Shoot to Kill (1947)

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Blistering performances.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is a cheap Lippert b-movie that overachieves its budget with such little extras as a great piano player, the solid Charles Trowbridge as a D.A., and some flashes of good cinematography. Taught with constant danger, it is sort of a hodgepodge of flashbacks, confusing plot twists and fast pace. The way it just keeps relentlessly forging ahead keeps you interested enough to see what happens next.Russell Wade, a nice guy type on-screen and off, is perfectly cast as the crusading newsman. Susan Walters, 35-ish veteran actress and no young piece of fluff, is convincingly hard as a strong-willed woman with big ideas. The villains are numerous (almost everybody is a villain) and are all well cast.Despite the flaws that are very well set forth by other reviewers in this section (probably better than I could recount them) this movie somehow kept me entertained, if a bit confused at times. So yes, it is possible to make a fairly satisfying film on a shoestring budget. That is the bottom line on "Shoot to Kill".

There's really nothing to recommend in this Lippert thriller of a game of political cat and mouse where the D.A. is out to frame a criminal and determined to keep the witnesses quiet. Told through a confusing flashback setting through the hospital room testimony of the survivor of a car crash, the film seems to have a ton of red herrings where every character seems to have some immoral motive for going after what they want. Even at just over an hour, this is an extremely difficult film to get into, so slow-moving and confusing I had to remind myself that I hadn't missed anything by falling asleep in the middle. The confrontation between the three key players at the end is the height of ridiculousness and destroys any attempt at believability that the film had strived to achieve.

SHOOT TO KILL is a nice paced crime drama that has Douglas Blackley playing a known gangster Dixie Logan who is framed by District Attorney Larry Dale(Edmund MacDonald). Logan's secret wife Marian Langdon(Susan Walters)takes a job assisting Dale in order to dig up proof corruption in the office and that Logan was framed. Helping Marian is ace reporter George Mitchell(Russell Wade)and not knowing her real situation falls in love with her. The story is being told by the pretty DA's assistant from her deathbed. Photography is top shelf and story does hold some suspense. A brief highlight is piano player Gene Rodgers playing the tunes "Ballad of the Bayou" and "Rajah's Blues". Supporting players include: Charles Trowbridge, Joe Devlin, Vince Barnett and Frank O'Connor.NOTE: Later Blackley changed his name to Robert Kent and Walters became Luana Walters.

I expected little from William Berke's 1947 Shoot To Kill. In fact, my expectations were so low, I left the DVD until late at night. I was just about to retire, but thought I'd take a quick look at the opening sequence. The movie hooked me straight away. Not only was Berke's direction way more polished than his norm, the movie was most atmospherically photographed by Benjamin Kline. Deft writing by Edwin V. Westrate also helped, and the actors were great too, especially Edmund MacDonald (who reminded me of a young Citizen Kane), heroine Luana Walters, reporter Russell Wade, gangster Robert Kent, the boogie-woogie piano player Gene Rodgers, and is-he-honest-or-is-he district attorney Charles Trowbridge (in noirish close-ups, giving the best performance of his lengthy career).