Having studied the classic poverty row film noir "Detour" after first seeing it, I have become acquainted with the work of actress Ann Savage in and outside of that genre. When you see her in a western, a comedy or a musical, she seems like a completely different person. But add on sinister intentions from a deadly dame, and you've got more great femme fatale scheming with human venom as opposed to snake. Two sophisticated looking ladies sit writing letters in an elegant ladies room, and all of a sudden, one asks to borrow a pen. Somehow, one of them ends up with a poisoned aspirin from the other woman and is soon on trial for murder. Guess who the kindly lender of the pen and the aspirin is. Yes, indeed, Ms. Savage. There's also a blackmailing women's attendant there, and after the innocent Inez Cooper is put on trial, the convoluted facts start to come out, with the ladies maid denying that there was another woman present. Cooper's boyfriend (Robert Lowery) ends up with the lying maid who is soon murdered and the evidence Lowert had indicating the presence of another woman quickly disappears.
OK, so this is a bit convoluted, but if you pay close attention, you will quickly become riveted to the goings on. While "Detour" was a film noir or mystery/thriller like no other before, "Apology For Murder" (released the same year as "Detour" and the year before this) was an obvious rip-off of "Double Indemnity" with even more grit than that Billy Wilder classic. This too takes no prisoners in the way it presents its story, also made by the same studio (PRC) and cleverly written to engross you even if you feel you need a score card to write down clues and information to remind yourself of everything that has transpired. Frank Ferguson is very good as Cooper's defense attorney determined to trap the mysterious unknown woman who is twice as calculating as the murdered blackmailing maid. When Savage confronts her current lover over her paranoia of his betrayal, the madness in her eyes is revealed, and you can see that the ending for most everybody in this tense thriller will not be a happy one. Why this and "Apology For Murder" (and another PRC film noir, "Decoy") have not become as well known as "Detour" is a mystery in itself, and students of the genre will be fascinated to discover them.
OK, so this is a bit convoluted, but if you pay close attention, you will quickly become riveted to the goings on. While "Detour" was a film noir or mystery/thriller like no other before, "Apology For Murder" (released the same year as "Detour" and the year before this) was an obvious rip-off of "Double Indemnity" with even more grit than that Billy Wilder classic. This too takes no prisoners in the way it presents its story, also made by the same studio (PRC) and cleverly written to engross you even if you feel you need a score card to write down clues and information to remind yourself of everything that has transpired. Frank Ferguson is very good as Cooper's defense attorney determined to trap the mysterious unknown woman who is twice as calculating as the murdered blackmailing maid. When Savage confronts her current lover over her paranoia of his betrayal, the madness in her eyes is revealed, and you can see that the ending for most everybody in this tense thriller will not be a happy one. Why this and "Apology For Murder" (and another PRC film noir, "Decoy") have not become as well known as "Detour" is a mystery in itself, and students of the genre will be fascinated to discover them.
