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Bookmark this pageMurder by Contract (1958)
Director: Irving Lerner
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A terrific, no-nonsense B movie which comes on like something by Jean-Pierre Melville: cool, calm and dispassionate. Edwards is Claude, a technician who goes into crime as a career move, to 'improve himself'. A series of hits later, he looks every inch the professional assassin, confident enough to take his time, competent enough not to fear detection. It isn't entirely his fault if something goes wrong on the big contract... Lerner and his superb cameraman, Lucien Ballard, make the most of a shoestring budget to produce a taut, spare, amoral film; it doesn't look restricted, it looks restrained. Well ahead of its time, too.Author: TCh
User reviews of this film
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- TuxGuys said...
- Posted on Nov 14 2007 03:48 Strange question: Who wrote and arranged the guitar music in the background? It sounds an awful lot like similar stuff that used to be heard during scene-changes in episodes of "The Beverly Hillbillies..."
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Cast & crew
Director: Irving Lerner
Producer: Leon Chooluck
Cast: Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernardi, Caprice Toriel, Michael Granger, Cathy Browne, Frances Osborne full cast
Genre(s): Film Noir
Duration: 80 mins
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