not, the book it's based on) I can't help but feel the vibes of that movie when I watch this. Both films have a psychopath trying to hunt down someone who helped put them in prison once. The director of The Killer Is Loose, Budd Boetticher, was known for making movies on really small budgets. It should come as no surprise then that he managed to shoot this in a little over 2 weeks. The film was basically made in a hurry, and it shows. Still, Cotten delivers an admirable performance as he has to balance his pursuit of putting Poole back where he belongs as well as making sure his wife doesn't leave him. Overall, this movie was pretty typical by my standards. It does get tense at certain points, but they're few and far between and only the final minutes felt truly suspenseful.

Some great stuff, but abounding in HUGE plot holes and dumb characterizations

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 2 February 2007]

First, I must point out that the role Wendell Corey played was exceptional. Usually, Corey was relegated to supporting roles but here he is what helps carry this very limp film. Without him and the character he played, the film would have been a lot worse--hardly meriting a 2 or 3.

So why did I hate the rest of the film so much? Well, one of my pet peeves is when characters act "too stupid to live". You can't base major plot points on the assumption that your major characters are completely stupid (unless having a brain injury is part of the plot, of course). But this is exactly what happens in this film. Wendell Corey is a crazed man who has murdered three innocent people and they know his next target is Joseph Cotten's wife. So what do they do? Yep, they provide really inadequate police protection and a plan that makes no sense at all (no marksman and guys with shotguns that are so far away they probably WON'T stop this madman). And if this isn't bad enough, the marked woman inexplicably runs away from her hiding place and walks right into the WORST possible place she could be! Is anyone THAT stupid?!?! Arrrggghhhh---I hate when movies have such dumb characters. In fact, I found myself rooting for Corey since I felt the idiots deserved to die for their behaviors! In addition to these clichéd characters, there was also a bit player who fainted. Sure, seeing your husband shot MIGHT cause someone to faint, however in real life this is a rare occurrence--people rarely faint unless there is a medical reason. So, combining this with the above character problems is a real nightmare for people who are looking for realism--something Film Noir movies MUST have.

All these serious problems are even more infuriating since Wendell Corey's character is amazingly well-written and conceived. It was his chance to shine as an actor--too bad the rest of the movie was so limp that Corey and the basic plot idea are sunk. This is one film that could really use a remake--but this time without brainless characters.

Wendell Corey not only kills, he steals the show.

[virtualband · 8/10 · 19 January 2009]

That's not a rip on Joseph Cotten, who solid as a mildly henpecked cop whose wife's primary nag is to ask him to quit police work. But after the end of the movie, I didn't remember the last name of Cotten's character (Wagner). Or the name of his regrettably still living wife (who cares?) at all. What I remembered was Leon "Foggy" Poole.

First, to correct something I saw in a couple other comments, the cops did not kill Mrs. Poole through the door. After Leon calls out the cliché "you're not gonna take me" and shoots from the apartment wounding an officer, the cops then break in guns firing.. but it's Mrs. Poole in the middle of the room while Leon is over in a corner. If the police had taken a split second to look where they were shooting, they would have gotten the right person. Which is what sends Leon over the edge

But Corey as Poole is, even as a killer, a sympathetic character. In the apartment after the shooting he seems more dazed than crazed as he asks Wagner "Don't you see how wrong it was to do that?" The movie then jumps to Poole's trial, where he gives the calmest revenge threat I've ever seen. This IMHO is what makes Poole so memorable... he's so matter-of-fact about what he's doing. No hysterics or foaming at the mouth. At Otto's house when Otto's wife asks why Poole had to come there, he replies, "I had to come somewhere" as if holding your former sergeant's wife at gunpoint after breaking out of jail and killing 2 people happened every day.

Later on after killing Otto he asks the room at large, "what else could I do?" after Otto essentially talked himself into getting shot by reminding Poole how much stronger/faster/fresher he was. By trying to talk Poole into giving up, Otto instead ensured his own death... A great bit of irony.

This movie's only real weakness is that that Rhonda Fleming lives through it. Some movies would simply be better if the villain had won, and this is one of them. The idea that Poole, who had doubtless been fixating on Wagner's wife throughout his trial, wouldn't recognize her when she walks by him on her way home is ridiculous. The only explanation for this is that at this time (1956), production codes would not allow the criminal to get away with it. However, they could have at least had Poole kill the wife then get gunned by Wagner. Then maybe a dying Poole could tell Wagner, holding the body of his wife, something like "now you know". Instead, after a great 70 or so minutes, the so-called climax left me going "oh please" followed by "that's it?"

But the first 65+ minutes of this movie more than make up for the last 5. If you get a chance to see this movie, do it, and just rewrite the ending in your head :)

An eye for an eye; a wife for a wife.

[michaelRokeefe · 7/10 · 26 June 2015]

Years have past since Detective Sam Wagner(Joseph Cotton)brought bank robber Leon 'Foggy' Poole(Wendell Corey)to justice and in the crossfire accidentally killed the crook's wife. When the once mild mannered convict escapes jail, he is crazed with just one thing on his mind and it is to get revenge by killing Wagner's wife Lila(Rhonda Fleming). The cops want 'Foggy' back behind bars and the idea comes up to use the beautiful Lila as bait. Wagner is not happy with the situation and is stressed with protecting his wife.

Corey is at his best in this role. Fleming proves her acting abilities in this Film-Noir. The usual stoic Cotton actually has emotions. The supporting cast includes: Alan Hale Jr., John Larch, John Beradino, Dee J. Thompson, Michael Pate and Don Beddoe.

Botched Boetticher

[st-shot · 4/10 · 26 June 2009]

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.

Minor Boetticher Not Without Fascination

[Kalaman · 14 December 2003]

Spoiler.

Boetticher made "Killer is Loose" the same year as his seminal and exciting Western "Seven Men From Now", the beginning of an impressive series of Westerns with Randolph Scott. In "Killer is Loose", a relatively minor effort, one gets the impression that Boetticher is merely doing routine job, which is to say there is nothing genuinely personal or elating about it.

Nonetheless, in its own ways "Killer is Loose" works and remains fascinating, sometimes terrifying film noir that packs a wallop thanks to its skill and compactness. The film anticipates Hitchcock's "Psycho" in its focus on the psycho killer on loose, brilliantly played by Wendell Corey. Joseph Cotten does a competent job playing the concerned cop. Rhonda Fleming, however, is surprisingly less satisfying than her other roles, like, for instance, the one she played so convincingly in Tourneur's "Out of the Past" and Lang's "While the City Sleeps". But I liked the way she handled the moment when the killer is stalking and walking behind her as she heads home and at the same time the police are watching them. The Walking and Talking sequence is brilliantly directed by Boetticher despite its abruptness. Overall, "Killer is Loose" is a good noir, but not one of Boetticher's best.

Wendell Corey as a Psychopath??????

[Bucs1960 · 6/10 · 16 July 2010]

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.

Superior well-acted doom-laden B-movie with slight shades of Hitchcock - and a creepy subtle villain.

[declancooley · 7/10 · 21 January 2024]

Two twists change this movie from what you expect to something else completely. In fact, the title doesn't even seem to match the plot, until those twists transpire. Then it hits its stride with a sense of lingering dread hanging over the proceedings, even when the antagonist is not on screen; actually it seems their absence simply serves to ramp up the tension - such is the skill with which this is directed and shot. Rhonda Fleming gives her usual slightly overwrought performance but it works for this movie as she senses the dangers others around her don't . Surprisingly, many scenes are written in far more depth and are acted with way more seriousness and earnestness (by Joseph Cotten and Wendell Corey) than they have any right to be in just a B-movie - but it works to add depth and empathy. Even the "killer" is not two-dimensional but seems plagued by doubts and confusion - all the while being quietly menacing, disturbing, and on the edge of an outburst of violence at any moment. There are touches of pathos, taut high-wire tension, intrigue and action - with at least one very memorable scene that still flashes in my mind - that make this a very worthy watch. Fans of Hitchcock will also enjoy the hints of perversion and cynicism - and some other key elements which that particular auteur would find appealing. A minor gem.

Change-of-pace for Corey in engrossing precursor to "Cape Fear"

[moonspinner55 · 6/10 · 12 September 2017]

Bank robber, cornered in his room by the police, refuses to give up and shoots at an officer; they return fire and accidentally kill his innocent wife. Two-and-a-half years after sentencing, the deceptively mild-mannered thief escapes from a prison work farm, kills a guard and a farmer, and sets out to kill the police detective's wife to avenge his own spouse's death. Interesting low-budget crime-melodrama, though one that's possibly too tidy and simple to make much of an impact. The dated police business seems very naïve, and most of the female characters are weak-kneed ninnies (a tiresome cliché); however, the usually-bland Wendell Corey gets a rare chance here to play the villain and he's very effective. Script by Harold Medford, from an original story by John and Ward Hawkins, has some amusing similarities to the later "Cape Fear". **1/2 from ****

Mediocre Crime Drama

[kenjha · 6/10 · 8 April 2011]

A bank robber escapes from prison and seeks out the cop who sent him up. Boetticher made this just before making his mark with a series of fine Westerns starring Randolph Scott. He really found his calling in Westerns, making only one non-Western after this one. He does OK in this short crime drama, but can't overcome the mediocre script. Cotten is earnest as the cop. Corey is effective as the disturbed, cold-blooded killer who targets Fleming, Cotten's wife, because the latter accidentally killed Corey's wife. Also playing cops are Hale (Skipper of "Gilligan's Island") and Beradino (long-time star of soap "General Hospital").

A Well-Written Revenge Thriller

[seymourblack-1 · 8/10 · 27 March 2017]

Surprisingly, for a movie that runs for only 78 minutes, "The Killer Is Loose" features a bank robbery, a jailbreak and a manhunt as well as a series of murders, a home invasion and a stalking sequence before eventually reaching its tense climax. More importantly though, it's a well-written revenge thriller that does a particularly good job of explaining the reasons for the killer's psychosis and by doing so with great pace and clarity, ensures that the story's excitement, suspense and enjoyment are all kept at a high level from start to finish.

One day, when he's carrying out his routine duties, bank teller Leon "Foggy" Poole (Wendell Corey) is confronted by his old Army sergeant Otto Flanders (John Larch) and immediately feels uncomfortable because this man habitually used to ridicule him when they served together in the South Pacific and unkindly named him "Foggy" because of his poor eyesight. Before they can become fully reacquainted, however, it becomes evident that the bank is being robbed and as the thieves make their escape, Poole is injured after trying to stop one of them from getting away.

Shortly after, when LAPD Detective Lieutenant Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten) is investigating, he quickly recognises that Poole was actually an accomplice to the heist and with a few of his colleagues, goes to the bank teller's apartment to arrest him. Unfortunately, whilst in the process of doing this, Wagner unintentionally shoots and kills Poole's wife.

Poole, who's devastated by his wife's death, is sent to prison for his crimes and becomes determined to take revenge by killing Wagner's wife, Lila (Rhonda Fleming). After a two and a half year period of exemplary behaviour, Poole is transferred to the state honour farm and uses the opportunity to affect his escape by killing one of the guards. He then also kills a neighbouring farmer so that he can use the man's truck and clothes to make his getaway without being recognised.

On hearing about Poole's escape, Wagner attempts to protect his now pregnant wife from any anxiety or danger by moving her out of their house temporarily and staying there himself in the hope that the killer will come looking for Lila and be apprehended by the police officers who are keeping his home under constant surveillance. Poole's progress is delayed by the various roadblocks that he has to contend with and after becoming tired and hungry, he makes his way to Otto's house where he terrorises his old sergeant's wife and demands to be fed. When Otto comes home, Poole kills him before continuing with his mission. Detective Wagner's plan seems to be working well until Lila fully realises what's going on and puts herself in danger by heading home to be with her husband.

Despite its modest budget, this movie features a good cast of actors whose performances more than adequately meets the requirements of their various roles. Wendell Corey, however, is exceptional as the soft-spoken killer who's quietly terrifying at times but is also quite vulnerable in certain ways because of the humiliation that he'd been subjected to in his life and the cruel way in which he'd lost the only person who'd never ridiculed him. The way in which Corey makes his psychopathic character's various qualities credible is tremendously subtle, well-balanced and totally convincing and also one of the most powerful reasons for watching this fine movie.

Gripping thriller rises above predictability.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 20 June 2012]

Wendell Corey is perfectly cast as the personality absent loan shark clerk who botches a robbery that ends up with police officer Joseph Cotten accidentally killing his wife. On his way to prison, Corey looks Cotten's wife (Rhonda Fleming) right in the eye and promises he will venge his own wife's death. Three years go by and Corey in prison is made a trustee, thus engineering his escape. The bodies pile up as Cotten learns that Corey has vowed to kill Fleming (an eye for an eye) and tries to prevent his frustrated spouse from becoming Corey's next victim.

Going down the territory of some earlier crime dramas and film noirs (there is a difference), this bottom of the bill feature is a gritty and non-pretentious view of the desperate hours after Corey's goals are revealed. There doesn't seem to be any way out but a predictable conclusion, but that really doesn't matter. As in the similar "B" sleeper "The Night Holds Terror", this film takes some interesting twists and turns, provides some real chills as potential victims of Corey's insanity show genuine fear. Having been beyond miscast as the romantic lead in such films as "The File on Thelma Jordan", "The Furies" and "Harriet Craig", the usually bland Corey shows more dimension here as a psychopathic nut job than in those dramatic potboilers which paired him opposite Barbara Stanwyck and Joan Crawford. A svelte Alan Hale Jr. ("Gilligan's Island") and a young John Beradino ("General Hospital's" long-time patriarch, Dr. Steve Hardy) are instantly recognizable as Cotten's co-workers.

This is a must for lovers of gritty crime drama and rises above what could easily have been an hour long episode of a 50's TV cop show.

Fast-moving but ultimately a disappointment

[dallesmac · 5/10 · 4 February 2013]

As a huge fan of Budd Boetticher's Randolph Scott westerns, I really looked forward to this 1956 thriller. Though it certainly held my attention, the movie was a disappointment. The tension it managed to create early on as Wendell Corey escapes from a prison trustee farm really went slack--done in by a lousy script. Boetticher keeps things moving, helped immensely by Lucien Ballard's terrific black-and-white camera work. But I don't get the feeling the director was very interested, aside from the scenes focusing on Corey. Other reviewers have rightly praised the scary, yet oddly sympathetic, character that Corey creates here. It's just too bad the script was so perfunctory. Rhonda Fleming seems right as police detective Joseph Cotten's wife, Lila, but her role is so poorly conceived (and she becomes so annoying), that I lost all interest and sympathy for her. The other big negative is Joseph Cotten, at 50+, too old for the police detective. Even worse, you can't watch him without seeing Joseph Cotten; he doesn't create a character and his movements seem all wrong as a cop. Great 1950's LA locales, though. And worth catching for Corey's performance.

A Bargain Bin "Cape Fear"

[evanston_dad · 8/10 · 19 August 2013]

This noir features Wendell Corey as a very creepy psycho in a plot that brings instantly to mind a much more famous movie, "Cape Fear." Corey is sent to prison for aiding a bank robbery. He escapes and comes after the detective that put him there in the first place, played reliably by Joseph Cotten. But Corey's way of realizing his vengeance on Cotten is by threatening Cotten's wife, played by Rhonda Fleming.

Corey plays the killer very quietly and emotionlessly, which makes him much scarier than if he had resorted to histrionics, and it makes the killings in the film, which are actually fairly shocking, much more effective because of their cold bloodedness. The film is dripping in a sweaty, tense atmosphere, and it's got a nail-biter of an ending. Women aren't going to be much pleased by the portrayal of the female characters and the way the film either disposes of them or has them do foolish things that service the movie's plot, but this was the 1950s, so we can't expect too much.

Grade: A-

Tit for Tat

[sol-kay · 6/10 · 27 January 2007]

**SPOILERS** Having it in for Det. Sam Wagner, Joseph Cotten, since he shot and killed his wife Doris when bank teller Leon Pool, Wendell Corey, was hold up in his apartment as he was holding off the police. Pool was part of a robbery, with him being the inside man, of the bank that he worked for and his actions lead to his innocent wife Doris losing her life. Sentenced to ten to twenty for armed robbery and resisting arrest Pool tells Det. Wagner at the conclusion of his trial that he'll get even with him by murdering his wife Lila, Rhonda Fleming, like he murdered his sweet and dear old lady Doris.

After almost three years behind bars Pool makes his long planned escape from the prison's "honor farm" for model prisoners where he ends up killing a guard and then taking off with the prison lettuce truck and then murdering a local farmer and taking off with his pick-up truck drivers license as well as identity. With the news that Pool's, together with a .357 magnum that he bought at a local hardware store, back in town and looking for action Det. Wagner's hide. The police inform Det. Wagner to be on the alert and also ,from information obtained from Pool's cell-mate, that he's determined to get Mrs. Wagner not the cop who shot and killed his wife Doris as an act of revenge on Pool's part.

Det. Sam Wagner trying to keep his wife Lila at ease doesn't tell her of Pool's real motives and that gets her to misunderstand the real reason for his actions and in the end almost leads her right into the crutches of the homicidal Leon Pool. Making his way to the house of his former army staff Sergent Otto Flanders, John Larch, Pool hold's Otto's wife Grace, Dee.J Tompson, hostage and when her husband shows up. Pool after having it out with Otto about how he mistreated him back at boot camp blows Otto away with a bullet right in his chest that went trough a milk bottle that Otto was slurping out of. Seeing her husband gunned down right before her eyes Otto's wife almost drops dead from fright.

Dressed in drag, in Grace Flanders' raincoat and rubbers, Pool stakes out Det. Wagner's house waiting to run into and murder his wife the almost clueless, in that Pool is really out to get her not her husband, Lila Wagner. Lila staying at a friends, the Gillespie's, house finds out the truth from an angry Mrs. Mary Gillespie ,Virginia Chrstine, who had just about all she could take, from the self-righteous and argumentative Lila, that it's her that Pool is after in order to get even with her husbands killing of his wife. That shocks the hysterical women, who was thinking that her old man was trying to be some kind of a hero, back to reality in that Sam was actually trying to take out the crazy Leon Pool by using himself as bait to get Pool as far away from her as possible.

Finding out the true purpose of Pool's escape Lila foolishly runs back home to come to Sam's aid only to run right into the now completely crazy, from lack of sleep and hunger, Leon Pool walking aimlessly down street in front of her and Sam's house dressed as an old lady for the films big gun blazing final.

Wendell Corey as the psycho killer Leon Pool made a name for himself here as one of the most unusual and creepy villains of film-noir movie history. A nut-case with an inferiority complex Pool was out to prove that he can cut it in life as a master bank-robber only to get himself messed up by not only losing his wife whom he claimed that he loved so much, but none the less dragged into his dangerous life of crime, in a senseless shootout with the police. Pool lost his life by losing his marbles and going psycho when he was just about to be released from prison, for good behavior, and start a new and crime-free life as a law abiding citizen.

Wendell Corey is outstanding, but the rest ?

[PaulusLoZebra · 5/10 · 25 January 2024]

The Killer is Loose is worth seeing for a great Wendell Corey performance. He is both interesting and truly frightening as a mild-mannered criminal, convict and war veteran turned revenge seeker. But every time he is off screen the movie flags badly. It has several other good points, namely a very solid supporting cast, a nice 50s LA vibe, and a very short running time. They packed a lot of action into 73 minutes, and I wish contemporary directors could learn that skill !

But the weaknesses here really hurt the final product. The plot had all the makings of a fine film, but at key turning points, especially in the second half, some of the story line got unbelievable, especially around Rhonda Fleming's character and Jospeh Cotten's. Fleming was clearly chosen for her beauty and physique, but her acting here was truly terrible. And I was perplexed and disappointed by the normally great Joseph Cotten's performance. Was he ill when he made this film ? He over-acted in most scenes, and didn't seem comfortable or confident.