This film is a b-film, but it's quite an entertaining one!
Yeah, it's true that Biff Elliot is a ham-actor and not ace in the facial expression department but when it comes to letting his fists talk for him he sure is great!
Other noir gumshoes like Marlowe or Spade, although ready to fight if necessary, usually hang back and use their wits in tense scenes but not Mike Hammer; he doesn't waste a second before punching the guy/knocking him down/slapping him around!
Witness for example the scene where he fetches his buddy's ex from a bar where she is sitting with two older fellows. When the latter get to their feet to protest, Mike knocks them BOTH clattering down with a shove so brutal and swift that it looks real. I wonder if those gentlemen were actually bruised in the fall..
Yes, the plot is more or less impossible to follow, but who cares when you have plenty of fights and a string of gorgeously dressed ladies along the way.
Also interesting for a film from the Hayes code period is the 'naughty' stuff that gets by here. For example the gentleman bad guy with his male 'friend' who Hammer witnesses afterwards through the window having an ornament-smashing tantrum.
Then there's the dancing class building where there are a row of private rooms with sexily dressed 'dancing teachers' available for hire.
In addition two scenes, each with a blonde and toothy nympho twin (played by real-life twins) who throw themselves in turn at a not wholly reluctant Hammer. These twins both like to play with a kinky little back-scratcher and Hammer, fending off one clinging girl, gives the instrument back to her, saying as he leaves: 'Scratch!' (Couldn't help but wonder if this had got by the censor if he'd said: 'Scratch yourself!').
Not to forget of course the classic final scene where the extremely attractive Charlotte Manning (Peggy Castle - imagine a face not unlike Grace Kelly with the body of, say, Jayne Mansfield) finds Hammer sitting waiting for her with a gun in his hand. Understanding that she's been sussed she tries to get round him by talking to him while stripping off her trenchcoat, letting her hair down and then unfastening the straps on her high-heels and kicking them off toward him one after the other.
Hammer gets to his feet and she steps quickly into his arms, meanwhile reaching for a gun hidden behind him in a flower pot. But in his customary pre-emptive manner Hammer doesn't wait until she uses it. A shot rings out.
'How could you Mike?' she says in disbelief as she slumps down.
Hammer's reply: 'It was easy..'
Yeah, it's true that Biff Elliot is a ham-actor and not ace in the facial expression department but when it comes to letting his fists talk for him he sure is great!
Other noir gumshoes like Marlowe or Spade, although ready to fight if necessary, usually hang back and use their wits in tense scenes but not Mike Hammer; he doesn't waste a second before punching the guy/knocking him down/slapping him around!
Witness for example the scene where he fetches his buddy's ex from a bar where she is sitting with two older fellows. When the latter get to their feet to protest, Mike knocks them BOTH clattering down with a shove so brutal and swift that it looks real. I wonder if those gentlemen were actually bruised in the fall..
Yes, the plot is more or less impossible to follow, but who cares when you have plenty of fights and a string of gorgeously dressed ladies along the way.
Also interesting for a film from the Hayes code period is the 'naughty' stuff that gets by here. For example the gentleman bad guy with his male 'friend' who Hammer witnesses afterwards through the window having an ornament-smashing tantrum.
Then there's the dancing class building where there are a row of private rooms with sexily dressed 'dancing teachers' available for hire.
In addition two scenes, each with a blonde and toothy nympho twin (played by real-life twins) who throw themselves in turn at a not wholly reluctant Hammer. These twins both like to play with a kinky little back-scratcher and Hammer, fending off one clinging girl, gives the instrument back to her, saying as he leaves: 'Scratch!' (Couldn't help but wonder if this had got by the censor if he'd said: 'Scratch yourself!').
Not to forget of course the classic final scene where the extremely attractive Charlotte Manning (Peggy Castle - imagine a face not unlike Grace Kelly with the body of, say, Jayne Mansfield) finds Hammer sitting waiting for her with a gun in his hand. Understanding that she's been sussed she tries to get round him by talking to him while stripping off her trenchcoat, letting her hair down and then unfastening the straps on her high-heels and kicking them off toward him one after the other.
Hammer gets to his feet and she steps quickly into his arms, meanwhile reaching for a gun hidden behind him in a flower pot. But in his customary pre-emptive manner Hammer doesn't wait until she uses it. A shot rings out.
'How could you Mike?' she says in disbelief as she slumps down.
Hammer's reply: 'It was easy..'