After Police Detective Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotton) accidentally kills the wife of bank robber Leon Poole (Wendell Corey) in a shoot-out, the soft-spoken Poole vows revenge.  Three years later, he escapes prison and heads for Los Angeles, leaving a trail of dead bodies along his route.  His plan is to even the score by killing Wagner’s now-pregnant wife (Rhonda Fleming).

CRITIQUE

I first saw The Killer is Loose when it was first released in theaters back in 1956, and I recall thinking then, at age 15, that it was a tense, quite good little thriller.

Viewing the movie today, this Budd Boetticher-directed drama still has some moments that will shock and keep you on edge, but it is also terribly dated.

Hollywood’s police movies in the 1950s were a far cry from the gritty, violent cop films and television shows that we see today and that have been around since the 1970s.  There was no S.W.A.T. back then to take down armed criminals who were holed up somewhere, and there was no “Down on the ground!  Hands behind your back!” 

Movie cops in the 1950s were more like Sgt. Joe Friday of Dragnet, clean-cut and polite, even to the worst criminals.  On the other hand, they were quicker to shoot their weapons back then than they are now, because in 2011 they not only fear Internal Affairs investigations, but also civil lawsuits filed by citizens.

The Killer Is Loose was made on a modest budget and, today, seems a bit dialogue-heavy for a thriller.  [Dialogue sequences are usually quicker and easier to shoot than action scenes, which is why one finds so many of them in lower budgeted films.]

Nevertheless, the story is involving and Boetticher moves the action along at a fairly steady pace. 

Joseph Cotton delivers his standard solid portrayal and the other performances are also fine, with Wendell Corey, as the killer, being particularly effective in a role that’s a far cry from the good guys he usually played.

I also liked Rhonda Fleming as Cotton’s wife, even though her role, as written, is poorly conceived.  As my wife said after watching the movie, “This woman is stupid!”

Bottom line: The Killer Is Loose is an okay way to spend 73 minutes.

THE VIDEO

As part of MGM’s “Limited Edition Collection,” this is a “burned,” as opposed to a “pressed” DVD, and is manufactured from the best elements available, when you order it from Amazon.com on demand.

The full screen black-and-white picture is a bit on the soft side.

THE AUDIO

The Dolby Digital Mono Sound is clear.

THE EXTRAS

None

FINAL THOUGHT

Taking into account that the film is over fifty years old, The Killer Is Loose is still a pretty good little thriller, enhanced by a fine performance by Wendell Corey.