Please Murder Me! ** (1956, Angela Lansbury, Raymond Burr, Dick Foran, John Dehner, Lamont Johnson, Denver Pyle) – Classic Movie Review 11,440

Angela Lansbury stars as an unfaithful murderess, defended in court by loving lawyer Raymond Burr.

Director Peter Godfrey’s 1956 film noir thriller Please Murder Me! stars Angela Lansbury and Raymond Burr.

Angela Lansbury was in a low spot in her career when she starred in this muddled, unsurprising and artificial B-thriller about an unfaithful murderess Myra (Angela Lansbury), defended in court at her trial by defence lawyer Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr), who loves her.

The film starts with Carlson buying a pistol at a pawn shop and going to his office, where he puts the gun in a desk drawer with a file folder, and begins to dictate a message into a tape recorder to District Attorney Ray Willis (John Dehner). Carlson reveals he is to be murdered in an hour and tells his story in extended flashbacks.

Carlson told his best friend Joe Leeds (Dick Foran) that he is having an affair with his wife Myra. When Leeds is found dead, Myra explains that Joe became irate and threatened her physically, forcing her to shoot him in self-defense.

Having got Myra off, she plans to start her life again with an artist, Carl Holt (Lamont Johnson), but Carlson plans to force her to murder him so that she will still pay for her crime.

Even in these humble, often risible circumstances, Lansbury and Burr (both cast against type here) show their quality, and so do the rest of the stalwarts, largely rescuing a preposterous, cheap-looking and none too imaginatively made movie.

Also in the cast are Dick Foran, John Dehner, Lamont Johnson, Denver Pyle, Robert Griffin, Alex Sharpe, Lee Miller, Madge Blake, and Russ Thorson.

The screenplay is by Al C Ward and Donald Hyde, based on a story by David T Chantler and Ewald André Dupont.

The film is in the public domain and available for free viewing online on the Internet Archive, YouTube, and on other streaming sites.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,440

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com