Shoot to Kill [Police Reporter] *** (1947, Russell Wade, Luana Walters, Edmund MacDonald, Robert Kent) – Classic Movie Review 12,128

The impressive low-budget quickie 1947 American film noir thriller Shoot to Kill [Police Reporter] stars Russell Wade, Luana Walters, Edmund MacDonald and Robert Kent.

‘A Newspaperman… A Grafting Politician… And A Beautiful Girl… In A Story Of Underworld Revenge!’

Producer/ director William Berke’s impressive low-budget quickie 1947 American film noir thriller Shoot to Kill, also known as Police Reporter, stars Russell Wade, Luana Walters, Edmund MacDonald and Robert Kent.

In the startling original screenplay by Edwin V Westrate, the hospitalised sole survivor (Luana Walters) of a car crash relates in flashback the events before the police chase that got the fleeing motor vehicle she was travelling in crashing off the side of the road.

Former gangster Dixie Logan (Robert Kent) is framed by the corrupt assistant district attorney Lawrence Dale (Edmund MacDonald) and sent to jail after false witness evidence in court, protesting his innocence and swearing revenge. Dale is ambitious and plans to take over as the new district attorney. Logan’s wife Marian Langdon (Luana Walters) gets a job as Dale’s assistant/secretary to gather evidence to expose his dishonesty and clear her husband’s name. She pretends to marry Dale to gain his trust, as thus she couldn’t testify against him, and gets help in her plot from friendly newspaper police reporter Mitch Mitchell (Russell Wade), who falls in love with her.

A model of low-budget quickie crime drama film-making, it is fast moving, dark toned and elaborately plotted, and delivered in style. How complex can you get in just an hour? This complex.

Luana Walters is splendidly tough and hard bitten, a monster but on the right side of the law, and, apart from the surprisingly honourable police reporter and the elderly retiring district attorney (Charles Trowbridge), all the men are terrible pieces of work, a ghoulish gallery of goons, and nicely inhabited by the roster of excellent, if lesser known character actors.

William Berke really pounds it along, with the help of imaginative noir cinematography by Benjamin H Kline and an exciting score by Darrell Calker, really getting into the spirit of the locale and the action.

American jazz pianist and composer Gene Rodgers appears on screen performing two of his own compositions: ‘Ballad of the Bayou’ and ‘Rajah’s Blues’.

The score is by Darrell Calker.

Filming location: Universal Studios, 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, as well as some exterior work.

Production company: Robert L Lippert Productions.

It was released on 15 March 1947 in the US by Screen Guild Productions.

It runs only 64 minutes.

The cast

The cast are Russell Wade as investigative reporter George ‘Mitch’ Mitchell, Luana Walters (billed as Susan Walters) as Logan’s wife Marian Langdon, Edmund MacDonald as the corrupt Assistant D A Lawrence Dale, Robert Kent (billed as Douglas Blackley) as former gangster Dixie Logan aka Judge Joel Conroy, Vince Barnett as janitor Charlie Gill, Nestor Paiva as gangster Gus Miller, Charles Trowbridge as District Attorney John Forsythe, Harry Brown as paid witness Jim Forman, Ted Hecht as paid witness Al Collins, Harry Cheshire as gangster Mike Blake, Robert Riordan as Ed Carter, Joe Devlin as Smokey, Man Tailing Dale, Eddie Foster as Bingo, nan tailing Dale, Frank O’Connor as Deputy Clem Sparks, Sammy Stein as Blackie, and Gene Rodgers as Piano Player.

Shoot to Kill [Police Reporter] is directed by William Berke, runs 64 minutes, and is produced  by William Berke.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 12,128

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com