Shield for Murder

As both lead actor and co-director, Edmond O’Brien sheds every drop of moral propriety in Shield for Murder, a sleazy and occasionally brutal film about a corrupt cop covering up his crime. Having killed and stolen $25,000 from a bookie’s runner on the street one night, officer Barney Nolan (O’Brien) makes it look like self-defense, unaware an old man in a nearby building had been watching. As he plans his new life in a new home with his girlfriend Patty Winters (Marla English), Nolan’s colleagues on the force, particularly best pal Mark Brewster (John Agar), conduct a full investigation of the murder that appears to be leading right back to Barney. O’Brien’s character here is quite the scumbag, at one point throwing a deaf, old man down a flight of stairs, another time beating two men to a bloody pulp in the middle of a crowded restaurant (as the excellent Carolyn Jones looks on from a table). A shootout at a public pool sends swimmers running and screaming, and a final confrontation at Barney’s not-yet-purchased dream home leaves his dreams on the doorstep.