Murder, Inc.

A small subset of noir follows the escapades of a paid assassin (This Gun For Hire, 1942; Murder by Contract, 1958; Blast of Silence, 1961) or contract killing syndicate like in Bretaigne Windust’s The Enforcer (1951), which was inspired by a real New York crime syndicate operating as “a government within a government” and documented by district attorney Burton Turkus. Nowhere near the greatness of Windust’s film (which was titled Murder, Inc for overseas markets), Burt Balaban and Stuart Rosenberg’s Murder, Inc., a low-budget B film inspired by those same events, is most memorable for introducing Peter Falk (who earned an Academy Award nomination for the role) as rapist, murderer, and overall scumbag Abe Reles, who works as a hitman for gang kingpin Lepke Buchalter (David J. Stewart). An old crony of Reles who owes him money, nightclub singer Joey Collins (Stuart Whitman) is forced to collaborate with Reles on his first hit, Walter Sage (Morey Amsterdam), a resort owner and old friend of Collins. The forced relationship between the seemingly weak-willed Collins, his dancer wife Eadie (May Britt), and the syndicate forms much of the remaining narrative tension. Legendary jazz singer Sarah Vaughan makes an appearance behind the microphone at the club. Lacking star power either in front of or behind the camera, the film is ordinarily crafted with a handful of interesting compositions, but don’t go in looking for visual spectacle.