Murder by Contract (1958)

I'll tell you why so serious

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Martin Scorsese claims this film was an influence on his work."Murder by Contract" is a low-budget film from 1958 starring Vince Edwards. Edwards, known to us baby boomers as Ben Casey, had a particular look and quality that for a time served him well. He looked and talked like a tough guy. Here he's a guy who wants to make a lot of money and knows he can, given the right opportunity. He becomes a hit man, considering himself smart and detached enough to carry out any hit.After a few hits, his boss assigns him to a biggie in LA. There he has two underlings attached to him. He drives one of them nuts, as he seems in no hurry to learn anything at all about the assignment, content to look at the sites. Finally he says he's ready for the details.One thing no one had told him -- his hit is a woman who in a matter of days has to testify against his boss. Her house is surrounded by police, and she's guarded inside the house as well.The tough guy shows some vulnerability. He can't do it, he says. Women are too unpredictable. He says he wants more money, double in fact.Interesting crime drama. I have to say, it might have been better with another actor with more of a range in the lead. I think a smoothness and maybe a charm was called for that Edwards lacked. Just my opinion. The story is a cut above the usual routine B movies, though, and worth checking out. Also, it was shot in seven days -- given the shooting schedule, it's remarkable.

This seven day wonder holds up pretty well considering how much tougher crime films have become since the demise of Hollywood's Production Code. Claude (Edwards) is one self- assured tough cookie, a killer with a philosophical bent. All in all, he's a rare bird, a Zen artist practicing the rare art of assassination. He does things his way or not at all, a stylish loner among a crowd of inferiors. Plus, with a name like "Claude" he better be good. But now he's got to take out a nervous woman in a hillside house surrounded by cops, and that presents him with a real challenge. Worse, his two local contacts, Marc and George, aren't much help. In fact all Marc (Pine) can do is whine since he's never been exposed to a Zen master like Claude. So, it's quite a contest, the ultimate in contract killers versus the LAPD, 1950's style. My one gripe is with the unimaginative ending. Given Claude's unique character, something more ironical than a commonplace shootout is needed, drainpipe or not.Edwards is excellent as the assassin, an icy exterior on top of an icy interior. Too bad Pine overdoes his loudmouth skeptic bit; you just know he'll get his, and it can't be too soon. On the other hand, is Bernardi as George, just then coming off the Hollywood blacklist, and fine as Marc's quiet counterpart. But my money's on kittenish Kathie Browne—what a dish. Note how the Code makes her Claude's dinner companion, and God forbid, not his bed companion, even when she's clearly a part-time call girl.But there's one scene that has stayed with me over the years. The fastidious Claude gets served a dirty cup on his breakfast tray at a hotel. Being the perfectionist he is, he berates the luckless waiter who's served it. Now, catch Joe Mell as the Bassett-faced waiter. He stands there with a single, dullish expression unlike any other I've seen. It's a perfect contrast in intelligence that each plays to the hilt. Note too, how even Claude is finally moved by the waiter's dull wits, giving him a five-dollar tip!Anyway, the film's a B-movie sleeper if there ever was one. Lerner directs writer Simcoe's tight little screenplay with flair and efficiency. I love obscure little triumphs like this, especially when contrasted with Hollywood's many overblown epics that are too often a waste of film. But certainly not this little gem.

Murder by Contract is directed by Irving Lerner and written by Ben Simcoe. It stars Vince Edwards, Philip Pine, Michael Granger, Caprice Toriel and Herschel Bernardi. Music is by Perry Botkin and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.Claude (Edwards) one day decides he's had enough of being a regular Joe earning regular Joe wages. He decides to become a hit man, and after enacting a few clinical kills he works his way into the confidence of the mysterious Mr. Brink. This earns him a "big hit" in Los Angeles, where he is to snuff out the main witness in a big upcoming trial. All is going well until he finds out the target is a woman, so where once Claude was calm and assured, he now becomes irritable and irked......With the help of its appearance on the Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics DVD set, and a certain Martin Scorsese proclaiming it as one of the biggest influences on his career, Murder by Contract is getting the exposure it so dearly deserves. An odd, even kooky, type of noir flavoured picture, it's a film that is like many of the late 50s film noirs that don't have the classic noir look. It's light, airy and set predominantly on the salty sea climes of the West Coast of America. It's with the characters, or in this case mainly the central character, where many of these "lighter" shot 50s crime movies get their noir worth. And Murder by Contract is a beaut in that respect.He doesn't like guns!For two parts of the running time it's a film oozing a sense of cool. Claude proves to be a calm and methodical protagonist, his dialogue sparkles with intelligence and sophistication, he knows the world and his place within it. Words like existentialism and spare, the latter of which Scorsese uses a lot, are words bandied about frequently in conjunction with Lerner's (City of Fear) movie. Those words signify how much of a great job Lerner and Ballard did, where shot in 7 days with a minimal budget they have crafted a picture of unique quality, where maximum impact is garnered from such minimal space and sequences. Perry Botkin's score also aids the oddness on offer, predominantly electric guitar based, it's a fusion of The Third Man and Zorba the Greek, unsettling and at odds with a hit man based yarn, yet sneakily putting a sense of disquiet into the mix.I don't like pigs!It's with the last third where film really comes alive, both physically and psychologically. Once Claude gets to Los Angeles and hooks up with Mr. Brink's men, Marc (Pine) & George (Bernardi), who are babysitting him while he enacts the hit, things change drastically. Marc and George are in turn fascinated and irritated by Claude's calmness, tagging along as Claude takes in the sights, gets a bit of R&R and generally chills out. But then it's revealed that the target is a woman and Claude changes, he become unglued. He tells all that a woman is not dependable, he wants double the money or he's not doing it. It's then where we realise there's Freudian repressions lurking underneath the once icy calm exterior. We recall his outburst upon finding lipstick on a cup, his irritation at the party girl sent to his room for company, again lipstick an issue. There's emotional scars and these are further given a scrape during the finale as Claude desperately tries to finish the job, his repressions leading to classic film noir closure.A terrific little B noir, excellently constructed and acted, with dashes of uniqueness and sly characterisations. 8.5/10

The gay lovers in "The Big Combo" are a fascinating touch. The relationship between Eli Wallach and Robert Keith in "The Lineup" is complicated and intriguing -- and plausible.But back then, homosexuality was still classified as a form of psychiatric illness. And in those two films, as well as in the one at hand, we have gay hit men. Are the portraits meant to include gay men in the mainstream or are they meant to suggest that one is the same as the other: being gay and being a killer? Please understand: I have no personal information about Vince Edwards. He was in the "Ben Casey" series before I had access to television and he became a star. Here, though he is the character of the title.And though he is not overtly gay, I have to think this movie was quite a turn-on for gay men in those repressed times: It opens with Edwards shaving while wrapped in a towel. We see him naked from the waist up, we see him in a bathing suit. Many times.And he is not only a hit man but he is also a loner. A meticulous loner. And he says on many occasions throughout the film that he dislikes women; that they have no place in the world.The movie itself is spare and fairly effective. If its equivalent were to come out today, it would likely play at Sundance.The primary female role is played as highly unsympathetic. She is also played as rather butch.So where does that leave us? More to the point, where did it leave the viewer in 1958? It isn't the sort of movie about gay men that came a little later in which they were either mocked or in which they committed suicide. But the characters are cold, soulless.That's kind of a broad generalization, isn't it?