The Killer Is Loose (1956)
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60% of critics liked it
(5 reviews) -
50% of users liked it
(89 ratings)
In this thriller, "Foggy" (Wendell Corey) is a bank teller who got his nickname for the thick spectacles he must wear. Foggy is also an inside man for a gang of thieves planning to rob his bank. Unfortunately, their plan goes awry and he is arrested. During the ensuing scuffle, his wife is… More In this thriller, "Foggy" (Wendell Corey) is a bank teller who got his nickname for the thick spectacles he must wear. Foggy is also an inside man for a gang of thieves planning to rob his bank. Unfortunately, their plan goes awry and he is arrested. During the ensuing scuffle, his wife is accidentally killed and the crook blames the arresting officer (Joseph Cotten). While he stands trial, Foggy lets on that he plans on getting revenge by killing the officer's wife. Later he is transferred to a prison farm. The fearsome former clerk busts out of prison and kills a few people on his way to the policeman's home. The panicked policeman attempts to secure protection for his wife, but the cops decide to use the woman as a decoy to draw the criminal to them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Directed By
- Budd Boetticher
- Written By
- Harold Medford, John E. Hawkins
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
PG,
- In Theaters
- Jan 1, 1956 Wide
Critic Reviews
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Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television
Strange, moody film noir, filled with observations on daily life, technology and gender in the 1950's.
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Jeffrey M. Anderson, Combustible Celluloid
A rather creaky attempt at a film noir with very little of the psychological violence and use of landscape that would define [Boetticher's] later films.
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Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness
Plays out like some sort of slow-motion fever dream.
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Fernando F. Croce, Slant Magazine
Handed a narrative stuffed with cat-and-mouse violence, the filmmaker plays down dark hysteria in favor of grayish curtness, and the film is no less tense for that.
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Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
A typical 1950s noir.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Joseph Cotten
as Sam Wagner
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Rhonda Fleming
as Lila Wagner
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Wendell Corey
as Leon "Foggy" Poole
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Alan Hale Jr.
as Denny
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Michael Pate
as Chris Gillespie
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Virginia Christine
as Mary Gillespie
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John Larch
as Otto Flanders
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John Beradino
as Mac
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Dee J. Thompson
as Grace Flanders
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Paul Bryar
as Greg
