Please Murder Me!

After receiving an acquittal for Myra Leeds (Angela Lansbury), the woman he secretly loves who, lawyer Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr) finds out that it wasn't such an open and shut case. She is guilty of murdering her husband (whom she'd been offered a divorce from), and Carlson's conscience won't allow her to get away with it. He now swears to devote his life to proving her guilt.

Oh man...

This is one of the most original murder mysteries I've ever seen. Even the beginning grabs you, as Burr goes into a pawn shop, buys a gun, then starts speaking into a tape recorder, explaining that in a short while, he'll be dead. From there, it just gets more and more interesting. This is super solid overall, as were the performances, which also included Dick Foran as the murdered husdand, and John Dehner as the D.A.

The overall rating is kinda average, but I'm so glad I didn't let that throw me off when I came looking up the synopsis before I watched. To say I was impressed by the story is an understatement. I'd love to see this one again someday once I've forgotten all the new revelations it throws at you.

The movie starts with Attorney Craig Carlson dictating the circumstances of his own upcoming murder into a tape recorder. Through a series of flashbacks we find out that he has a problem - his best friend's wife (Lansbury) comes to him for help in a divorce. Then another problem - he falls in love with her. Then another problem - she shoots her husband in self-defense. Now he has to defend her from a murder rap.

He gets her acquitted and they get engaged. All is well!! Of course not - why would the movie be over in twenty minutes? Let's just say that his tidy little circumstances rapidly grow complicated. His awareness of his changing situation, and his reaction to it, make for an interesting psychological development.

Burr was a good actor and the camera focuses in on his brooding face. It takes a while to find out that Lansbury's performance is more subtle than you might think.

The movie is economically directed - witness how the attorney picks up his gun in the opening shots. No dialog, just a brief sequence of visuals, and the plot advances. Well written, with good supporting performances, including a youngish and slim Denver Pyle. Nice unknown movie.

Don't know where this picture originated. There is no studio at the beginning of the credits and it doesn't look like a TV production, although several of the players went on to successful careers in Television. Besides Burr and Lansbury, John Dehner and Denver Pyle did lots of TV work on many different shows. It also May have been a 'B' from an obscure studio and played with a weak 'A' picture.

In any case, the end result is a watchable film well-acted by some old pros and without any outlandish plot device acting as a Deus Ex Machina - surprisingly well-written. The engrossing storyline makes up for some dead time in the middle. Not a bad effort all around.

A wife kills her husband, while she carries on an affair with his best friend who also happens to be a defense attorney.

Inexpensive little programmer that would work just as well as a movie made for TV. Still it has a good tight script, with a few twists, and two fine actors. It's Raymond Burr a year before Perry Mason and I expect his courtroom scenes here did a lot to win him the lead in Mason. He carries them off with real authority. Then there's Lansbury as the calculating ice queen, and I stopped counting her smiles after one. She does make a convincing spider woman, however.

There's little action, while the courtroom scene takes up a lot of time. Still the plot line is an interesting one of intrigue and misdirection. So there are compensations to the talky format. One does have to wonder, however, about attorney Carlson's (Burr) iron sense of retribution. It appears a key plot contrivance, but an interesting one given the circumstances of his guilt. Should mention, at the same time, the presence of the great John Dehner in the key supporting role of county DA. His is a familiar face from that time, and I don't think he ever turned in a second-rate performance, no matter the role. Anyway, it's highly obscure little movie, but not without compensations.

A mysterious stranger walks the seedy streets of a big city in a trench coat with the brim of his hat down low. The stranger stops in front of a business that -literally- has a PILE OF GUNS in the window display case and purchases a weapon. The opening credits explode onto the screen like gunshots as we see a close-up of the stranger loading bullets into the gun. Then the stranger goes into his dark office, sits at his desk, and records this story on a reel-to-reel tape recorder ...

"In exactly 55 minutes I will be dead!"

That stranger is Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr), Attorney at Law.

Then the Flashback: Craig is a very close friend to Joe Leeds (Dick Foran). They were war buddies, and after 15 years of friendship Craig must break the news to Joe that he is in love with his wife Myra (Angela Lansbury). Joe takes the news surprisingly well and tells Craig that he needs some time to sort things out in his head about how to move forward. Craig sees Myra later that evening and confesses what he did.

Then we see Joe arrive home to find Myra in bed reading a book. He enters, the door shuts, and we hear a gunshot! Myra is arrested for murder!

A good chunk of the film is about the court case. Naturally, Craig is Myra's lawyer and she is acquitted. The jury bought the idea that she shot her husband in self-defense.

Now that Myra and Craig are free to spend their lives together, Myra becomes curiously distant, and Craig discovers that Myra has a special friend ... the artist Carl Holt. So, maybe she was really guilty as charged and Craig saved her from the slammer?

Since Myra can't be tried twice for the same crime Craig hatches an elaborate plan to bring her to justice. And it's an unusual plan that he knows will end with his death.

This is a fairly good 50's Noir with an interesting ending.

Recommended!