Three Came to Kill

Air traffic controller John Lupton comes home to his house right by the airport to find that assassin Cameron Mitchell, and two assistants have taken over the place and are holding his wife and sister-in-law hostage. Mitchell has a contract to kill the premier of a country who is scheduled to take off on his shift, and wants Lupton to signal him; two bullets into the plane's gas tank, boom, and Mitchell leaves, with the women alive.

Edward L. Cahn directed this cheap knock-off of SUDDENLY, and not only is Lyn Thomas, as Lupton's wife, supposed to convey tension and fright by speaking slowly -- she doesn't -- but every time the action on the screen and James Blakely effective editing make the situation seem tense, a narrator breaks in to tell you what you're seeing on the screen, which ruins the pacing and atmosphere. Blame Robert Kent, who not only wrote the screenplay under a pseudonym, but produced the film. With Steve Brodie, Paul Langton, and Jean Ingram.