Please Murder Me! (1956) User Reviews

Nice Little Twist

[sflynn22 · 7/10 · 26 June 2008]

The movie starts with Attorney Craig Carlson dictating the circumstances of his own upcoming murder into a tape recorder. Through a series of flashbacks we find out that he has a problem - his best friend's wife (Lansbury) comes to him for help in a divorce. Then another problem - he falls in love with her. Then another problem - she shoots her husband in self-defense. Now he has to defend her from a murder rap.

He gets her acquitted and they get engaged. All is well!! Of course not - why would the movie be over in twenty minutes? Let's just say that his tidy little circumstances rapidly grow complicated. His awareness of his changing situation, and his reaction to it, make for an interesting psychological development.

Burr was a good actor and the camera focuses in on his brooding face. It takes a while to find out that Lansbury's performance is more subtle than you might think.

The movie is economically directed - witness how the attorney picks up his gun in the opening shots. No dialog, just a brief sequence of visuals, and the plot advances. Well written, with good supporting performances, including a youngish and slim Denver Pyle. Nice unknown movie.

An almost lost little Film Noir with some important aspects

[eschetic-2 · 5/10 · 7 July 2009]

It's a pity this little (apparently independent?) film noir has not merited a decent restoration and DVD reissue (no one apparently bothered to renew the copyright so scratchy prints were out for a while in 1995 on VHS on "Nostalgia Family Video" and it has been anthologized in a DVD box of "13 Murder Movies"), because the elements in the film are considerably above the "B" film it's usually assumed to be and later work of those involved would be undeniably important. It isn't a great film, but given those elements, it certainly is an interesting one.

The basic flashback form of the story telling is an echo almost too close for comfort of 1944's classic DOUBLE INDEMNITY - with the characters dictating the explanation bound for similar fates; in fact, in the film's chief failing, the original ad campaign for PLEASE MURDER ME! gave away virtually every aspect of the plot, leaving audiences only the enjoyment of *how* the characters got where they had been told the characters were going. There were no surprises.

Top billed (her first role in that position?) Angela Lansbury was in the middle of a long and (mostly) distinguished movie career mainly playing "bad girls" - years before her Broadway and television career nearly eclipsed her earlier 100+ films - except perhaps for her definitive evil mother in MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE. She appeared to be taking a break from small but important roles in major studio films to see if she could carry a lead herself in this independent. PLEASE MURDER ME! didn't get her major studio leads, but her supporting roles in everything from THE RELUCTANT DEBUTANTE to BLUE HAWAII continued to be either out of the top drawer or she made them seem they were until she decamped for Broadway and the lead in the musical MAME which forever changed HER career.

Third billed Dick Foran had had the lead in a wartime revival of Rogers & Hart's A CONNECTICUT YANKEE on Broadway, but had mostly switched over from Hollywood roles in minor films to TV work by this shot at an important role in PLEASE MURDER ME!, but it was RAYMOND BURR, perennial film heavy (his greatest movie role was almost certainly the husband across the way in Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW two years before, who was also working more and more in TV who really made PLEASE MURDER ME! memorable.

It is almost certain that it was this role which got Burr his big shot as TV's PERRY MASON the next year. It may even have been a knowing tryout. He was nothing like the 1930's movie Perry Mason, the suave if slightly oily Warren William who was closer to the Perry Mason which Erle Stanley Gardner actually wrote, but watch Burr playing attorney Craig Carlson in PLEASE MURDER ME! It's the full blown Mason 20+ years of TV viewers would get to know intimately. All the mannerisms and line readings are there. Rather than the stock "heavy" which had been Burr's trademark, this was a persona of warmth and trust that anchors the film and makes the slightly strained story believable.

One can only hope that one of the ongoing DVD issues of PERRY MASON TV seasons will eventually pick up the public domain PLEASE MURDER ME! as a "bonus" feature - despite Attorney Carlson's position at the final fade out, it clearly belongs as part of the Burr/Mason canon.

In the mean time, I'm glad IMDb provides links to the film on the "Internet Archive" for those who can't find one of the PD releases. It's worth a look.

Fascinating.

"What kind of a trick is this?"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 17 May 2012]

So, could this have been Raymond Burr's warm-up for his Perry Mason TV series? Not far out of the realm of possibility I'd say. But if Mason had this kind of dedication to his craft he wouldn't have made it out of the first season. Setting yourself up for a murder is a bit beyond the call of duty I'd say, and the same outcome (snaring Angela Lansbury for it) could have been achieved with a ten minute earlier heads up to the District Attorney (John Dehner). Why didn't he think of THAT?

Analyzing this little programmer for more than a few minutes will probably knock down your rating a notch or two, so in that spirit I'll give it a seven. If made today I think a good writer could really make the story a zinger, but you'd have to leave out the part of Attorney Carlson (Burr) admitting in court that he was Myra's (Angela Lansbury) lover. Seems to me that would would have been a strong case for conflict of interest or some other argument along those lines. Why the judge didn't call for a mistrial right then and there was the first thing that crossed my mind.

The other thing that gets to me in these early flicks is how quick the newspapermen manage to make it on the scene. By the time Carlson gets to the scene of the crime, there are already four reporters there to cover the story! What kind of a hot line did they have back in the Fifties?

Now it pains me to say it, and I'll deny it afterwards, but Angela Lansbury was actually pretty hot back in the day. I know, I know, forget about Jessica Fletcher for a minute and try to be objective. She was a good looking woman who always seemed to play a bad girl in the early days, starting way back in 1944 as the saucy maid in the 1944 remake of "Gaslight". You'd have to say she was a pretty good actress to make you want to hate her the way you wind up doing here. Which is why it's so cool to see the look on her face when the D.A. opens the drawer with the tape recorder. It was a move worthy of 'Murder, She Wrote'.

Jessica Fletcher's evil twin

[GManfred · 11 June 2008]

Don't know where this picture originated. There is no studio at the beginning of the credits and it doesn't look like a TV production, although several of the players went on to successful careers in Television. Besides Burr and Lansbury, John Dehner and Denver Pyle did lots of TV work on many different shows. It also May have been a 'B' from an obscure studio and played with a weak 'A' picture.

In any case, the end result is a watchable film well-acted by some old pros and without any outlandish plot device acting as a Deus Ex Machina - surprisingly well-written. The engrossing storyline makes up for some dead time in the middle. Not a bad effort all around.

Not bad...

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 20 December 2009]

This is a small film, in that the stars weren't big-name stars of the day. PLEASE MURDER ME stars Raymond Burr (just before he made it big as Perry Mason), Angela Lansbury and Dick Foran--all capable actors, though hardly starring actors of the day. Despite this lack of star power and an apparent small budget, it's not a bad film--especially when there is a twist and the plot quickly changes about midway through the movie.

The film begins as Burr is sitting in his office in the darkness--dictating to a tape recorder that he's about to be murdered. Both the lighting and the idea of a man talking about his impending demise are very much in keeping with a Film Noir piece--as is the direction the film goes in the second half. As for the first half, it starts off with Burr telling his best friend that he has fallen for this friend's wife and wants to marry her! Oddly, instead of punching Burr in the face, the guy says he'll get back with Burr in a few days. However, after a few days, his wife shoots him--claiming he was trying to kill her. Did she do this in self-defense and what will her lawyer (Burr) do? While some of this is a bit predictable, it certainly all isn't and makes for a nifty little film. It's not 100% believable, but given that it's so entertaining, why worry about this? If you are interested in seeing it, it's in the public domain and can be downloaded for free from the IMDb site.

By the way, look for Denver Pyle in a small role as a detective testifying in court. It's interesting because Pyle lacks his usual heavy Southern accent and he seems quite at home playing a man living in the big city.

Obscure Film -- Unique Ending

[mahony-7 · 7/10 · 8 April 2016]

The story is told in recorded flashback a la Double Indemnity.

Raymond Burr plays a lawyer who defends his lover who has been accused of murder.

Burr brings looming veritas to the role.

Angela Lansbury plays the lover with restrained evil.

The court room sequence is very good. Perhaps Raymond Burr is practicing for his later role as Perry Mason.

John Dehner puts in a good performance as the prosecuting counsel.

The climax is a stunner.

Although it seems a cheap production, the camera work and lighting are effective.

The background music, though not outstanding, supports the action and atmosphere.

Burr is like Perry Mason in this

[blanche-2 · 6/10 · 15 January 2016]

I understand that "Please Murder Me" was an audition of sorts for Raymond Burr to play Perry Mason.

Fred MacMurray was originally to play Mason. Burr showed up to audition for Hamilton Burger, and Erle Stanley Gardner asked who he was. The person he was with said, "That's Hamilton Burger," to which Gardner responded, "No, that's Perry Mason."

Burr stepped out of his usual thug roles in this film to play Craig, an attorney madly in love with his best friend Joe's (Dick Foran) wife Myra (Angela Lansbury). He breaks it to Joe, and Joe says he wants a couple of days to process it. Later we see him come blasting into his house, soaking wet from the rain and walk into the bedroom, where Myra is sitting. He closes the door. There's a shot.

In the next scene, Myra is claiming self defense to the police, and Craig is on hand as her attorney. She is ultimately arrested and put on trial. She is found not guilty.

Craig wants to get married right away and go on a Mediterranean honeymoon, but Myra asks for more time. A friend of Craig's shows up and gives him a letter he was supposed to mail for George but forgot about. The letter says that Myra is a scheming, money-grubbing witch who wasn't in love with him, and isn't in love with Craig.

Interesting story - I thought the above-mentioned part was easy to figure out. But Craig comes up with an idea that gives this film a good twist.

As I said, Burr is very Mason-like, slim and authoritative. Lansbury is young and classy and does her usual fine job.

Recommended - I actually came across this on youtube. I have no idea if it's out on DVD. I doubt it. What a treat.

"Myra isn't a woman! She's a disease!"

[cdale-41392 · 7/10 · 14 March 2019]

A mysterious stranger walks the seedy streets of a big city in a trench coat with the brim of his hat down low. The stranger stops in front of a business that -literally- has a PILE OF GUNS in the window display case and purchases a weapon. The opening credits explode onto the screen like gunshots as we see a close-up of the stranger loading bullets into the gun. Then the stranger goes into his dark office, sits at his desk, and records this story on a reel-to-reel tape recorder ...

"In exactly 55 minutes I will be dead!"

That stranger is Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr), Attorney at Law.

Then the Flashback: Craig is a very close friend to Joe Leeds (Dick Foran). They were war buddies, and after 15 years of friendship Craig must break the news to Joe that he is in love with his wife Myra (Angela Lansbury). Joe takes the news surprisingly well and tells Craig that he needs some time to sort things out in his head about how to move forward. Craig sees Myra later that evening and confesses what he did.

Then we see Joe arrive home to find Myra in bed reading a book. He enters, the door shuts, and we hear a gunshot! Myra is arrested for murder!

A good chunk of the film is about the court case. Naturally, Craig is Myra's lawyer and she is acquitted. The jury bought the idea that she shot her husband in self-defense.

Now that Myra and Craig are free to spend their lives together, Myra becomes curiously distant, and Craig discovers that Myra has a special friend ... the artist Carl Holt. So, maybe she was really guilty as charged and Craig saved her from the slammer?

Since Myra can't be tried twice for the same crime Craig hatches an elaborate plan to bring her to justice. And it's an unusual plan that he knows will end with his death.

This is a fairly good 50's Noir with an interesting ending.

Recommended!

A lawyer who has won the acquittal of a murderess, is ready to sacrifice himself in order to see Justice is done!

[IAGO-16 · 8/10 · 27 November 2000]

This excellent thriller is one, if not the only, starring role for Raymond Burr in the movies, one year before he became Perry Mason on TV. Here he is a lawyer too, who brings out the acquittal of his client (Angela Lansbury)accused of murder, only to discover after the verdict, that she really is guilty as hell. Obsessed with his love of Justice, he devises a clever plan to by-pass the double jeopardy immunity, and arranges for her to be caught red-handed after committing another murder... with him as the victim!

When You're Dead, You're Dead

[Hitchcoc · 6/10 · 23 May 2007]

This is so far fetched. It's from the fall-on-your-sword school of film. Raymond Burr is manipulated by a woman, played by Angela Lansbury, into getting her off for shooting her husband and absconding with his money. Once he knows he's been duped, his whole rationale for existence is to exact revenge on the nasty wench. He is sort of a modern day Javert, putting honor ahead of everything else. In hight drama, we sometimes buy into this. It seems a bit much here. Now, the suicide angle can work to an extent. His actions caused the death of a life-long friend. He also was in love with Lansbury and is left empty. The fact is that no matter what he does to her, he is not going to be there to enjoy it. There are some pretty gaping holes in the plot as well, best laid plans and all that. When so many things could go wrong, a slight miscalculation can bring down the ship. Anyway, it was just a little too much self-sacrifice from my perspective. It's a pretty good looking movie and you can see Perry Mason emerging here, but that's about it.

Making graves while digging for gold

[Chase_Witherspoon · 5/10 · 15 May 2013]

Fair little thriller concerns an alleged battered wife (Landsbury) who's supposedly killed her wealthy husband (Foran) in self defence, acquitted of his murder thanks to her romantic liaison with the man's war-time best friend and now eminent attorney (Burr). But Landsbury's gold digging past is about to emerge and Burr concocts an outrageous plan to expose her as a murdering black widow.

Decent cast showcases Burr rehearsing the familiar court-room proceedings that would soon matriculate into "Perry Mason" fame, while John Dehner plays a capable DA and Lamont Johnson features in an acting role as Landsbury's artist 'friend' before he turned to directing. You might also notice future "Dukes of Hazzard" Denver Pyle early in the picture as a detective, and then if you're keen-eyed, "Batman"'s 'Aunt Harriet' Madge Blake in a very minor role playing a maid.

Economical treatment coasts along leaving little room to properly establish a water-tight plot, generating more than a few contrivances that barely paper over the cracks. Notwithstanding, if you're prepared to overlook a few conveniences "Please Murder Me" still offers a strong cast and mild entertainment for a modest 75 minute investment.

In Exactly 55 Minutes I Will Be Dead - Murdered!

[Rainey-Dawn · 8/10 · 14 May 2016]

This is a pretty darn good crime noir. Angela Lansbury really had a fine performance here as Myra Leeds. Myra is a money hungry woman and will use men to get what she wants. Raymond Burr is super in this too as Myra's lawyer Craig Carlson, Craig is another man in-love with Myra and her attorney who helps to acquit her for murder of her husband. Once the trial is over things really pick up as Craig finds out more information, information that proves Myra is guilty of murder - yet she cannot trialed twice for the same murder. Craig feels guilty for her acquittal but what is he to do about it? You'll have to watch to find out and the title of the film will make sense then.

This one I found worthwhile, really good and kept me interested from start to finish. I can easily recommend this film to fans of crime fiction and film noirs.

8/10

Shades of Perry Mason

[mandagrammy · 7/10 · 16 December 2020]

Anyone who is in love with Raymond Burr's 'Perry Mason' will find this old film very interesting. One can see the birth of Perry while watching the film. Besides that, it is actually a decent plot, with fine acting by some of our best known television stars and supporting actors from classic television. The film isn't very long, so you won't have time to get bored. I enjoyed it very much. Thumbs up for this one.

Perry Mason meets Jessica Fletcher, and boy is it Murder HE Wrote!

[mark.waltz · 4/10 · 19 March 2014]

Poor Angela Lansbury was struggling with her film career in the mid 1950's, having left MGM just a few years before and forced to take on minor bottom of the bill fare with films like this, "Mutiny" and "A Life at Stake". The low quality of her work during this time is not a reflection of her talent, and while you may find some good things in it, it's hard not to compare this to what was being seen on T.V. at the time in the anthology series and crime dramas. She is poorly photographed as one of the oddest femme fatals in film history, seemingly older than her 30 years and coming off as a classier variation of Shelley Winters. Fortunately, she would escape to the stage, be given a glamour audiences never realized she was capable, and ultimately head into legendary status through her Broadway work and a smash hit T.V. series.

In this low budget, independent film noir, she is an unhappily married wife who seduces her husband's old war buddy and ends up on trial for the spouse's murder. The D.A. is certain she's guilty, but you can't make the love-starved Burr (as close to his Perry Mason role as he would get on film during this time) believe that. But Lansbury is hiding all sorts of secrets, and no matter how much time she spends in prison awaiting her trial and acquittal will prevent her from her sinister goals. She doesn't count on Burr catching on and plotting justice, and this is what makes the movie a bit more intriguing as it moves on to its chilling conclusion.

To see the two great T.V. detectives working together is certainly a curiosity, and they play off each other very well. Lansbury is given wardrobe and hairstyles which fail to make her convincing as a spider woman, and in retrospect, this does seem like something Barbara Stanwyck had already been doing on screen since she plotted with Fred MacMurray to kill her husband in "Double Indemnity". The supporting cast of familiar faces add some gusto to the predictable plot which takes time to get going, ultimately adding some interesting twists and turns that prevent this from sinking into the depths of sociopathic madness that Lansbury's unbelievable character goes to in order to reach her goals. The final shot of her, though, is unforgettable, and worth sitting through the rather short running time to see.

Burr Auditions for Perry Mason

[dougdoepke · 17 May 2013]

A wife kills her husband, while she carries on an affair with his best friend who also happens to be a defense attorney.

Inexpensive little programmer that would work just as well as a movie made for TV. Still it has a good tight script, with a few twists, and two fine actors. It's Raymond Burr a year before Perry Mason and I expect his courtroom scenes here did a lot to win him the lead in Mason. He carries them off with real authority. Then there's Lansbury as the calculating ice queen, and I stopped counting her smiles after one. She does make a convincing spider woman, however.

There's little action, while the courtroom scene takes up a lot of time. Still the plot line is an interesting one of intrigue and misdirection. So there are compensations to the talky format. One does have to wonder, however, about attorney Carlson's (Burr) iron sense of retribution. It appears a key plot contrivance, but an interesting one given the circumstances of his guilt. Should mention, at the same time, the presence of the great John Dehner in the key supporting role of county DA. His is a familiar face from that time, and I don't think he ever turned in a second-rate performance, no matter the role. Anyway, it's highly obscure little movie, but not without compensations.

Love this movie! There is a 2012 connection.

[Paris55 · 6/10 · 30 June 2012]

I bought this movie in a DVD collection called "Dangerous Dames" (6 movies on two DVDs). I agree with most of the previous comments provided re Please Murder Me. What I want to share is that Raymond Burr played this part as a possible audition for him to play Perry Mason the following year. I must admit that Burr and Angela Lansbury were great in this forgotten film noir. Interesting 2012 trivia - in early 2012, the Hallmark Channel HD has brought back Perry Mason in its chronological episode order. After two hours of the Perry Mason episodes, his Please Murder Me co-star, Angela Lanbury stars in two episodes of Murder She Wrote. I was not born when Mason was originally on the air and watched it in re-runs much later as a young teen when we only had 5-6 channels. Now I am thankful that they brought the Mason series back. Great channel programming and I wonder if Hallmark knows of this movie connection between the Burr and Lansbury.

Murder for Justice

[sol-kay · 7/10 · 31 March 2011]

***SPOILERS*** Pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr as defense attorney Craig Carlson is tortured by the fact that he's fallen in love with his best friend Joe Leeds', Dick Foran, wife Myra, Angela Lansbry. It was Joe who saved Craig's life during the bloody assault on Iwo Jima by almost ending up, with a Jap bullet in his lung, killed himself! Now Craig has to somehow break the news to Joe that he's been having an affair with his wife and want's him to give her a divorce so he can marry her! Joe for some strange reason is not at all feeling hurt that Myra want's to leave him but is very concerned that it's his best friend Craig that she's got her hooks into. Joe knows what Myra's like and doesn't want Craig to find out about her before it's too late for him!

With Joe showing up at his apartment to talk things over with Myra about their so to be break-up a shot is heard and before you know it Joe's on the floor as dead as a Mayfly in June! With Craig taking on the murder case as Myra's defense attorney he blows the jury away by proving to it's satisfaction that Joe was a violent person capable of murdering his wife who had no choice but to shoot him in self-defense! The biggest surprise,in fact his ace in the hole, in Craig's defense plan was to reveal that he was the other man who Myra was cheating on Joe with! With the jury verdict, Innocent, a forgone conclusion and Craig now free to marry Myra things come up that get Craig's very disturbed in not only his both love and defense of Myra but himself as well! We already see the condition that Craig's in when we first see him in the movie. With him going down to the red light district in town to buy himself a handgun and planning to use it on himself! What we later find out is the person he plans to use it on him is non-other then Myra!

***SPOILERS*** Craig had since found out that Myra was no good from a letter that Joe left but didn't mailed to him. At first thinking it was just sour grapes on Joe's part Craig soon finds out that Myra is already planning to dump him for artist Carl Holt, Lamont Johnson, whom she was already having an affair with while he was her lawyer defending her against murder charges murder in her husband Joe death! Troubled that he helped get a murderess off in the murder of his best friend Joe Leeds Craig could only make things right for himself by setting himself up to be murdered by Myra and having air-tight proof that she in fact murdered him! This elaborate plan is put into action at the very start of the movie "Please Murder Me" by Craig tricking Myra in that he got the goods on her! In that if it doesn't put her behind bars since she can't be tried twice for the same crime, the murder of her husband Joe Leeds, it will at least convince Carl Holt not to marry her. It's now up to Myra to see if she'll go so far as murder to keep the truth about her from getting to Carl and thus facing a possible life sentence if she does.

Unknown to Myra Craig covered all the bases in making sure that there's proof of her murdering him by giving her all the reasons as well as murder weapon to commit the crime. Craig is banking on Myra's sense of invincibility, in already getting away with murder, to go through with his plan. A plan to finally bring her to justice by using himself as bait.

Jessica Fletcher: Femme Fatale!

[bsmith5552 · 7/10 · 9 August 2019]

"Please Murder Me" is noteworthy for having two future TV icons in the leads. Angela Lansbury's movie career was in decline at this time however, she became a bigger star than ever as the busy body detective Jessica Fletcher in the long running "Murder She Wrote" TV series. Similarly, Raymond Burr had been languishing along playing overweight villains in a series of "B" movies. He was on the cusp of taking on the role of TV's "Perry Mason" in that long running TV show.

With a tip of the hat to "Double Indemnity" (1944) our story starts off with lawyer Craig Carlson (Burr) dictating into a tape recorder, the events leading up to this moment. In flashback, Carlson confesses his love for the wife of his best friend/war buddy Joe Leeds (Dick Foran) much to the latter's shock.

Later in Leeds' office, Joe gives a letter to co-worker Lou Kazariian (Robert Griffin) to be mailed. However he forgets to mail the letter which he brings to Carlson's attention later in the story. Leeds, distraught, goes to his adulterous wife Myra (Lansbury) to try and work things out. Behind closed doors, a shot rings out and Joe Leeds winds up dead. Myra claims self defense but Police Detective Lt. Bradley (Denver Pyle) thinks otherwise. Myra is charged with murder by District Attorney Ray Willis (John Dehner) who will prosecute the case.

With Carlson defending her, he gains an acquittal in a "Perry Mason" type defense. Carlson plans to marry Myra and run off on an extended honeymoon. When Lou Kazarian brings Carlson the un mailed letter, Carlson learns the Myra has been playing him along so that she can run off with artist Carl Holt (Lamont Johnson). Carlson learns that Myra has used him to her own ends and devises an elaborate scheme to trap Myra into revealing herself as a murderer. He will arrange for Myra to murder him.

Carlson lures Myra to his office as well as D.A. Willis (unbeknownst to Myra) and...............................................................................

A fetching little film noir with similar plot line to "Double Indemnity". The performances of Lansbury and Burr raise this little drama to a higher level.

Decent noir

[cherold · 6/10 · 25 September 2012]

This isn't a terribly original movie, but even though the pacing feels off and the dialogue is weak I still found it pretty watchable. The film starts well, offering a 50s b-movie noir sensibility that is intriguing, but it soon lapsed into a somewhat lackluster courtroom drama. The courtroom scenes feel like Perry Mason taken down a notch, though the movie certainly could have looked like a proof of concept for Raymond Burr's eventual casting in that role.

Angela Lansbury fails to exhibit the high drama I expect from her, which was a disappointment. She has star billing in the movie but it's not really a star role and there's no real character development.

There are some good ideas in the movie, but the director just didn't know how to use those ideas to their potential.

I might have enjoyed this movie a bit more if the print had been better - the picture is scratchy and some of the dialogue is almost inaudible - but even in a better print, this movie lacks that special something that makes the best noirs so compelling.

Revenge is a dish best served noir

[ripplinbuckethead · 8/10 · 2 September 2019]

After receiving an acquittal for Myra Leeds (Angela Lansbury), the woman he secretly loves who, lawyer Craig Carlson (Raymond Burr) finds out that it wasn't such an open and shut case. She is guilty of murdering her husband (whom she'd been offered a divorce from), and Carlson's conscience won't allow her to get away with it. He now swears to devote his life to proving her guilt.

Oh man...

This is one of the most original murder mysteries I've ever seen. Even the beginning grabs you, as Burr goes into a pawn shop, buys a gun, then starts speaking into a tape recorder, explaining that in a short while, he'll be dead. From there, it just gets more and more interesting. This is super solid overall, as were the performances, which also included Dick Foran as the murdered husdand, and John Dehner as the D.A.

The overall rating is kinda average, but I'm so glad I didn't let that throw me off when I came looking up the synopsis before I watched. To say I was impressed by the story is an understatement. I'd love to see this one again someday once I've forgotten all the new revelations it throws at you.

A fine B movie with an outstanding Raymond Burr

[PaulusLoZebra · 6/10 · 13 August 2022]

Angela Lansbury is very good and Raymond Burr outstanding in Please Murder Me! It's a briskly paced film noir crime drama with an intricate plot, good cinematography and a good supporting cast. This was an inexpensive film to make (small cast, no location shooting) but it is better than many with big Hollywood budgets. The only drawback is that the print and sound are rough, in big need of restoration!

tidy little murder movie

[funkyfry · 4/10 · 5 April 2009]

Raymond Burr stars as an attorney caught up in the murder of his best friend (Dick Foran) thanks to his affection for his friend's wife (Angela Lansbury). This was a full year before he started doing Perry Mason, so the movie might be of particular interest to his fans if it was the inspiration for his casting.

There isn't all that much else here that's interesting though. Lansbury is always good, but her character here is very one dimensional and the motives for her crime in the mystery are totally obvious. There's an interesting performance by Lamont Johnson as a painter who's also in love with the "femme fatale", but the Burr character is pretty straightforward. It's frankly bizarre to see an actor like Burr doing these romantic scenes with Lansbury, and his halting delivery does not match his character here very well as it does in most films I've seen him in. There's no mystery at all really, and the whole suspense is supposed to be around the title of the film and the way that Burr's character is setting up the Lansbury character to implicate herself (double jeopardy prevents her being tried again for the original murder, presumably). He does so with a very large tape recorder which she doesn't notice when she comes into the room I guess.

A few perhaps unintentionally fun moments and basically the rest of the thing could have been done for TV.

Sleeper Noir Film B Picture

[DKosty123 · 8/10 · 3 November 2020]

I am not sure how this movie has escaped attention for all these years. For a B picture of 78 minutes from a production company that is so small that it's main production listing is a 1 season tv series called "The Flying Doctor", it is a better film than it has any right to be. The script writers and story creators are all pretty much little know. I think that explains the title which really is the main problem with the film.

Angela Lansbury plays a woman whose only interest in life is being rich and doing anything to get there. Her Myra Leeds here is a cold hearted woman role that she did well at, not just here, but in the original Manchurian Candidate. Only since she is younger instead of being mom she is the seductive Myra who uses men's love like she is casting a fishing net. It seems she is finding an ocean full of men, willing to take her on with deadly results.

Her husband (Joe Leeds) Dick Foran is a rich businessman who is also cold and calculating. Even though he has only been married to Myra for 2 years, she is plotting to get rid of him and get as much of his money as she can. The film starts Lawyer Craig Carlson (Burr) as a successful Defense Lawyer who Myra has designs on. He is in his office recording a tape on a recorder and says he only is going to live 55 minutes (the film is only slightly longer than that).

Myra claims to love Carlson. She convinces him to meet with her husband Joe and tell him he wants to marry her. He does that and Joe is so much like Myra that Joe tells Carlson he needs a couple of days to think it over. This and most of the story is a flashback for everything leading up to the office.

Myra gets a call from Joe the next day that he is coming home from the office early and wants to talk to her about something important. When Joe gets home, he finds Myra in bed with a black cat, and within a few minutes she shoots Joe. Myra calls the police and when they come tries to convince them it was in Self-Defense because Joe was angry about Carlson's wanting to marry her. The police look at the physical evidence, and DA Ray Willis (John Dehner) decides he is charging Myra with First Degree Murder. Obviously the motive is she wants all of Joes money. Meanwhile, Myra gets Carlson to defend her. Here we get a dose of Burr playing a Defense Attorney for the first time and he behaves a lot like Perry Mason (after DA Ray is done with the first witness, Carlson does a perfect "No Questions" for cross examination ).

Trouble is, unlike Mason, Carlson has over looked an important man named Carl Holt (Lamont Johnson). Seems this Artist went to College with Myra and is in love with her too. After Carlson gets Myra off innocent, he gets a letter Joe wrote before his death that makes him realize in his defense he has made a mistake and gotten off a guilty client. Then Carlson decides to plan how get Myra to murder him, so that she will get justice after all.

Carlson employs artist Holt, to paint his portrait so that he and Myra can't elope to Europe and get married for 2 weeks. He gradually sets up the way to trap her and then invites Holt and Myra out for dinner prior to springing his trap. It is a great trap and the way the films plays out, it amazes me how with such a really shoe string budget a minor production company got such a good film out of this. Watch for Denver Pyle as Lt. Bradley, one of the main investigators for the police in her case.

Some might think this is close to a classic film called " Double Indemnity" . It is really not even close to it other than the money motive. No one is trying to bilk an insurance company. Instead a cold, hard hearted woman is 3 timing at least 3 men trying to get what she wants from all of them. The pity is this is nearly a great film and well worth looking at, yet folks have rarely seen it. I found it on You Tube and while the print is not the greatest black and white I have ever seen, it does not detract from a really well done writing and acting job from all involved.

To me though, the title "Cold Hearted Woman" would have been more apt. Lansbury really did get a rehearsal here for the cold hearted mother she would become in the later Manchurian Candidate. As for Burr, this role did not cinch Perry Mason. He was originally cast and the DA for Perry Mason. It was only after the screen tests that they changed their minds about that at Pisano Productions. I wish they had hired John Dehner to do the Hamilton Burger role, not that I don't like William Talman. It's just John Dehner is a better actor. He never got the big starring roles, but he is always very solid in many roles as he is here playing the DA. With over 120 movie roles and over 150 tv roles, it's a shame he did not. He was a great evil guy on The Wild Wild West.

A murder is announced .

[ulicknormanowen · 7/10 · 29 January 2021]

Craig (Raymond Burr) dictates his story into a tape recorder ; the movie is a long flashback ,told by a man who knows he's going to die ;more ,that he wants to die ,for he lost all that mattered to him :his best friend Joe ,his war buddy, his work ( now he's lost his honor) ,and his love for Joe 's wife Myra (Angela Lansbury ).

The only implausibility is the reason for Myra's acquittal : how could a jury clear a woman whose lawyer is her lover? But the rest is excellent indeed ,with energetic performances by the two principals: Lansbury,a femme fatale ,who loves nobody but herself and dough -it's not sure that she would have married the painter - but she first appears as a victim ,although her motives are not clear and Joe does not look like a violent man (the scene of the crime is ingenious ,showing the raging sky full of lightnings and a black cat out of an ajar door ).Craig is a naive man who still believes in honor , the military values he shared with his pal.He believes in justice too ,so everything he lives for is devastated .

The screenplay is gripping and will keep you glued to your chair till the very last pictures ,which pack a real wallop.

Mediocre Crime Drama/Film Noir

[Denise_Noe · 5/10 · 16 October 2022]

"Please Murder Me!" has a certain importance because it may well have led to the casting of Raymond Burr as Perry Mason in the classic TV series of the same name. In "Please Murder Me," as in the hit TV show that started the following year, Raymond Burr ably portrays a fine defense attorney.

The story opens with protagonist Craig Carlson (Burr) speaking into a tape recorder. He tells the person who is supposed to hear the recording that in about an hour, "I will be dead - murdered." Most of the tale is told in flashback. Craig informs his best friend, Joe Leeds (Dick Foran) - the two served side by side in the military - that Craig and Joe's wife, Myra Leeds, are in love and that Myra wants a divorce so she can marry Craig.

Joe is oddly subdued in his reaction to this news. He tells Craig he will have to mull over matters.

Soon after, we see that Myra Leeds, played by Angela Lansbury, has shot Joe to death. She is arrested and tried for the murder and her defense attorney is none other than extra-marital love interest Craig. The prosecution asserts that Myra murdered her husband in cold blood so she could inherit his money. The defense counters that Myra killed in self-defense because an enraged Joe Leeds tried to kill her when she requested a divorce so she could wed the man she really loves.

Craig pulls a surprise in the courtroom that leads to an acquittal. At a party celebrating the victory, Craig clearly looks forward to making Myra his wife. Then he gets his own, and most negative, surprise. He learns that she is not in love with him but with artist Carl Holt (Lamont Johnson).

And that she murdered Joe.

And that Craig was only a pawn in a very convoluted plot by the sly and cunning Myra.

It is all pretty understandably traumatic. Craig comes up with a plot of his own, one by which he will put Myra in prison by provoking her to murder him.

"Please Murder Me!" certainly has a sensational premise. But that premise does not seem at all believable for multiple reasons. Indeed, the film is undercut by its plot holes.

For one thing, the entire premise of a lawyer being so upset by winning an acquittal for a guilty client that he becomes suicidal strains credibility past the breaking point. Anyone who goes into law knows that the legal system is not perfect, just as human beings are not perfect, and that guilty clients will sometimes escape justice just as innocent people will occasionally be convicted. If an individual cannot risk being involved in a miscarriage of justice, he or she would not chose to become a lawyer.

Another glaring plot hole is that it is not at all necessary for Craig to sacrifice his own life to make Myra get her comeuppance. He could easily put her away for attempted murder by simply putting blanks in the gun. Since he is supposedly a "brilliant" attorney, it is not credible that he would never think of this.

Finally, the whole idea that a woman in love with a poor man would marry a rich man, dupe a good lawyer into falling in love with her, then murder the wealthy man certain that the attorney would get her off so she could marry the starving artist who rings her chimes, has two many twists and turns to be convincing.

"Please Murder Me!" has a serviceable direction and script and some quite genuine surprises. The actors do their best with it. However, neither Johnson nor Burr is called upon to demonstrate great acting chops. Johnson's Carl Holt is usually just friendly and cheerful while the scrip leaves Burr just looking glum much of the time. Angela Lansbury has the most demanding role as the femme fatale and she manages to appear sympathetic and psychopathic by turns as well as conveying that all-important sensuality that is at the core of the femme fatale archetype.

A viewer will be entertained by "Please Murder Me!" but will not care deeply about its characters nor be apt to remember it long after it ends. It is an OK way to spend some time but ultimately quite mediocre.