FBI Girl

B movie master Robert Lippert produced more than 300 micro-budget films, including more than a dozen noirs, and while most of his films were famously sub-par, sometimes to unintentionally comic effect, one of his strongest is FBI Girl, most likely due to its above average cast. William A. Berke directs George Brent, Cesar Romero, Raymond Burr, and Audrey Tooter through a script that spans multiple twists, settings, and modes of transportation, its climax taking on James Bond flavor as an armed agent in a helicopter chases a killer on a motorboat. Brent and Romero play FBI agents who recruit Totter’s character, the roommate of a recently murdered FBI clerk, to go undercover to aid their investigation, which will also pull in her innocent-seeming fiancée (Tom Drake). Raymond Burr is a highlight as the near-psychotic thug who claims he works in public relations. Despite low funding, the crew attempts a few visual innovations like the camera’s zoom in and out from two men’s backs as an unusual scene transition.