No Time to Kill

Known as NO TIME TO KILL in its US form, this film is a footnote among cult-film fans because it was distributed in the USA by Jerry Warren's ADP films. In fact, a brief clip (about 30 seconds or so) of a robbery in an alley that comes about halfway through NO TIME TO KILL is used at the beginning of Warren's WILD WORLD OF BATWOMAN. However, for the film itself, it is shot in English (like Terror in the Midnight Sun), and somewhat minimalist in style. It almost plays like a longer, Swedish version of an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode, but with sex-starved female characters. Ireland plays a man who was jailed for a crime he didn't commit and who goes to Sweden to find the man actually reponsible. I won't give away the plot, but the title NO TIME TO KILL works on a number of levels. This plays very much UNLIKE an American crime film and is quite unlike French or German crime films. The Swedes clearly have their own take on the genre. My print of this runs 61 minutes--I'd be interested to know if longer versions are available. An interesting curio...as always, Ireland is impressive.

A lot of footage is missing here, the film is truncated as a number of scenes are missing, and you just have to guess what went on in between. That makes the plot not easy to follow as there are too many disturbing gaps, but there is nothing wrong with the acting, the cinematography or the direction. An American (John Ireland) comes to Sweden having waited "eight years to travel 6000 miles to kill a man", the man who wrongfully put him to jail and whom we will never see. It is purposely a rather ambiguous and enigmatic film, as you get too little of it and there are too many questions left unanswered. The most important supporting role is that of Birgitta Andersson, who later made a great career as a comedian, but here she is just perfect as the perfect and willing prostitute. The other female part is the beauty of the German Ellen Schwiers, who gradually takes over the plot completely. John Ireland always made interesting roles with his introspective rather sinister mood and type, and it would be interesting to have the lost footage recovered. That would make the film more reasonable.