Murder by Contract **** (1958, Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi) – Classic Movie Review 7,607

The outstanding 1958 B-movie film noir crime thriller Murder by Contract stars Vince Edwards, cast against type as an existentialist hit man. Martin Scorsese praised its ‘economy of style’ and named it ‘the film that has influenced me most’. 

Director Irving Lerner’s outstanding 1958 B-movie film noir crime thriller Murder by Contract stars Vince Edwards, cast against type as existentialist hit man Claude, a ruthless and efficient contract killer hired by a mobster to eliminate a woman witness before she can testify against him.

The police guard her day and night, but that is not Claude’s concern. It is her femininity that bothers him, because he thinks that women are unpredictable and therefore more complicated as his targets. Unusually for a movie hit man, Claude is unwilling to carry a gun. Claude has a casual approach to the business of murder, spending the first several days of his visit to Los Angeles sight-seeing instead of planning the killing.

This stark and unsentimental thriller digs deeper than most into the mind of a professional murderer, and a disturbing feeling of detachment pervades the whole picture. Shot in a sparse and gritty style ahead of its time, it engrosses and impresses. The film is rightly admired for its spare style and its sense of cool, and the normally smooth and even sometimes rather smarmy Edwards does extremely well to convince as the killer. The movie has influenced many American film-makers, notably director Martin Scorsese, who named it ‘the film that has influenced me most’ and praised its ‘economy of style’.

Perry Botkin’s atmospheric score and Lucien Ballard’s striking cinematography contribute greatly to the mood.

The film was shot in seven days in February 1958 in Los Angeles and released in December 1958 in the US.

Also in the cast are Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel, Michael Granger, Frances Osborne, Cathy Browne, Joseph Mell, Steven Ritch, Janet Brandt, Davis Roberts, Don Garrett and Gloria Victor.

Murder by Contract is directed by Irving Lerner, runs 81 minutes, is made by Orbit Productions, is released by Columbia Pictures, is written in an original screenplay by by Ben Simcoe, is shot in black and white by Lucien Ballard, is produced by Leon Chooluck, and is scored by Perry Borkin. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Ben Maddow worked uncredited on the film.

Though not widely seen in 1958, it finally appeared on 3 November 2009 on DVD, included in the box set Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1 (The Big Heat / 5 Against the House / The Lineup / Murder by Contract / The Sniper).

The cast are Vince Edwards as Claude, Phillip Pine as Marc, Herschel Bernardi as George, Caprice Toriel as Billie Williams, Michael Granger as Mr Moon, Cathy Browne as Mary, Joseph Mell as Harry, Steven Ritch, Janet Brandt, Davis Roberts, Don Garrett and Gloria Victor.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7,607

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