Shoot to Kill [Police Reporter] ** (1947, Russell Wade, Luana Walters, Edmund MacDonald, Robert Kent) – Classic Movie Review 12,128

‘A Newspaperman… A Grafting Politician… And A Beautiful Girl… In A Story Of Underworld Revenge!’

Producer/ director William Berke’s impressively low budget quickie 1947 American film noir thriller Shoot to Kill, also known as Police Reporter, stars Russell Wade, Luana Walters, Edmund MacDonald and Robert Kent.

In the original screenplay by Edwin V Westrate, the survivor of a car crash relates in flashback the events before the police chase that got the fleeing motor vehicle crashing off the side of the road. Former gangster Dixie Logan (Robert Kent) is framed by the corrupt assistant district attorney Lawrence Dale (Edmund MacDonald). Logan’s wife Marian Langdon (Luana Walters) gets a job as Dale’s assistant to gather evidence to expose his dishonesty and clear her husband’s name. She gets help from police reporter Mitch Mitchell (Russell Wade), who falls in love with her.

Gene Rodgers appears on screen performing two of his own compositions: ‘Ballad of the Bayou’ and ‘Rajah’s Blues’.

The score is by Darrell Calker.

Filming location: Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California.

Production company: Robert L Lippert Productions.

It was released on 15 March 1947 in the US by Screen Guild Productions.

It runs only 64 minutes.

The cast are Russell Wade as investigative reporter George ‘Mitch’ Mitchell, Luana Walters (billed as Susan Walters) as Logan’s wife Marian Langdon, Edmund MacDonald as the corrupt Assistant D A Lawrence Dale, Robert Kent (billed as Douglas Blackley) as former gangster Dixie Logan aka Judge Joel Conroy, Vince Barnett as janitor Charlie Gill, Nestor Paiva as gangster Gus Miller, Charles Trowbridge as District Attorney John Forsythe, Harry Brown as paid witness Jim Forman, Ted Hecht as paid witness Al Collins, Harry Cheshire as gangster Mike Blake, Robert Riordan as Ed Carter, Joe Devlin as Smokey, Man Tailing Dale, Eddie Foster as Bingo, nan tailing Dale, Frank O’Connor as Deputy Clem Sparks, Sammy Stein as Blackie, and Gene Rodgers as Piano Player.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,128

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