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Mike Hammer (played flawlessly by Meeker) gets shoved off a cliff, wrecked, set on fire, slugged (several times), blackjacked, attacked with a switchblade, tied up, drugged, burned by radiation and shot in the stomach. On the other hand he savagely smacks a bunch of folks, blows off frequent come-ons from several women, mostly very attractive (well, it appears that he blows them off), and is still breathing (barely) at the end. This is an ultimate "B" movie that's fortunately just been featured by TCM - low budget, great characters, nice street scenes, semi-cheesy dialogue, everybody's a little shady even the stars. The plot never lets up leading to a truly bizarre and memorable climax. For what this movie tries to do it is right on target, which is all you can ever really ask. That's Wesley Addy, overworked and destined to give the wrong anesthetic to the poor victim in "The Verdict" nearly thirty years later, playing the obnoxious police detective in this one.
score 10/10
RNMorton 10 December 2006
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1541553/ |
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4-3-2021 12:07:05