The Killer Is Loose

Budd Boetticher's 1956 film is a short, tight and unusually uneasy crime picture. After a bank robbery, a wiretap identifies the inside man as Leon Poole, a meek teller. During the arrest, detective Sam Wagner accidentally shoots Poole's young wife. At his trial Poole swears revenge, and when he escapes in transit his target is not Wagner but Wagner's wife. The tension comes from the audience knowing the killer's plan before the police do. Wendell Corey's Poole is nothing like a standard crime film heavy: quiet, orderly, and frightening for exactly that reason. Boetticher wastes none of his short running time and raises the pressure without showing violence. It is one of those fifties pictures treated as second tier that stands out within its genre. Who it's for: viewers who like classic American noir and suspense. Who it's not for: anyone uncomfortable with a plot built on a threat to a woman.