SpunkySelfTwitter
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
Winifred
The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.
Haven Kaycee
It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film
LeonLouisRicci
Oddball Film-Noir. A Low-Budget Gem from Low-Budget Director Cahn. It is Quite the Quirk This. A Movie that has Gritty Characters with Hard-Boiled, Cold Blooded Killers. One (Stanley Clements) Looks and Acts Like a Teenaged Ticket Taker at the Local Bijou.Albert Dekker and Hurd Hatfield are a Nasty Duo. Hadfield has a Bi-Sexual Bent and Dekker Again Plays One of His Sublime Criminals with the Personality of a Profiled Psycho Killer. The Females are Joyce MacKenzie and Myrna Dell, Both Engaging Enough in Their Perspective Personas, Although MaKenzie Seems a Bit Old for a College Student.The Tone of the Thing is The Thing Here. Director Cahn, As Always, Manage to Take a Miniscule Budget and Make it All Look Attractively Demented with Echoes of Pulp. It Should Also be Mentioned that the Negro Musical Group at the Nightclub Stands Out and at the Beginning of the Decade Foreshadow a Musical Revolution just a Few Years Away when Race Records Crossed Over.Overall, a B-Noir that is Made Interesting by its Very Cool Ambiance and Some Off Beat Actors. Worth a Watch for Fans of Film-Noir, B-Movies, and Those that Appreciate a Strange Atmosphere.
Panamint
Low-budget but you really don't need a big budget for this type of contemporary 1950 murder-mystery. It does have sort of early Perry Mason black-and white television production values, but check out the cool 1950 cars.Hurd Hatfield's "presence" dominates this film and keeps it believable. The best way to describe this guy's acting is polished and smooth. In contrast, the lead actress is nowhere near Hatfield's acting league. However, she is attractive and OK for this B-movie role.The casting of the supporting roles is perfect and the director utilizes them to good effect. Watch for solid James Flavin (King Kong '33), and for very early silent star Franklyn Farnum in a brief part at the beginning. "Destination Murder" overcomes its cheapness. Hatfield was a bargain for the cheap salary they probably paid him. This film will hold your attention all the way through until the ending, mainly due to the good plot twists throughout.
blanche-2
Is it possible that Hurd Hatfield's career took this much of a nosedive in 5 years? Evidently. "Destination Murder" is a B movie for sure that stars Hatfield, Joyce MacKenzie, Albert Dekker, and John Dehner. A young woman (MacKenzie) investigates the murder of her father by a uniformed messenger hired by someone else. She has no trouble picking out the messenger in a lineup, and he leads her to a club run by Armitage (Dekker) whose manager is Hatfield. That's the way it seems anyway. People start turning up dead. The villain hatches an ingenious plot to beat the rap.MacKenzie is very attractive with a beautiful figure, but she is not much of an actress. Albert Dekker plays a monster well. Hatfield, with those imposing looks, sports a New York accent beautifully. A New York accent is one of the hardest, most of the time sounding put on and phony. Hatfield's sounds natural. Perhaps it was - I only heard him speak in Dorian Gray (British) and I can't remember what he sounded like on Murder, She Wrote. At any rate, he's smooth in this role. But every time I looked at him, I thought of Dorian Gray. Perhaps his link to that character is why his film career crashed."Destination Murder" is a nothing special B with some noir features, interesting for the cast.
210west
"Destination Murder" makes for an enjoyable 70-plus minutes, assuming you're a noir fan and are not bothered by the sort of unlikely plot developments so characteristic of this genre. Notable are the solid performances of Hurd Hatfield (whose name will always be linked with "Dorian Gray") as a sleazy but debonair nightclub manager, the beefy Albert Dekker (whom I will always think of as "Dr. Cyclops"), and Joyce Mackenzie -- a really classy beauty in the sort of wholesome Jane Wyatt mode -- as the plucky heroine who, Nancy Drew-like, disguises herself as a nightclub cigarette girl to help solve the mystery of her father's murder. Also notable is the odd relationship -- odder than we initially assume -- between the Hatfield and Dekker characters. There are several clever plot twists and some interesting little bits of directorial business (e.g., a scene in the ladies' powder room of the nightclub, which offers an unexpected little study in social pecking order when two women ask for a glass of water; and a player piano that's activated when violence is going to take place). What stays with me longest is the memory of Mackenzie's gorgeous eyes and cheekbones.
