The Sniper **** (1952, Arthur Franz, Adolphe Menjou, Gerald Mohr, Marie Windsor, Richard Kiley, Frank Faylen) – Classic Movie Review 7608

Director Edward Dmytryk’s 1952 thriller The Sniper is an excellent Fifties film noir-style crime drama that is made all the more powerful for being shot in a groundbreaking semi-naturalistic fashion.

In the story by Edward Anhalt and Edna Anhalt, a psychotic killer is on the loose, but the police can find no discernible pattern emerging in his apparently random assassinations of young brunette women.

Talented director Dmytryk, who was a master of Forties noir films but whose career later crumbled because of McCarthyite blacklisting, tailors the style to suit the subject matter, as the picture is less a thriller than a study in what makes an ordinary member of society transform into a killer.

Perhaps Arthur Franz is not wholly believable as the psycho sniper Eddie Miller, but Harry Brown’s taut screenplay, the inventive use of San Francisco as a location and the generally excellent performances from all involved, in particular Adolphe Menjou as the police lieutenant Frank Kafka, Gerald Mohr as Police Sergeant Joe Ferris, Marie Windsor as Jean Darr and Frank Faylen as Police Inspector Anderson, more than make up for this.

Getting the intriguing subject matter on screen in 1952 probably owes more than a passing nod to the style and taste of independent producer Stanley Kramer, better known as the director of worthy, liberal-minded, issue-led and political pictures such as Inherit the Wind and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. Edward Anhalt and Edna Anhalt also produced.

Also in the cast are Richard Kiley, Frank Faylen, Mabel Paige, Marlo Dwyer, Jessie Arnold, Lillian Bond, John Bradley, Harry Cheshire, Cliff Clark, Kernan Cripps, Steve Darrell, Dudley Dickerson, Paul Dubov, Byron Foulger, Robert Foulk, Harry Harvey, Al Hill, Mike Lally, Charles Lane, Paul Marion, Sidney Miller, Howard Negley, Max Palmer, Carl Benton Reid, John Pickard, Steve Pendleton, Grandon Rhodes, Frank Sully, Ralph Smiley, Ralph Volke, Harlan Warde, Aline Watson, Charles Watts, Billy Wayne, Jean Wiles, Robert B Williams and Victor Sen Young.

The Sniper is directed by Edward Dmytryk, runs 87 minutes, is made by The Kramer Company, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written by Harry Brown, based on the story by Edward Anhalt and Edna Anhalt, is shot in black and white by Burnett Guffey, is produced by Stanley Kramer, Edna Anhalt and Edward Anhalt, is scored by George Antheil nad is designed by Walter Holscher.

Guffey was also cinematographer on Bonnie and Clyde.

Edward Dmytryk (4 September 1908 – 1 July 1999) received a Best Director Oscar nomination for  for Crossfire (1947) but in 1947 he was named as one of the Hollywood Ten, blacklisted film professionals who refused to testify to the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating the McCarthy-era Red scare. They were all jailed for contempt of Congress. But in 1951 Dmytryk testified to the HUAC, rehabilitated his career, and was first hired again by Stanley Kramer in 1952.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7608

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