Kid Glove Killer

In Zinneman's directorial debut, as in most of his films, the emphasis is on the interaction among human minds, souls, emotions, words, and actions. Forensic pathologist Heflin tries to clear accused killer Quillan from being railroaded by radio cop Lee Bowman. Marsha Hunt is marvelous as the lady caught in the triangle. John Litel is memorable in supporting role.

The category for this movie might be 'mystery', the plot however certainly isn't. Within the first five minutes of the film you found out that Jerry is corrupt and you meet McKay, the man who'll certainly solve the crime. This makes you wonder why the movie would be interesting. Still, like most of Hitchcock's features, it's not what the movie is about, it's what you do with the plot that makes the movie. Zinneman's first is quite good for a debut: the film is sober but effective. The relation between McKay and his female assistant Mitchell is more interesting than 95% of the working relations you normally get to see. McKay's forensic quest is quite interesting too. Bear in mind that it's a debut and watch a very nice film.

Van Heflin plays the head of the police crime lab who investigates the murder of a district attorney and a mayor. His assistant (Marsha Hunt) is in love with him but he doesn't show her that kind of attention. So when his friend (Lee Bowman), a special prosecutor working for the mayor, starts romancing her we get ourselves a good old-fashioned love triangle. Heflin is terrific and has great chemistry with lovely Hunt. The killer's identity is easy to figure out. It's pretty much the most obvious suspect. But thankfully the film doesn't expect that mystery to play out too long and we're let in on his identity relatively quickly. Pretty good B movie from director Fred Zinnemann (his first film). The script is smart and the forensic angle is fresh for the time. The love triangle part of the story is weak but that sort of thing was very common back then.