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The Killer Is Loose

Play trailer Poster for The Killer Is Loose 1956 1h 13m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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67% Tomatometer 6 Reviews 40% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
Humble bank teller Leon Poole (Wendell Corey) participates in a heist that doesn't go as planned. When police surround his apartment, there's a shoot-out, during which Detective Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten) unwittingly kills Poole's wife. Poole is subsequently captured and jailed, but three years later he's back out on the street and hell-bent on revenge. Wanting the punishment to fit the crime, he vows that he won't kill Wagner -- just his wife (Rhonda Fleming).
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The Killer Is Loose

Critics Reviews

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Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness 05/23/2006
B+
Plays out like some sort of slow-motion fever dream. Go to Full Review
Fernando F. Croce Slant Magazine 05/01/2006
Handed a narrative stuffed with cat-and-mouse violence, the filmmaker plays down dark hysteria in favor of grayish curtness, and the film is no less tense for that. Go to Full Review
Matt Brunson Film Frenzy Jan 5
3/4
A sturdy revenge flick. Go to Full Review
Michael E. Grost Classic Film and Television 08/10/2011
Strange, moody film noir, filled with observations on daily life, technology and gender in the 1950's. Go to Full Review
Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid 07/25/2011
A rather creaky attempt at a film noir with very little of the psychological violence and use of landscape that would define [Boetticher's] later films. Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 04/14/2003
C
A typical 1950s noir. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Alain E @AlainE Nov 4 Totally unrealistic. In the scene in the beginning the guy shoots at the police through his front door and injures an officer. The police returns fire and kill his wife. When they miraculously break the door down (the first time they tried the door looked solid) they don’t make any attempt to use handcuffs on the guy who just shot at them. At court he receives just 10 years for attempted murder! That was enough for me. See more 04/28/2015 Mildly interesting crime drama starring a lackluster Wendell Corey as the bank teller gone bad, seeking revenige for the accidental shooting of his wife. Rhonda Fleming is fabulous as wife of cop Corey is after. See more 04/11/2015 Tightly directed Budd Boetticher thriller about cop Joseph Cotten who accidentally kills bank robber Wendell Corey's wife following a heist. Corey escapes from prison and wants to get revenge on Cotten. I've never really though much of Wendell Corey as an actor and always found him kind of wooden, but he's terrifically effective as creepy killer who you also manages to generate a certain amount of sympathy in a pathetic sort of way. But the real star of the film is Boetticher's suspenseful direction. See more 03/30/2015 descent indie crime thriller See more 02/02/2013 Very mixed bag, the best parts making it worth the worst of it--Mediocre Crime Drama!! See more 11/23/2012 "The Killer Is Loose" is a watchable police yarn that ultimately suffers from an incompetent final act and a short running time that allows us little interaction with the characters. The performances are all fine, but the action is the kind of stuff you've seen a thousand times before. Still, it works as a great time-passer. See more Read all reviews
The Killer Is Loose

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Movie Info

Synopsis Humble bank teller Leon Poole (Wendell Corey) participates in a heist that doesn't go as planned. When police surround his apartment, there's a shoot-out, during which Detective Sam Wagner (Joseph Cotten) unwittingly kills Poole's wife. Poole is subsequently captured and jailed, but three years later he's back out on the street and hell-bent on revenge. Wanting the punishment to fit the crime, he vows that he won't kill Wagner -- just his wife (Rhonda Fleming).
Director
Budd Boetticher
Producer
Robert L. Jacks
Screenwriter
John Hawkins, Ward Hawkins, Harold Medford
Distributor
United Artists
Production Co
Crown Productions
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Mar 2, 1956, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 1, 2016
Runtime
1h 13m
Sound Mix
Mono
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