Murder By Contract

PG81 min

Synopsis

Noir could be subversive, fatalistic, and to paraphrase the great Robert Mitchum, such were the budgets that you could light them with a cigarette. In MURDER BY CONTRACT - the disturbing story of a hitman who drifts into his work as though it were any other form of business - the supposition that Claude (Vince Edwards) is an assassin who chivalrously won’t kill women is quickly upbraided when he admits it’s actually just because they don’t stay still long enough. What is more, director Irving Lerner (blacklisted during the McCarthy era witch-hunts) shot the film along the California coast in just one week.