Without Warning! *** (1952, Adam Williams, Meg Randall, Edward Binns, Harlan Warde) – Classic Movie Review 12,938

Without Warning! cinema release poster.

The 1952 American police procedural film noir crime thriller Without Warning! stars Adam Williams as a quiet gardener living in in a shack on a hill overlooking Los Angeles, who is a serial killer of blonde women.

‘KILL! KILL! KILL!  LOVE-KILLER STRIKES AGAIN! The high-voltage shock story that shows how he picked them up… how he kissed them… how he killed them!’

Director Arnold Laven’s 1952 American police procedural film noir crime thriller Without Warning! stars Adam Williams as Carl Martin, a quiet gardener living in in a shack on a hill overlooking Los Angeles, who picks up blonde women and murders them with garden shears. Edward Binns, Meg Randall and Harlan Warde also star.

The LA Police Detective cops (Edward Binns, Harlan Warde) set out to catch a husband, Carl Martin (Adam Williams), who turns mad serial killer after he is betrayed by his fair-haired wife and hunts down women of a similar blonde appearance.

The man continues to kill while police try to track him down, in this efficient, gritty but unattractive programmer.

The unfamiliar actors seem uncomfortable with the woman killer sleazy material, though the film is still quite well made in realist, black and white semi-documentary style, with some voice-over narration. It is of very considerable interest, though, and often quite intriguing and involving too.

The film is a bit of a lost and found story. Having apparently vanished, it was finally released commercially for the first time in 2005 on DVD, but before that it was considered lost and unavailable.

It is the first film from the Allart Productions production team of Arnold Laven, Arthur Gardner and Jules V Levy, who met in the US Army. Sol Lesser liked the film and picked it up for United Artists distribution.

The cast are Adam Williams as Carl Martin, Meg Randall as Jane Saunders, Ed Binns as Police Lt Pete Hamilton. Harlan Warde as Police Detective Sgt Don Warde, John Maxwell as Fred Saunders, Angela Stevens as Janet Collier (blonde), Byron Kane as Police Chemist Charlie Wilkins, Charles Tannen as Wolf, Marilee Phelps as Virginia, Robert Foulk as Motel Manager Wilson,  Connie Vera as Carmelita, Robert Shayne as Police Psychiatrist Dr. Werner, Lee Phelps as Police Coroner ‘Doc’, and the movie’s co-producer Arthur Gardner as Jackson, the Rapid Transit Cab Co. driver.

The Story without a Name was the original script title.

Release date: May 8, 1952 (US).

Running time: 77 minutes.

© Derek Winnert 2024 – Classic Movie Review 12,938

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