They Made Me a Killer

Satisfying noir B-feature that does everything it needs to do in little more than an hour. The screenwriter billed here as Geoffrey Homes (Daniel Mainwaring) was the screenwriter and original novelist of Build My Gallows High/Out of the Past, and also wrote The Big Steal and Baby Face Nelson among others. The dialogue is clipped and menacing ("We'll bump him on the way," one of the heavies says casually) and the often claustrophobic spaces are used to good effect. Robert Lowery, who played Batman in the 1948 movie serial, has the right air of the doomed noir hero initially caught between the hard-bitten gangster's moll and femme fatale, Betty, (portrayed perfectly by Lola Lane,) and the innocent and beautiful schoolteacher, June (Barbara Britton), who eventually decides to help him prove his innocence after he is unwittingly embroiled in a bank robbery which leaves two dead. The cast is uniformly good, and the tension never lets up. The DVD I saw was in very poor condition; I hope someone will set about restoring this film to its full glory. As Lem Dobbs said on the commentary to Double Indemnity: "There's no such thing as a bad film noir." This low-budget gem proves him right.

Traveling from Chicago to California, Tom Durling (Robert Lowery) finds himself framed for robbery and murder when he is duped into driving the getaway car for a bank heist. After an auto crash leaves Durling holding the bag with the legal authorities, he quickly escapes after being arrested and sets out to prove his innocence with the help of the slain bank teller's sister (Barbara Britton).

They Made Me a Killer was another of the low budget film fare from Pine-Thomas Productions which at the time was the B movie arm of Paramount Pictures. Pine-Thomas was known for making movies fast, cheap and profitable. At a compact 64 minute run-time, there isn't much in the way of character development. It's more a quick-fire series of events. Given it's slapdash nature you have to suspend some degree of belief and just enjoy the ride. Even though succinct, the script is really pretty clever and lively. 'Killer' doesn't quite have the same level of mood and ambiance as a movie like 'Detour', a movie of similar style and budget. This is largely due to the rapid pace. There really aren't any wasted or meandering scenes as Durling with single purpose tracks down those who set him up.

The cast plays it all pretty well and Lowery does a nice job as the framed-up scapegoat. While not likely to find it's way to many must see lists, 'They Made Me a Killer' is one of the better of the old cheapie crime flicks.

6 out of 10*

The plot's pretty conventional, but with an unusual wrinkle . An innocent guy is trapped into helping bank robbers execute a robbery, and now the cops are chasing him. As the pursuit goes on, he joins the robbers in their hiding spot. Now the question is which way will he go. Will he join the crooks or work with a girl friend to clear himself.

Hard to believe veteran leading man Lowery could work up such energy for a programmer considering he'd done about a hundred of them. But he does. In fact it's his energy and the glowing freshness of Barbara Britton that carry the film. Then too, Lowery's character, Durling, is none too moral, meaning he's really tempted to join the bad guys once he's on the lam. And that amounts to a good, human touch from outstanding scripter Dan Mainwaring. It also helps that director Thomas keeps things moving, though the corner shoot-out and the hospital escape appear awkwardly done. Add to the mix a fine supporting cast, especially spider woman Lane and housemother Risdon. But please tell me, where did wardrobe get that fur-collared overcoat that's about to swallow Lane's head and then maybe the world!

Looks like this is one of those 40's B's that was reaching for noir while remaining within the crime story genre. Anyway, the minor touches manage to lift results to the slightly-better- than-average category.

(In passing—I'd long thought the name Byron Barr in cast lists referred to an early Gig Young, the former being his real name, the latter his stage name. However, in researching this film, I discover there was in fact a second actor named Byron Barr who kept his original name, and he's the one in this movie. Of course, Gig Young remains the much better known of the two.)

A typical Hitchcock set-up: hero gets hijacked in a bank robbery, in the getaway the robbers kill a clerk, hero gets caught by the police and charged with the robbery, he runs away to eventually be rescued by a girl, who continuously saves the situation, combining her smartness with the hero's. Many scenes are shot in the dark when they constantly cut the fuses to make it difficult for the crooks, and you hear how hard they are fighting, but you cannot see a thing, until the fisticuffs are over with and the place is wrecked including some casualty. It is good for a B-thriller with appropriate music, but you wouldn't recommend it to anybody nor watch it again, no matter how much you missed on the way. But the trick with the juke-box heightens the quality of the plot and your interest, but still, you will be glad when it is all over.

Robert Lowery who did a few of those Pine-Thomas B films for Paramount stars in this one and he's played for a fool by Lola Lane and tricked into being the getaway driver in a bank robbery. A cop is killed and a bank employee who Lane was romancing to get some inside information on the bank is also killed.

When the cops catch up with Lowery he's in one big jackpot but manages to escape police custody rather cleverly I thought and he teams up with Barbara Britton who is the sister of the dead bank employee. They have to find the gang in order to prove their innocence.

Lowery is always a good hero in these films, he never quite made it to the A ranks as a star. One to watch out for is Elizabeth Risdon who plays a Ma Barker type who is the real mastermind.

As for the gang, fortunately Lola Lane uses jargon from her job which Lowery recognizes and is able to trace them. Good thing he recognized her slang or he and Britton would still be looking.

They Made Me A Killer is a nicely done action/noir type film.