Please Murder Me

Playing supporting characters, mainly villains, for most of his career, Raymond Burr had the chance to play a three-dimensional, complex lead role in Peter Godfrey’s Please Murder Me. As attorney Craig Carlson, Burr plays both a home wrecker and a cuckold, which demands of him quite a balancing act of emotions. Angela Lansbury plays Myra Leeds, the wife of Craig’s best friend and comrade from the war, Joe Leeds (Dick Foran), with whom Craig has been having an affair. When Joe’s shot dead in his bedroom, Craig successfully defends Myra in court, convincing the jury she had acted in self-defense, but if you think Myra repays him with her undying love, you’d be mistaken. From the pre-credits opening scene of an unidentified man walking the city sidewalk past scummy-looking bars and peep shows, the film oozes with economy, bland interiors and soupy darkness combining with overhead shots and Dutch angles to disorient the viewer and create an occasional dream-like feeling. While Lansbury has been much better in other roles, Burr carries the film effectively as the thoughtful, conflicted man who, rather than give in to victimization, gets the last laugh in the form of a prank (“In exactly 55 minutes, I will be dead”).