User reviews

Entertaining, low budget crime thriller.

Vince Edwards was tailor made for the role of Claude, a cool and calculating hit-man who has to bump off a beautiful woman before she spills the beans to the authorities about a certain criminal King Pin.

Edwards starred in several of these well crafted bargain basement efforts just before he became an international TV star as Dr Ben Casey.

Stylish direction and some interesting camera work compliment a thoughtful script. Be watching for one particularly unsettling scene which unfolds in a barber shop. Masterfully underplayed but makes a lasting impact.

Just like a sling - shot, this excellent little film is simple but highly effective.

A B-movie and something of a small classic comparable to Melville's "Le Samourai" which it may have influenced. Vince Edwards in his pre-Ben Casey days is the young man who actually wants to be a contract killer and the movie is about his somewhat clinical initiation into the job. Superbly written by Ben Simcoe, brilliantly photographed in black and white by Lucien Ballard and with a terrific yet simple score by Perry Botkin this movie comes close to perfection. It was directed by Irving Lerner who up to then hadn't really done anything of note, (perhaps he was just waiting for the right material). Edwards is superb as the almost overly confident killer who comes undone when he has to kill a woman. It's a very simple picture, in which almost all the killings are kept off-screen concentrating instead on the killer's psychology and how he goes about his work. Never a commercial success it has now build up a considerable cult following.

Selected for an important contract killing due to his detached and unemotional approach towards murder, an arrogant young assassin questions his own skills after discovering that his next target is a woman in this slick thriller. Vince Edwards is excellent as the confident contract killer who simply sees murder as a great way to supplement his income. Along the lines of 'Strangers on a Train', he also professes that "the only type of safe killing is when a stranger kills a stranger" and the film has some fun comic relief moments as he often unsettles two goons sent to accompany him. Solid as Phillip Pine and Herschel Bernardi are as the goons though, their purpose is never clear and film veers close to being a comedy at times with the goons and his failed attempts to kill the woman from afar. Generally speaking though, this is an intense and riveting thriller. The film benefits from a catchy, taunting music score inspired by 'The Third Man' and Edwards has an undeniably fascinating character. Is he worried about killing her because he has more moral fibre than he would like to admit or is it genuinely harder to kill a woman? Whatever the case, this is a fascinating look into a dangerous mind.

Frankly, I came in expecting little from this totally anonymous abbreviated 50s crime drama and left the theatre shocked at how much bang for my 67 minutes I got. I am hard-pressed to think of another movie of this length which accomplishes as much plotwise or entertains as much audiencewise as this thoroughly neglected late-50s gem.

Vince Edwards leaps off the screen with amazing charisma to burn and Bernardi and Pine are nearly as effective as the hapless bumbling mobsters assigned to chaperone him through his contract. Conflict, wit, suspense, and outright humor abounds in this simultaneously clever and tense little script. Even the non-existent production values are completely camouflaged by economic and nimbly staged set-pieces.

The ending is probably the one weak point... it's a bit sudden and anti-climactic given what the movie seems to be building to. However, the good performances, nifty cinematography (some good POV work), and satisfyingly unconventional script make this slightly warped b-movie a classic which deserves far, far more attention. Melodramatic? Hell yeah. But in the best self-aware and crowd-pleasing tradition. 9/10 and worthy of the time of any crime drama or noir fan. Trust me.

Murder by Contract (1958)

This cult-style low budget film is both fascinating and detached to the point of coldness (if not boredom), and whether you'll like or not might depend on attitude. The relentlessly cold-blooded murderous main character (played by Vince Edwards), in his late-50s handsome and sharply dressed style, is just false enough (if not exactly unconvincing) to keep the movie from taking on a life of its own in any conventional sense. We spend a lot of time watching this man get phone calls and then perform murders of various kinds (off camera, for the most part), and then zero in on the big one with a couple cronies watching. And yet he isn't especially fascinating or complex, just very hardened and determined. And so his functional presence, good looking as it might be to some viewers, isn't enough to lift up the movie.

And yet the story is told in such rapid, spare, and matter-of-fact terms it's downright original. I can't think of a movie like it, though I just happened to see "Blast of Silence" which is a far better low-budget story of a gunman, and it comes from the same period (1961). What helped that later movie, and many other offbeat non-Hollywood affairs, is all the location shooting (that is, the locations themselves were fascinating), and "Murder by Contract" almost studiously avoids any sense of place, or mood and ambiance from a place (except for bright, spare, fringe of L.A. stuff, which is nice). This series of mostly rooms and interiors (some with the same oddly speckled walls and doors) creates a blankness that is both drab and defining.

If this movie isn't really existential in the dramatic Orson Welles sense (or Carol Reed, or what the heck, Stanley Kubrick), the main character really is a film noir staple of a man out of place in the world and utterly utterly alone. His solution is a cold and increasingly false one--kill kill kill. For money, all toward some dream house on the Ohio River, of all places. I think the idea there is that his dream is actually modest, not some love nest in the south of France, but rather a place of honest comfort, like the farm Sterling Hayden returns to in "Asphalt Jungle." It may be no coincidence that Ben Maddow worked on the screenplay for both films.

So if you can adapt to the minimalist style (and acting), and absorb the rather intelligent cinematography by Lucien Ballard (a big name for this small film), you might start to see why it has such a lasting reputation. The music is pretty terrific, a kind of 1950s electric guitar ambiance ahead of its time. In fact, much of the movie is forward thinking out of desperation to make it cohere and succeed without any money. Director Irving Lerner (famously caught spying for the Soviets during WWII though never prosecuted) has had a long career as a secondary director or editor to some of the greats in Hollywood, and some of that talent and visual acumen is shown off here, whatever the larger limitations.

This is an effective, enjoyable low budget crime film shot in 6 days. It is carried by the handsome and charismatic Vince Edwards, in a role before he achieved TV stardom as Dr. Ben Casey in the early 1960s. I came across this completely at random on YouTube and it was a pleasant surprise. This is the type of B-movie that thrived on the youth-oriented, highly profitable drive-in movie circuit. I recommend this.

I first saw this movie when I was a kid and had a crush on Vince Edwards as Ben Casey. Well I am all grown up, no longer have a crush, and still think this movie was excellent for its time. The cold blooded approach of Edwards character Claude, his lack of affect, makes him more menacing than those shouting gun waving villains you usually see in film. This guy knows his job and that's all it is, a job. The music is so monotonous it fits the characters attitude (or lack of one). Even the other bad guys in the film know there is something not quite right about their hired gun. I liked it. Whenever it's on I make it point to try and catch at least some of it.

Vince Edwards is Claude, a college educated young man from a middle class background with a decent job who decides upward mobility can be achieved by becoming a contract killer. Claude is clever and carefully plans his hits. However, he proves himself to be too clever when hired to kill a female witness in a federal mob trial.

MURDER BY CONTRACT is a not bad, very low budget crime thriller made when the market for low budget crime thrillers was shrinking. Having the ruthless Claude come from a respectable background makes its slightly different from other films of this nature. The film at times shows some inventiveness in the camera work and editing. Phillip Pine and Herschel Bernardi give good support. There is one scene where Edwards is sent to kill a man on life support in a hospital. He sneaks in disguised as a doctor, which is rather ironic, considering future developments in Edwards career.

Murder by Contract is a unique little film. It operates within its own little hermetic (back- projected) world, and it is no accident that one of its main scenes is set on an abandoned film studio. Vince Edwards plays a disaffected antihero, and, with its brilliant minimalistic guitar score (by Perry Botkin) it could be possible to read this film as Jarmushian WAY avant la lettre! The ending is quite disappointing - the film just kind of peters out, but there are so many beautifully observed details along the way. Not for nothing is the great Lucien Ballard the cinematographer. But who is Irving Lerner and what happened to him? Hershel Bernardi plays such a perfect kind of Second Avenue Theater role as one of the two "boys" who are the hit-man's handlers, and the over-sensitive call-girl scene is hilarious. Highly recommended - see it in a theater if you can! A film like this makes me angry at films like the way - over-hyped Reservoir Dogs. That film is SO overdetermined - the antithesis of a modest work like this one, which only reveals itself to the patient viewer.

Martin Scorsese claims this film was an influence on his work.

"Murder by Contract" is a low-budget film from 1958 starring Vince Edwards. Edwards, known to us baby boomers as Ben Casey, had a particular look and quality that for a time served him well. He looked and talked like a tough guy. Here he's a guy who wants to make a lot of money and knows he can, given the right opportunity. He becomes a hit man, considering himself smart and detached enough to carry out any hit.

After a few hits, his boss assigns him to a biggie in LA. There he has two underlings attached to him. He drives one of them nuts, as he seems in no hurry to learn anything at all about the assignment, content to look at the sites. Finally he says he's ready for the details.

One thing no one had told him -- his hit is a woman who in a matter of days has to testify against his boss. Her house is surrounded by police, and she's guarded inside the house as well.

The tough guy shows some vulnerability. He can't do it, he says. Women are too unpredictable. He says he wants more money, double in fact.

Interesting crime drama. I have to say, it might have been better with another actor with more of a range in the lead. I think a smoothness and maybe a charm was called for that Edwards lacked. Just my opinion. The story is a cut above the usual routine B movies, though, and worth checking out. Also, it was shot in seven days -- given the shooting schedule, it's remarkable.

A brainy, philosophical hit man named Claude (Vince Edwards) does things his way. He's careful, patient, and plans meticulously. To him, killing is just a sideline, a way to pick up a few extra bucks. There's nothing personal about it; emotions are not needed.

I guess you could call this film a character study of a criminal, in the crime drama genre. But the film's main problem is a character that doesn't make sense. Given that Claude has a regular paying job, his motivation for wanting the extra money is dubious at best. Further, he tells us over and over that emotions don't pay. But when it comes time for the main contract his own feelings interfere. And he keeps making little speeches to others in an angry tone of voice. Maybe he just doesn't know himself very well.

In addition, I didn't care for his two criminal sidekicks: Marc and George. Their presence explains a lot of the plot; but a real hit man would not need them.

This is a low budget b-movie. The B&W cinematography is acceptable but bland. Some outdoor scenes are made using rear screen projection. Production values are sparse, especially indoor sets. But that spare, simple guitar score by Perry Botkin is terrific. It may be a spin-off of the score from "The Third Man"; but it's still great, and works quite well with the story. Vince Edwards gives a fine performance as Claude. Other performances range from mediocre to poor.

The script is the main problem here, and in particular the central character. "Murder By Contract" is a quiet film with little heavy-duty action or noise. Which makes that guitar score so effective and the best element of the film, along with the presence of Vince Edwards.

Claude (Vince Edwards) is a young man with a regular job, no history of trouble with the law and no chance of making any real money. He also has the brains and emotional detachment to make the big bucks as a hit man, and that becomes his new job title. A string of successful hits gets him sent to Los Angeles for his latest job. There he is accompanied by two goons: one who is perpetually nervous and the other who quickly worships the young man as a hero. The cold, ruthless hit man finally becomes unglued when he finds out that his latest target is a woman. She's a witness, set to testify against his boss, and guarded day and night by the police. It's her femininity that worries Claude: women are unpredictable, they don't do what you expect. Claude eventually proves that he is the unpredictable one and his own worst enemy.

This quirky crime film has the usual symptoms of a low budget and a tight shooting schedule: some poorly written scenes, poorly acted scenes and plot holes. But much of it works very well, especially the opening sequences depicting Claude's unusual job interview and his initial series of hits. I especially liked how the barber shop murder was handled. Vince Edwards is good in the lead, though he's better when he's not forced to mouth pretentious monologues that lay on the irony a bit too thick. (At one point I was reminded of Charlie Chaplin's fatuous comments about murderers versus soldiers in "Monsieur Verdoux.") The spare electric guitar score is effective. It's worth watching, especially since Martin Scorsese has acknowledged it as an influence on his films, notably "Taxi Driver."

Really interesting character and acting performance by Vince Edwards. Never saw this one before and was impressed. Although a drama about a contract killer there are actually some comical exchanges between Vince's complex character and his cohorts as they try to figure out what makes him tick. Interestingly the musical score reminds me of Italian movies. I recommend.

Murder by Contract Is regarded by Martin Scorsese as the film that has influenced him the most, and It's clear to see why. It's a cool, stylish noir, that was ahead of It's time, and It's clear to see It's Influence on films like L'assassino, Taxi Driver to name but a few.

Vince Edwards has a magnetic screen presence In this film as he plays an Ice cool, calculating hit-man named Claude. Who's trying to break Into the hit-man business, rather then spending the next 20+ years working a regular job to buy a house. Claude Is methodical and precise In his business, never allowing for emotion to get In his way. He never uses a gun or knife, as he never does anything Illegal that can get him caught. He's meticulous In planning out every murder, which makes It Intriguing to see him go about organising his hits. Things soon become complicated when he discovers that his next target Is a woman, despite assuming she was a man. The contract Is made even more challenging as she has round the clock Police protection.

Murder by Contract Is directed by Irving Lerner, and It has a fantastic stylish tone, It reminded me In a-lot of ways to Branded to Kill. He also does an efficient job of keeping the plot rolling without It every really lagging, except towards the end of the second act, when It plods along for about 10-15 minutes. Whilst It did have a couple of dull moments, and an ill thought out plot twist towards the end. It builds towards an effective, If minimalist climax that fits perfectly with the tone of the film.

It's a shame this film has become slightly forgotten as It's clearly had a-lot of Influence on Cinema, this Is a film that's ripe for being re- discovered by a new generation of film lovers.

Claude (Vince Edwards) wants to work for the never seen Mr. Brink as a contract killer. He meets with an intermediary who acts like he doesn't know what the guy is talking about, but at the end of the interview says he may call him - maybe tomorrow, maybe next week, maybe next month. So Claude stays patiently in his room waiting for this guy to call, which he does two weeks later.

So Claude is hired. You see him doing a few contract killings around town. In every case he's cool as a cucumber. Dispassionate is this guy's middle name. Fifteen minutes in Claude gets a contract in Los Angeles that pays five thousand dollars. The hit is going to be a star witness in a big criminal trial. This doesn't phase Claude. What does phase him is that the hit turns out to be a woman. Then he flips out. He says that it bothers him because women are unpredictable. Is he lying to himself? Is he actually more conventional that even he realizes? We shall see.

This is a most unusual noir, if you can even call it that. It rather defies categorization. Made by a low budget outfit, only Vince Edwards is a readily recognizable face, and his stardom came later, on TV. You never get a real handle on Claude. He keeps the facts brief for a reason - his profession. So you don't know the details of his upbringing or how he really feels about women. You only get a short soliloquy concerning how he feels about murdering for hire, that he has never been in trouble with the law, and that he left an adequate job to be a hired killer because he wants to buy a certain house on the Ohio River. There is a cast of memorable noir-like characters - a drunken maid who likes to spill the dirt, a lady of the - at the very least - early evening who unexpectedly has some useful info, and the two mobsters who are hired to escort Claude around town and make sure he fulfills his contract and who act as comic foils to Claude's laconic personality.

The dialogue is spartan, almost Beatnik like for the era. The score is unusual. Either a guitar or a mandolin playing. One particular piece of music was used in scenes from the Beverly Hillbillies that came along four years later, which makes for some odd mental imagery. I'd recommend it. It really is a most unusual crime film.

Claude like most other American is in pursuit of its dream. His day job doesn't cut it so he seeks employment as a hit man. Soon he is making great strides towards buying the house in the burbs by coldly offing a couple of mugs. When he goes out west to whack another target he hesitates because the victim is a woman. He wants more cash.

Murder by Contract is an over achieving B flic with a style reminiscent of Sam Fuller and a twist or two to keep things interesting. Vince "Ben Casey" Edwards as Claude utilizes his one dimensional style to convincingly portray the dispassionate terminator who also dispenses updated Schopenhauer philosophy to all within earshot. In one inspired scene he goes into a tirade when served a dirty coffee cup. Humiliating the waiter with his withering insults, it is a scene as violent as the hits.

More than once in the film director Irving Lerner diverts from the formulaic path to lend originality and ambiguity to character and scenes. The narcissistic Claude sexual orientation is questioned while an associate thug (Hershel Bernardi) questions his. He makes Billie, the female target, a drunken self absorbed shrew, thus enabling you to root for Claude.

There's a lot wrong with Contract (back projection that goes light and dark, a music score more appropriate for a Greek Island) but it makes the most of what it has with a touch of originality.

Murder by Contract is directed by Irving Lerner and written by Ben Simcoe. It stars Vince Edwards, Philip Pine, Michael Granger, Caprice Toriel and Herschel Bernardi. Music is by Perry Botkin and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.

Claude (Edwards) one day decides he's had enough of being a regular Joe earning regular Joe wages. He decides to become a hit man, and after enacting a few clinical kills he works his way into the confidence of the mysterious Mr. Brink. This earns him a "big hit" in Los Angeles, where he is to snuff out the main witness in a big upcoming trial. All is going well until he finds out the target is a woman, so where once Claude was calm and assured, he now becomes irritable and irked...

With the help of its appearance on the Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics DVD set, and a certain Martin Scorsese proclaiming it as one of the biggest influences on his career, Murder by Contract is getting the exposure it so dearly deserves. An odd, even kooky type of noir flavoured picture, it's a film that is like many of the late 50s film noirs that don't have the classic noir look. It's light, airy and set predominantly on the salty sea climes of the West Coast of America. It's with the characters, or in this case mainly the central character, where many of these "lighter" shot 50s crime movies get their noir worth. And Murder by Contract is a beaut in that respect.

He doesn't like guns!

For two parts of the running time it's a film oozing a sense of cool. Claude proves to be a calm and methodical protagonist, his dialogue sparkles with intelligence and sophistication, he knows the world and his place within it. Words like existentialism and spare, the latter of which Scorsese uses a lot, are words bandied about frequently in conjunction with Lerner's (City of Fear) movie. Those words signify how much of a great job Lerner and Ballard did, where shot in 7 days with a minimal budget they have crafted a picture of unique quality, where maximum impact is garnered from such minimal space and sequences. Perry Botkin's score also aids the oddness on offer, predominantly electric guitar based, it's a fusion of The Third Man and Zorba the Greek, unsettling and at odds with a hit man based yarn, yet sneakily putting a sense of disquiet into the mix.

I don't like pigs!

It's with the last third where film really comes alive, both physically and psychologically. Once Claude gets to Los Angeles and hooks up with Mr. Brink's men, Marc (Pine) & George (Bernardi), who are babysitting him while he enacts the hit, things change drastically. Marc and George are in turn fascinated and irritated by Claude's calmness, tagging along as Claude takes in the sights, gets a bit of R&R and generally chills out. But then it's revealed that the target is a woman and Claude changes, he become unglued. He tells all that a woman is not dependable, he wants double the money or he's not doing it. It's then where we realise there's Freudian repressions lurking underneath the once icy calm exterior. We recall his outburst upon finding lipstick on a cup, his irritation at the party girl sent to his room for company, again lipstick an issue. There's emotional scars and these are further given a scrape during the finale as Claude desperately tries to finish the job, his repressions leading to classic film noir closure.

A terrific little "B" noir, excellently constructed and acted, with dashes of uniqueness and sly characterisations. 8.5/10

I won't try to use fancy film-critic words or imagery. I'll keep this review in the spirt of this film -- compact, stark, economical.

This is like two movies -- the first half in new york, the second half in los angeles. The hitman monologues are, I hope, intentionally funny-campy-ironic. The strength of this crime noir is not plot. Its plot is not thin, but it's nothing to write home about.

This film sings on two points -- the character interplay, and the soundtrack. Yes, Jim Jarmusch will immediately jump to mind. Alarmingly so, as if Jarmusch jumped into a time machine to 1958 and inserted his own movie tracks into this one when no one was looking.

Of course, this film's music was very likely inspired by Orson Welles' The Third Man, from nine years prior to this. Come to think of it, the cinematography of that 1949 classic noir probably inspired this movie, too.

Yeah, the ending seemed off-kilter when compared to the rest of the movie. But its sin isn't too egregious.

Other reviews covered the rest pretty well.

After reading all the glowing reviews I was looking forward to seeing a gripping crime drama along the lines of The Narrow Margin. For me it was a disappointment. For one thing, the constant guitar music in the background was annoying and inappropriate. Obviously copying The Third Man. Between Pine and Bernardi's hapless mobster characters and Edward's methodical killer I was never sure if it was a comedy or a drama. I enjoyed Pine's and Bernardi's performances but I found Edwards trying too hard to act according to "The Method". I don't see any difference between how he plays this character and how he played Ben Casey. Not much acting range which is probably why he had one hit tv medical series and never made it in films or had more than one longish stretch on tv. The ending was a complete disconnect from the rest of the movie. The cold, calculating killer suddenly changes character and the female, who he says never stays still, suddenly stays still just for him. So much for their "deep" dive into his psychology. There are a lot of good noirs out there. This is not one of them.