Murder Is My Beat (1955)

Lack of good storyline.

Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Am I Missing Something?

I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Copyright 1955 by Allied Artists Pictures Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: 27 February 1955. U.K. release through Associated British-Pathé: 7 November 1955. Australian release through Paramount: 8 April 1960 (sic). 6,940 feet. 77 minutes. Cut to 70 minutes in Australia.SYNOPSIS: The body of a Mr. Deane is found with his head in a fireplace, his features burned beyond recognition. Police detectives Ray Patrick and Bert Rawley arrest a nightclub singer, Eden Lane, for the crime, and she is convicted. While Ray and a police matron travel with her to prison, Eden sees a man through the train window that she identifies as the Deane she was convicted of murdering. Ray believes her, and he and Eden leap from the train when it slows for a grade. They walk back to town and days pass while they search in vain. COMMENT: The script reads like a 25¢ novel and production values are modest - but I liked it. In the hands of director Ulmer and photographer Wellman, it is often visually quite striking. Good atmosphere is built up, despite the constant use of studio cut-ins before an obvious process screen. And in thus one, super sexy Barbara Payton gives a quite creditable account of herself. (I think we can congratulate Edgar G. Ulmer for that otherwise incredible miracle, although I will admit that some of my colleagues went overboard for Miss Payton herself and even decried the fact that she was not nominated for an Academy Award for a "brilliant performance that permits the suggestion of instability beneath the surface calm of the character's visage.")

A man is found with his face in a fireplace, his face burnt to a crisp. Since his hands are also in the fireplace, there are no fingerprints. If only the detective had realized he was in a movie. Then he would have known that whenever a character in a movie is supposedly dead, but either his corpse has never been found or is disfigured beyond recognition, then that character is not dead. Examples of movies with a missing corpse are "My Favorite Wife" (1940) and "Mr. Lucky" (1943); examples of disfigured corpses are "Laura" (1944) and "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984). By the time the detective realizes this, it is too late. We have already had to sit through a movie that is both dumb and boring.

This is no masterpiece but is a modestly entertaining crime movie...not "noir" by any stretch either but the performances from a good group of "B" players are not bad, and anyway you don't get too much chance to see Barbara Payton in movies. Just don't expect any competition for The Big Heat or The Maltese Falcon and you should have a good time!

Edgar G. Ulmer has a cult following because devotees claim he was able to transcend low budgets and produce films of genuine quality. However, when Ulmer wasn't involved with the material, his films were as routine as any other hack director working under similar circumstances. Such is the case with MURDER IS MY BEAT, a routine "B" thriller about a policeman who risks his job to help a girl wrongly sentenced for murder and find the real killer. The film doesn't have much visual interest, something Ulmer often injected into his films, many of which were made under shakier conditions than this. If you want to know why Ulmer has a cult following, don't see this but go see DETOUR or THE BLACK CAT.