Did you people see the same film I saw?

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Murder by Contract Is regarded by Martin Scorsese as the film that has influenced him the most, and It's clear to see why. It's a cool, stylish noir, that was ahead of It's time, and It's clear to see It's Influence on films like L'assassino, Taxi Driver to name but a few.Vince Edwards has a magnetic screen presence In this film as he plays an Ice cool, calculating hit-man named Claude. Who's trying to break Into the hit-man business, rather then spending the next 20+ years working a regular job to buy a house. Claude Is methodical and precise In his business, never allowing for emotion to get In his way. He never uses a gun or knife, as he never does anything Illegal that can get him caught. He's meticulous In planning out every murder, which makes It Intriguing to see him go about organising his hits. Things soon become complicated when he discovers that his next target Is a woman, despite assuming she was a man. The contract Is made even more challenging as she has round the clock Police protection.Murder by Contract Is directed by Irving Lerner, and It has a fantastic stylish tone, It reminded me In a-lot of ways to Branded to Kill. He also does an efficient job of keeping the plot rolling without It every really lagging, except towards the end of the second act, when It plods along for about 10-15 minutes. Whilst It did have a couple of dull moments, and an ill thought out plot twist towards the end. It builds towards an effective, If minimalist climax that fits perfectly with the tone of the film.It's a shame this film has become slightly forgotten as It's clearly had a-lot of Influence on Cinema, this Is a film that's ripe for being re- discovered by a new generation of film lovers.

Hit man in Ohio (Vince Edwards) is flown to Los Angeles for his next assignment, and is momentarily rattled to find his next 'hit' is a woman. Tense, low-budget drama from director Irving Lerner (formerly an editor) and screenwriter Ben Simcoe was finished in just over a week, yet it has a sharp visual style that catches one off-guard, also a crisp, clear look courtesy of cinematographer Lucien Ballard. Edwards, swaggering with self-confidence, is well up to the acting challenge of portraying a killer-for-hire with no conscience, though his enigmatic early scenes working for Michael Granger's slightly-skeptical Mr. Moon are the film's strongest moments. Once the action moves to the California coast, the movie becomes a bit more conventional. Composer Perry Botkin contributes a deceptively simple but memorable theme. **1/2 from ****

(Some Spoilers) Dead serious in the job that he does Claude, Vince Edwards, is the absolute epitome of a gun for hire, or hit-man. Cold calculating and most of all careful Claude knows just how to deal not only with his victims but those behind the scenes who hire him to rub them out. We get to see just how disciplined Claude is in the first fifteen minutes of the movie when after having an interview with his soon to be boss Mr. Moon in how we see him going about in doing a number of "jobs" for him.Being told to stay in his hotel room for a call, and he's employment with Mr Moon will be terminated if he didn't answer, Claude never leaves the room for two weeks! Exorcising his very fit and well-developed frame while waiting, until Mr. Moon finally calls him. Giving a hit-job to do for the secretive Mr. Moon Claude does it with style by posing as a barber and slitting the throat of his victim. The next "job" that Claude does for Mr. Moon is at the hospital again posing as a doctor, a precursor to Edwards role as TV Doc Ben Casey, and suffocating his next victim, who's in intensive care by cutting off his oxygen. Finished and payed off by Mr. Moon for a job, or job's, well done Claude pays him an unexpected visit doing a hit-job on him running his startled ex-employer through with a switchblade ; Claude is now working for Mr. Moon's boss Mr.Brink who for reasons that only he knows had Mr. Moon terminated.Being paid $5,000.00, ten time his usual fee, Claude is given an all-expense paid vacation and two week stay in L.A to hit a US government witness who's to testify against his now boss Mr. Brink. Being put under the careful watch of his two mob controllers Marc & George when he arrived in the "City of Angels" Claude is soon to realize the devil in the details in his new job. The person Claude is to hit Billie Williams isn't his normal kind of victim. She's a woman who's not only Mr. Brinks ex-gun moll but who's also turning evidence against him.At first just sightseeing and going swimming and deep sea fish diving Clude waste almost all his alloted time in plotting the hit he was assigned to do for Brink. George & Marc get really ticked off at the careless and paranoid way Claude is acting after telling him who the person that he's assigned to knock off is to be. It's then where he for the first time in the film Claude actually shows some feeling for one of his victims.It's not that Billie is just a woman but that she's protected by dozens of police and federal agents. That makes the hit he's paid to do on her so difficult for Claude. After two aborted and messed up attempts on Billie's life, one which results in the death of an undercover police woman, Claude starts to feel that this job is jinxed and wan't out. Only to have himself then set up to be hit by his now angry and frustrated boss Mr. Brink. Having a far easier time in dispatching both his controllers George & Marc, who were secretly contracted by Mr. Brink to knock him off, Claude goes after and sets his gun-sight on Billie for what's now become for him personal not professional reasons. Being the perfectionist that he is Claude is now more then ever determined to finish the job that he was originally contracted to do $5,000.00 or no $5,000.00.One of the best movie about the inner workings and thoughts of a professional hit-man and how he operates in the world of crime. Never leaving any paper trail and always respecting, Claude tries not to use a gun on his job because their illegal, the law until he corners and rubs out his victim. Vince Edwards' cold-blooded portrayal of professional hit-man Calude is one of the best and at the same time most underrated performances of his career. Edwards presses all the right bottoms during the 81 minutes that he's in the movie where he goes form an almost zombie-like and mindless killer to a swathing and emotionally unstable kook. Who in the end when he finally has Billie right where he wants her to be, alone and in the house with him,he completely blows it and ends up with himself being blown away in return.

Murder by Contract is a unique little film. It operates within its own little hermetic (back- projected) world, and it is no accident that one of its main scenes is set on an abandoned film studio. Vince Edwards plays a disaffected antihero, and, with its brilliant minimalistic guitar score (by Perry Botkin) it could be possible to read this film as Jarmushian WAY avant la lettre! The ending is quite disappointing - the film just kind of peters out, but there are so many beautifully observed details along the way. Not for nothing is the great Lucien Ballard the cinematographer. But who is Irving Lerner and what happened to him? Hershel Bernardi plays such a perfect kind of Second Avenue Theater role as one of the two "boys" who are the hit-man's handlers, and the over-sensitive call-girl scene is hilarious. Highly recommended - see it in a theater if you can! A film like this makes me angry at films like the way - over-hyped Reservoir Dogs. That film is SO overdetermined - the antithesis of a modest work like this one, which only reveals itself to the patient viewer.