Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Killer is Loose Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 12, 2017

It probably goes without saying that police sometimes make mistakes. Our recent cultural history in the United States has been littered with any number of examples where at least some people felt those sworn to uphold justice had in fact not done so, seemingly willfully, at least in some cases. That may be understandable if not always defensible in the jaded 21st century world in which we live, but in 1956, when The Killer is Loose was released, police were still held largely in high regard, especially in film and on television, where they were almost always the unmistakable heroes of the piece (there were certainly exceptions to be sure, but I’m speaking in broad generalities here). That’s one reason why this kind of middling noir has some unexpectedly interesting elements, for the film’s pretty basic plot does in fact hinge at least in part on an unwitting mistake the cops make while trying to bring a bank robber to justice (an early spoiler alert is posted here, and another will follow before the main body of the review, below, just in case). That mistake sets the robber off on a quest for vengeance, and the rest of the film plays out as a cat and mouse game between the culprit and an array of people, including a focal officer of the law, with whom he comes into contact. Briskly directed by genre stalwart Budd Boetticher, who is perhaps better remembered for his programmatic westerns, The Killer is Loose has some exciting moments but is probably a bit too pat to ever work up much angst, though it does offer the rare fifties sight of police making a tragic error which ends up having personal consequences for a detective named Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten).

Note: As was mentioned above, some potential spoilers are unavoidable in discussing the plot of The Killer is Loose, and so those not wanting to have some elements of the film revealed are encouraged to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.

It’s a testament to the acumen of Budd Boetticher that an apparently innocent set of shots of a midcentury Los Angeles neighborhood immediately pricks up the veritable hairs on the viewer’s neck, since there’s obviously something nefarious about to unfold. It’s curiously similar to another scene early in the much more recent Hell or High Water , which featured what I termed an almost subliminal sense of dread, something that is only increased once (as is the case in both films) a bank of some sort is shown as a focal building. (In a somewhat tangential element that some history buffs may find appealing, The Killer is Loose has some great, if at times fleeting, glimpses of Los Angeles neighborhoods in the mid-fifties.)

While there is in fact a somewhat predictable bank robbery early on in The Killer is Loose, scenarist Harold Medford engages in a bit of fairly artful misdirection by having a timid bank teller named Leon Poole (Wendell Corey) get good naturedly harangued by a customer who turns out to be his old World War II sergeant, Otto Flanders (John Larch). Flanders delights in reminding Poole of some “misadventures” during the conflict which earned Poole the nickname “Foggy”. A lot of this opening scene is framed so that Poole’s back is to the camera, but when a secretary becomes concerned about two strangers next to the safe, Boetticher has actor Corey turn around to show that his brow is beaded with sweat (see screenshot 1). Viewers might understandably conclude that “Foggy” is a nervous sort who has reacted badly to meeting an old war commander, but in fact there’s something else going on, though, again, there’s a bit of misdirection when Poole rather unexpectedly takes on the robbers, at least for a moment and admittedly without many consequential results.

Sam Wagner is of course the cop assigned to get to the bottom of the robbery, and a quick segue ultimately reveals that Poole himself is suspected of being involved. When the cops, who have been tapping Poole’s phone, get a lead, they show up to Poole’s place, where in a brief shootout they manage to kill Poole’s wife, a more or less innocent bystander (hence the foregoing information about police sometimes making mistakes). That sets up the main crux of the plot, where an increasingly deranged Poole, who is quickly convicted of the robbery and sent to prison, starts plotting his revenge against Wagner.

There are several interesting aspects to The Killer is Loose, but the film never really generates much actual suspense, even in a sequence where Poole, who of course escapes from prison, visits the hapless Flanders household, or, later, when he stalks Sam’s wife Lila (Rhonda Fleming). The film might have worked better had Sam shown some sense of remorse or at least passing unease about having killed Poole’s wife, but instead the film pretty much just has him shrug his shoulders and say a virtual “c’est la vie” (or “c’est la mort”, as the case may be). Perhaps even more debilitating is the casting of Corey in the bad guy role. He does okay as the supposedly hapless shlub in the film’s opening moments, but he simply doesn’t have the intensity that’s needed to adequately portray an unhinged convict who’s out for vengeance at any cost. A more brooding, viscerally dangerous sort like a Robert Mitchum could have torn into this material with a bit more gusto than Corey brings to it.

The Killer is Loose Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Killer is Loose is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of ClassicFlix with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. The film was lensed by ace cinematographer Lucien Ballard, incredibly never an Oscar winner despite an incredible career that spanned decades and resulted in any number of classic films (The Wild Bunch). If things are typically noir-ish here, Ballard still lights things evocatively, and a lot of the location photography is fun, as noted above. The transfer looks a bit dark to me, but that actually reinforces some solid blacks and well modulated gray scale, though it also tends to make some nighttime and/or dimly lit scenes have transitory issues with shadow detail. Grain is quite heavy but looks natural, after a pretty smooth looking credits sequence (there's also some very minor wobble during the credits). Fine detail is quite good in a number of close-ups. While there's nothing major to complain about in terms of damage, there are occasional minor signs of age related wear and tear. Clarity is generally very good, though occasionally somewhat variant, especially in what I assume were some second unit location shots (see screenshot 12). Some transitions in and out of optical dissolves can look a little ragged in passing (see screenshot 19).

Note: I experienced a kind of odd anomaly with this disc. It played fine on my standalone player and my PS3, but my PC disc drive did not recognize it as a valid disc, and it therefore would not play with PowerDVD.

The Killer is Loose Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Killer is Loose features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono track that exhibits a bit of expected boxiness, and which shows extremely minor signs of distortion during the opening credits underscore as well as a couple of subsequent cues, but which is otherwise sufficient to deliver dialogue with no noticeable issues.

The Killer is Loose Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There is no supplementary material included on this disc.

The Killer is Loose Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Killer is Loose kind of presages films like Cape Fear, at least in some respects, and I personally wondered how much more effective this film might have been had Cape Fear's nasty villain Robert Mitchum essayed a similar role here. There are occasional moments of angst in the film, with perhaps the single most effective sequence involving Flanders' wife. But even that points out a potential shortcoming that some viewers may experience—the "real" target, Lila Wagner, almost seems like an afterthought. Technical merits encounter occasional hurdles but nothing too serious. Baby Boomers may want to check this out for the supporting cast's pretty regular supply of character actors who were television stalwarts during the 1960s.