Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
is neutral about it.
Budd Boetticher was a filmmaker of consummate skill and many surprises, as anyone who's seen his best Western dramas can attest. The Killer Is Loose (1956) only enhances his reputation in a totally unrelated genre, and in a stylistic mode that's about as far as he could get from his most familiar work. Using a cast of conventional -- albeit top-flight -- Hollywood professionals, Boetticher takes them out of the studio and puts them into an almost totally location-shot drama, and turns them loose in that naturalistic setting. The result is an array of performances that are as arresting as the script is filled with improbabilities; indeed, the narrative momentum of Boetticher's direction, coupled with a handful of excellent performances, overcomes a script that is just a little too heavy on coincidences to otherwise play true.
Wendell Corey gives the most startling performance of his career, almost unrecognizable as the alternately pathetic and terrifying Leon Poole, a bank teller/criminal-turned-psychopath who embarks on a trail of vengeance against the detective who killed his wife.
Joseph Cotten is less successful in essaying his role, of the police official being pulled in conflicting directions by the love of his wife and his devotion to his job, and
Rhonda Fleming gives her limited acting muscles the workout of a lifetime as the detective's wife, who is being stalked by a killer; their best work is matched shot-for-shot by
John Larch in a key supporting role. Coupled with Boetticher's knack for generating suspense with a camera move or an edit, the resulting movie is better than the story and allows one to willingly suspend disbelief.
Lucien Ballard's cinematography maintains a seductive hyper-realistic look, enhanced by the use of actual location shooting wherever possible; indeed, the Los Angeles locations and the pacing of the drama, coupled with a good scene between
Virginia Christine and Fleming, make parts of this film seem almost like they could be part of a
Dragnet feature film, and that's meant as a compliment to all concerned. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide