Vashirdfel
Simply A Masterpiece
FeistyUpper
If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Borserie
it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.
Leonard Thomason
I, the Jury (1953), the first flick to feature Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, is a substandard Film Noir, but it has a Lot of Heart with Great Dialogue, an Engrossing Plot and requisite Bevy of Beautiful Dames.Having Biff Elliot in the starring role of Mike Hammer is its most obvious flaw. You're immediate alarmed by the character's appearance, akin to a battered punch-drunk ex-boxer. One wonders if his appearance is due to post-traumatic stress, a victim of 'Shell Shock' from exposure to the horrors & brutality of war in the South Pacific. We get an idea of the savagery when he laments at the passing of his friend Jack Williams, a guy who literally gave his right arm for a friend when he caught a Japanese Bayonet that was meant for Hammer.The blind loyalty displayed by Margaret Sheridan's characterization of Hammer's Assistant 'Velda' can be reasoned again by what happened to him in the South Pacific, feeling indebted to him for his sacrifice.Is it the private hell he went through the reason the chemistry between Hammer and femme fatale Psychoanalyst Charlotte Manning (Peggie Castle) doesn't ever feel right? Whatever the reason, whenever she appears on screen Hammer isn't the only one being mesmerized by her!There's a truckload of great moments from character actors practicing their craft. While each scene is not without random flaws, it's not the fault of the actors as they endeavor to showcase their performance range. This is particularly true of Alan Reed. As his second entry into the Noir World, he performs the role of George Kalecki aka 'Mister Big'. In his case, direction of the camera never seems to be framed properly. However, Mr. Big's Emotional Relationship with his mobster lieutenant Hal Kines (Robert Cunningham) is decades ahead of its time! Previously in 1946, Reed got the tar beaten out of him by John Garfield in The Postman Always Rings Twice. He would return to the Noir Genre again with Humphrey Bogart in 1955's Desperate Hours.Other notable character performances include: Preston Foster - Captain Pat Chambers, Elisha Cook, Jr. – Bobo, Nestor Paiva - Bartender Manuel, John Qualen - Veterinary Doctor R.H. VickersThe film's Cinematographer, John Alton, worked on a dozen Noir Films of varying quality during 1947 to 1955, the most celebrated are those made with acclaimed Director Anthony Mann: T-Men (1947), Raw Deal (1948), He Walked by Night (1948) & Border Incident (1949).There's a showdown of fisticuffs where Hammer is out-numbered and out-gunned, while Velda's life is held in the balance. The scene is set on a marble staircase of the interior court inside the legendary Bradbury Building containing Hammer's Office. Renowned for its unique architecture, the Bradbury has been featured for decades in motion pictures, television and music videos from as early as 1944. Its most famous use includes the films D.O.A (1950), Marlowe (1969), Chinatown (1974), as well as the Television Series 77 Sunset Strip, City of Angels and Banyon.Those critical of this film should keep in mind that judging by the high quality of the promotional posters accompanying the film, it was being made for the lucrative Drive-In Market. It bears the similar qualities and short cuts utilized by Roger Corman during his turn at making movies for Drive-Ins during the 1950's.To his credit, Biff Elliot does a good job at portraying the Private Investigator as brawny, physically tough with his fists and never shying away from violence. His performance displays the traits fans associate with Mickey Spillane's anti-hero: machismo, misogynist, sexist, unapologetic and politically incorrect. He's a solitary hard-boiled sleuth, who's impatient with the legal system and willing to avenge victims as Judge, Jury and Executioner.The visual finale baring the physicality of Peggie Castle doesn't disappoint! But if you're expecting the suave sophistication of Sam Spade, you'll be sadly disappointed; instead you'll get a metaphor of a brutal garbage man who's come to take out the trash!!!
david david
I love this film. The noir imagery combined with Spillane's no nonsense character Mike Hammer works marvellously to create a mood and feel seldom found in low budget detective films of the early fifties. It may not be 'The Maltese Falcon' but this film makes it's own solid contribution to the genre. Spillane is often criticised for alleged misogyny etc, but his 'dames' are way above their male counterparts in terms of cunning and intelligence. Poor old Mike Hammer, as effectively played by Biff Elliott, is blinded by the beauty of the mysterious psychiatrist whom he meets when investigating the death of an army buddy. When the penny finally drops his face is a picture. Good to see that 50s censorship did not force the film makers to omit the famous last line. A bona fide low budget classic.
jeezelbeezel
I consider this film to be the best one about Mike Hammer, with Biff Elliott's performance the definitive Mike Hammer. Harry Essex's script is excellent and contains many improvements on Mickey Spillane's novel. His direction is strong and imaginative, and he makes fine use of light and shadow. The camera work by John Alton is top-notch, as is the score by Franz Waxman. The cast includes many veteran players, as well as Peggie Castle in her memorable performance as Charlotte Manning. All in all, this is one of the finest private eye films ever made. Biff Elliott and Haary Essex should have received more opportunities. I have always treasured this film.
bmacv
In 1953, I, The Jury became the first of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer series to hit the screen, but it takes its cues from movies of 1947, when the book hit the kiosks. The yuletide cards serving as scene dividers, the violence counterpointed to Christmas carols recall The Lady in the Lake, while the duplicitous female psychiatrist reprises Helen Walker's Dr. Lilith Ritter in Nightmare Alley (the final, fatal tryst comes from the even earlier Double Indemnity).These echoes may have been attempts to invest Hammer with some respectability, linking him to the more subtle and textured characters of the 1940s. It's clear something had to be done with him, because Spillane went for raw sensation in a way that caused a sensation of its own. His private eye is uncouth, short-fused and randy but misogynist, bowing to no authority save his own (hence the title). Spillane luckily or shrewdly had as readers of his punch-drunk prose men who had survived overseas combat and were making up for lost time in the footloose, post-war prosperity; he gave them not just sex and violence but sex-and-violence.So in one sense, Biff Elliott makes an ideal Hammer, closer to Spillane's lout than his (relatively) spruced-up successors Ralph Meeker and Robert Bray (plus Armand Assante, in the marginally better 1982 remake of this title). He comes across as a Dead End kid grown up with a license and a gun, slow-witted but fast with his fists and his trigger.When his best friend, an insurance investigator and combat amputee, gets himself coldly killed, Hammer scours New York to avenge him. The urban locales bring out the talents of director of photography John Alton, who here tried his hand at the 3-D process (thus I, The Jury, along with Man in the Dark, The Glass Web and Second Chance, becomes one of the few noirs so filmed).The shoot-from-the-hip action, however, rides roughshod over any intricacies of the plot. Characters Hammer encounters stay generic, with the exception of Peggie Castle as the shrink. The film's last scene is hers, not Elliott's, as she moves into a languorous striptease that comes to a quick finale. For better or worse, it's an emblematic image that showcases Spillane's coarsened sensibility, his fusion of brutality and eroticism, and spells an end to the more freighted ambiguity that was a hallmark of the noir cycle.
