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In the Fifties, in "Violent Saturday," he made a little name as the killer who kept using a nose spray while terrorizing Sylvia Sidney and a bank
When Don Siegel made the second version of Hemingway's "The Killers," he was the cool, hard gunman who knew he was being paid to do the job and would definitely do it, come hell or high water
His "Prime Cut," is a study in professionalism
Before that came "Point Blank," in which again he was the unstoppable force
But watch him in "Prime Cut." Notice the care with which he handles the tools of his trade, the cavalry rifle which takes to pieces and is lovingly kept in a neat executive-style case
He is a "hit man," a torpedo who can be hired by the new breed of businessman-gangster
Pressured into a job against his will, he is sent to Kansas City to enforce his employer's demands for payment from another gangster-type
From then on, a trail of murder, malice and killing makes the screen run red
If the baddies all come to sticky ends so does at least one innocent person, whom Marvin involves as in the case of the truck-driver whose vehicle he hijacks
"Prime Cut" is a tremendously exciting film, if one disregards its moral values
At the end Marvin, the paid killer who keeps the weapons of his trade in velvet-lined cases, has destroyed all the other villains
yet walks off into the sunset without a hint of retribution
score 8/10
Nazi_Fighter_David 7 May 2005
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw1075590/ |
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28-2-2021 00:07:03