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Such a frustrating disappointment

Don't Believe the Hype

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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.

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 had never seen this movie before last night. It was a very different and interesting movie. The movie kept me on the edge of my seat because I didn't know how it was going to unfold. The movie starts out with the main character as a sort of boring, methodical killer, then you get to see his personality and hear his story of how he got to where he is. The two thugs he hooks up with are also interesting; they are not your stereotypical hoods. Both are different and wouldn't be mistaken for hoods while they tried to get Vince Edwards to set up the "hit". There are definitely enough twists with these two also to keep things going. The only thing I didn't like was the ending, which is sort of anti-climatic after the way Vince Edwards sets up his character. However, if you enjoy a suspenseful movie, watch this one, it kept twisting around.

Dreadful film with Vince Edwards as a smooth, unfeeling, hit man. He has a job with a pension but needs more money to buy his dream house.Edwards is as dull as the film. He comes off as an uncaring, robot-like individual. He kills for the sake of killing. He seems to be smart and so sure of himself. The latter leads to his downfall at the end.The dialogue and the 2 characters with him during his stay in Los Angeles come off as comedic at best. I thought the film would turn into comedy as Edwards is unable to kill the government witness. This film would have been far better had we known something more about the witness and the man she was going to testify against. What did he do? What's going on here? Very little according to my perspective.