Murder Is My Beat

When Fred Deane’s burned corpse is found headfirst in his fireplace in Edgar Ulmer’s Murder Is My Beat, detective Ray Patrick (Paul Langdon) immediately zeroes in on Deane’s girlfriend: nightclub singer Eden Lane (Barbara Payton). When he finds her in Deane’s mountain cabin in the middle of a blizzard, Eden appears confused about her involvement in the murder but offers little resistance to arrest. Later, while Patrick accompanies Eden on her way to prison, she spies Fred Deane on the platform from her passing train window. Torn between his professional duty and his budding love (or lust) for Eden, Patrick coaxes her off the train and they start their own investigation, giving himself one week to uncover the truth. Famous for creating fascinating films on shoestring budgets, director Ulmer had to make do with a woefully under-developed script (“I hate the wanton destruction of human life”) and a few sad-looking process shots, but the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.