Post by petrolino on Apr 21, 2018 20:42:13 GMT
In the crime film 'Shoot To Kill', private secretary Marian Langdon (Luana Walters, aka. Susan Walters, Luanna Walters, Junie Walters) provides the scoop behind a fatal "accident" to investigative reporter George Mitchell (Russell Wade).
The black-hearted noir 'Shoot To Kill' opens with a bullet car chase that leads to a vehicle ploughing down a steep hillside uncontrollably. The accident leaves Marian Langdon fighting for her life in hospital but she has an important story to tell. Director William Berke's nasty crime programmer is scripted by author Edwin Victor Westrate of Muscatine, Iowa, one of Berke's regular collaborators in the 1940s. The narrative is so cleverly constructed, using a flashback structure to reveal its secrets, at one point it enters a flashback within the flashback. Controlling proceedings is Luana Walters as femme fatale Marian whose tilted black beret reveals a double-studded hair clip she likes to wear to jazz clubs. By day, Marian is a capable secretary whose office skirt clings closely to her figure and won't let go. Every chump thinks he has a chance with Marian but the only man who can captivate her for more than 5 seconds straight is a local piano player (a part played by Gene Rodgers who performs live).
There's corruption, lies, open brutality and horrific acts of murder in 'Shoot To Kill'. Berke and his cameraman Benjamin Kline (father of the great cinematographer Richard Kline) mix dutch angles, focus pulls, dolly rolls and intrusive close-ups to maintain an edge. Montage, dissolves, extreme perspective shifts and subtle smoke gestures flow freely as the camera tests the limits of the frame. A bruising extended set-piece at a criminal hideout is a highlight, leading to a thumping encounter on a staircase with a wobbly banister.
While the critics were often left unimpressed by William Berke's film work, it seems he earned the respect of some of his contemporaries. Sam Fuller and Berke both worked at Lippert Pictures in the 1940s - Berke would assist Fuller in the production of 'The Steel Helmet' (1951) - and Fuller understood exactly the extent of Berke's talents. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903, Berke also earned the respect of a director born in nearby Galesville in 1911, maverick filmmaker Nicholas Ray. Another midwestern filmmaker who praised Berke for his determination and resourcefulness was Robert Wise of Winchester, Indiana. Quickfire 'b' picture maker Richard Fleischer recognised Berke'e ability to turn out quality fare on time and budget.
'(Lookie Lookie Lookie) Here Comes Cookie' - Cleo Brown
'Shoot To Kill' is exactly as its title suggests. It's a cruel slice of film noir that takes no prisoners. In addition to Luana Walters' dynamic performance, there are sturdy turns from Robert Kent as recovering gangster Dixie Logan and Edmund MacDonald as District Attorney Lawrence Dale.
"Look hon, you're top shelf, you could get a job any place."
Bela Lugosi places Luana Walters under hypnosis
'When I Was All Alone' - Paul Williams
Bela Lugosi places Luana Walters under hypnosis
'When I Was All Alone' - Paul Williams
The black-hearted noir 'Shoot To Kill' opens with a bullet car chase that leads to a vehicle ploughing down a steep hillside uncontrollably. The accident leaves Marian Langdon fighting for her life in hospital but she has an important story to tell. Director William Berke's nasty crime programmer is scripted by author Edwin Victor Westrate of Muscatine, Iowa, one of Berke's regular collaborators in the 1940s. The narrative is so cleverly constructed, using a flashback structure to reveal its secrets, at one point it enters a flashback within the flashback. Controlling proceedings is Luana Walters as femme fatale Marian whose tilted black beret reveals a double-studded hair clip she likes to wear to jazz clubs. By day, Marian is a capable secretary whose office skirt clings closely to her figure and won't let go. Every chump thinks he has a chance with Marian but the only man who can captivate her for more than 5 seconds straight is a local piano player (a part played by Gene Rodgers who performs live).
There's corruption, lies, open brutality and horrific acts of murder in 'Shoot To Kill'. Berke and his cameraman Benjamin Kline (father of the great cinematographer Richard Kline) mix dutch angles, focus pulls, dolly rolls and intrusive close-ups to maintain an edge. Montage, dissolves, extreme perspective shifts and subtle smoke gestures flow freely as the camera tests the limits of the frame. A bruising extended set-piece at a criminal hideout is a highlight, leading to a thumping encounter on a staircase with a wobbly banister.
"In a 1954 interview, French director Jean Renoir said: “Don’t go thinking that I despise “B” pictures; in general I like them better than big, pretentious psychological films they’re much more fun. When I happen to go to the movies in America, I go see “B” pictures. First of all, they are an expression of the great technical quality of Hollywood. Because, to make a good western in a week, the way they do at Monogram, starting Monday and finishing Saturday, believe me, that requires extraordinary technical ability; and detective stories are done with the same speed. I also think that “B” pictures are often better than important films because they are made so fast that the filmmaker obviously has total freedom; they don’t have time to watch over him.”
'Shoot To Kill' (aka Police Reporter 1947) is one of those b-pictures so loved by Renoir. A 64 min programmer made by independent producer Robert L. Lippert, who over 10 years from 1945 to 1955 produced a swathe of el cheapo westerns and thrillers, 'Shoot to Kill' is a gem of a noir made by a bunch of stringers. Director William A. Berke made a stack of b’s from the early 30s through to the late 50s. DP Benjamin Kline also lensed 'Detour' (1945) for Edgar G. Ulmer. These guys in 'Shoot To Kill' take a taut script by Edwin V. Westrate about a corrupt and ambitious assistant DA, and fashion a movie of pulp poetry. Amazingly principal photography was completed in only five days."
- Tony D'Ambra, 'Shoot To Kill (1947) : Visual Poetry'
"Luana Walters was attempting a “comeback” in the film (she’s billed as Susan Walters) after a disappearance from movie screens for five years; as previously mentioned, she was a dependable leading lady in B-Westerns though I must reluctantly confess I know her better for her serial work: she was the delectably evil Fah-Lo-Suee in Republic’s Drums of Fu Manchu (1940) and the sullen Fury Shark in Captain Midnight (1942). (Cult movie fans probably will recognize her from 1937’s Assassin of Youth and as annoying reporter Patricia Hunter in the 1942 cheese fest The Corpse Vanishes.) The temporary name change didn’t jumpstart Luana’s career; she only make a few more motion picture appearances afterward (she was the first actress to play Superman’s mom Lara onscreen in the 1948 serial) before her death in 1963. Walters had a good many problems in her personal life (she had quite a heavy pull on the bottle) but I think it’s a crime that Shoot to Kill didn’t open more doors for her."
- Ivan G. Shreve Jr., Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear
'Shoot To Kill'
Gene Rodgers
'Shoot To Kill' (aka Police Reporter 1947) is one of those b-pictures so loved by Renoir. A 64 min programmer made by independent producer Robert L. Lippert, who over 10 years from 1945 to 1955 produced a swathe of el cheapo westerns and thrillers, 'Shoot to Kill' is a gem of a noir made by a bunch of stringers. Director William A. Berke made a stack of b’s from the early 30s through to the late 50s. DP Benjamin Kline also lensed 'Detour' (1945) for Edgar G. Ulmer. These guys in 'Shoot To Kill' take a taut script by Edwin V. Westrate about a corrupt and ambitious assistant DA, and fashion a movie of pulp poetry. Amazingly principal photography was completed in only five days."
- Tony D'Ambra, 'Shoot To Kill (1947) : Visual Poetry'
"Luana Walters was attempting a “comeback” in the film (she’s billed as Susan Walters) after a disappearance from movie screens for five years; as previously mentioned, she was a dependable leading lady in B-Westerns though I must reluctantly confess I know her better for her serial work: she was the delectably evil Fah-Lo-Suee in Republic’s Drums of Fu Manchu (1940) and the sullen Fury Shark in Captain Midnight (1942). (Cult movie fans probably will recognize her from 1937’s Assassin of Youth and as annoying reporter Patricia Hunter in the 1942 cheese fest The Corpse Vanishes.) The temporary name change didn’t jumpstart Luana’s career; she only make a few more motion picture appearances afterward (she was the first actress to play Superman’s mom Lara onscreen in the 1948 serial) before her death in 1963. Walters had a good many problems in her personal life (she had quite a heavy pull on the bottle) but I think it’s a crime that Shoot to Kill didn’t open more doors for her."
- Ivan G. Shreve Jr., Thrilling Days Of Yesteryear
'Shoot To Kill'
Gene Rodgers
While the critics were often left unimpressed by William Berke's film work, it seems he earned the respect of some of his contemporaries. Sam Fuller and Berke both worked at Lippert Pictures in the 1940s - Berke would assist Fuller in the production of 'The Steel Helmet' (1951) - and Fuller understood exactly the extent of Berke's talents. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1903, Berke also earned the respect of a director born in nearby Galesville in 1911, maverick filmmaker Nicholas Ray. Another midwestern filmmaker who praised Berke for his determination and resourcefulness was Robert Wise of Winchester, Indiana. Quickfire 'b' picture maker Richard Fleischer recognised Berke'e ability to turn out quality fare on time and budget.
"Richard Fleischer’s killers are ordinary men (or boys, in the case of “Compulsion”), physically undistinguished and almost faceless (literally so in the case of the haunting “Follow Me Quietly,” in which a detective constructs a blank-faced dummy to take the place of the murderer, a phantom stalker known as “the Judge”). They blend easily into Fleischer’s carefully observed backgrounds, none more smoothly and deceptively than John Reginald Christie (Richard Attenborough) of “10 Rillington Place,” the London landlord (and real-life figure) who raped and murdered several women and allowed the husband of one victim to be hanged in his place.
Violent death may seem a strange preoccupation for the son of Max Fleischer, the pioneering animator who produced “Betty Boop” and the best of the “Popeye” cartoons (directed by Dave Fleischer, Max’s brother and Richard’s uncle). But animation has always had its morbid, nightmarish component, and seldom more than with the Fleischers. (There are few films more disturbing than the Fleischers’ “Snow-White” of 1933, with its chorus of “St. James Infirmary Blues.”)
Whereas his father and uncle worked in fantasy, Richard Fleischer became one of the earliest un-self-conscious realists of American film. With extensive location work (perhaps mandated by minuscule budgets), Fleischer’s RKO B-movies — “Bodyguard” (1948), “The Clay Pigeon” (1949), “Trapped” (1949, made on loan to Eagle-Lion), “Armored Car Robbery” (1950) and “The Narrow Margin” (1952) — function as documentaries on a lost Los Angeles, given tension and style by Fleischer’s constant reframing of the action and elaborate camera movements."
- Dave Kehr, 'In a Corrupt World Where The Violent Bear It Away'
"William Berke was known as King of the B's. For years and years he had made nothing but pictures with ten or twelve day shooting schedules, minuscule budgets of about $100,000 and no stars. Without bothering with editing or any postproduction chores and with short shooting schedules, he was able to squeeze in eight or ten pictures a year. And he was going nuts."
- Richard Fleischer
William Berke's 'Cop Hater' (1958)
William Berke's 'The Mugger' (1958)
Violent death may seem a strange preoccupation for the son of Max Fleischer, the pioneering animator who produced “Betty Boop” and the best of the “Popeye” cartoons (directed by Dave Fleischer, Max’s brother and Richard’s uncle). But animation has always had its morbid, nightmarish component, and seldom more than with the Fleischers. (There are few films more disturbing than the Fleischers’ “Snow-White” of 1933, with its chorus of “St. James Infirmary Blues.”)
Whereas his father and uncle worked in fantasy, Richard Fleischer became one of the earliest un-self-conscious realists of American film. With extensive location work (perhaps mandated by minuscule budgets), Fleischer’s RKO B-movies — “Bodyguard” (1948), “The Clay Pigeon” (1949), “Trapped” (1949, made on loan to Eagle-Lion), “Armored Car Robbery” (1950) and “The Narrow Margin” (1952) — function as documentaries on a lost Los Angeles, given tension and style by Fleischer’s constant reframing of the action and elaborate camera movements."
- Dave Kehr, 'In a Corrupt World Where The Violent Bear It Away'
"William Berke was known as King of the B's. For years and years he had made nothing but pictures with ten or twelve day shooting schedules, minuscule budgets of about $100,000 and no stars. Without bothering with editing or any postproduction chores and with short shooting schedules, he was able to squeeze in eight or ten pictures a year. And he was going nuts."
- Richard Fleischer
William Berke's 'Cop Hater' (1958)
William Berke's 'The Mugger' (1958)
'(Lookie Lookie Lookie) Here Comes Cookie' - Cleo Brown
'Shoot To Kill' is exactly as its title suggests. It's a cruel slice of film noir that takes no prisoners. In addition to Luana Walters' dynamic performance, there are sturdy turns from Robert Kent as recovering gangster Dixie Logan and Edmund MacDonald as District Attorney Lawrence Dale.
