"Murder By Contract" is a very frustrating film, as with a slight polishing up of the script and it would have been great. But, unfortunately, some inconsistencies really took a hit on the film. Now it still is very enjoyable and economically made, so I certainly can't just dismiss it--and it still is worth seeing.
Vince Edwards does a terrific job playing a cold-blooded contract killer. The film begins with him getting his first mob job and then after showing him work through his first few contracts he gets a big break--a big hit across the country with a big price. When Edwards arrived in California, however, he show no sense of urgency and this drives his mob handlers crazy. But he's slow and methodical...and very scary.
Unfortunately for Edwards' character, this killing turns out to be a lot tougher than he thought. The target is a woman (and he hates killing women) and she's very closely guarded by the police. The job seems impossible. However, he has not choice--either make the hit or the mob will make sure he doesn't survive.
The film gets high marks for showing the manner in which the killing is planned and executed. It also generally gets high marks for the hit-man character. However, and this is what bothered me, he was NOT consistently written or acted. While he was a smart guy who made all the right moves, in the film I saw several times where he had brain lapses--such as leaving finger prints and too many witnesses. In light of his coldness and amoral nature, none of this made sense--nor did the rather half-hearted ending where, inexplicably, his character behaved VERY inconsistently. Again, as I said above, with a bit of polishing to the script they could have ironed out these problems and had a great film. As it was, it was very good but no more.
Vince Edwards does a terrific job playing a cold-blooded contract killer. The film begins with him getting his first mob job and then after showing him work through his first few contracts he gets a big break--a big hit across the country with a big price. When Edwards arrived in California, however, he show no sense of urgency and this drives his mob handlers crazy. But he's slow and methodical...and very scary.
Unfortunately for Edwards' character, this killing turns out to be a lot tougher than he thought. The target is a woman (and he hates killing women) and she's very closely guarded by the police. The job seems impossible. However, he has not choice--either make the hit or the mob will make sure he doesn't survive.
The film gets high marks for showing the manner in which the killing is planned and executed. It also generally gets high marks for the hit-man character. However, and this is what bothered me, he was NOT consistently written or acted. While he was a smart guy who made all the right moves, in the film I saw several times where he had brain lapses--such as leaving finger prints and too many witnesses. In light of his coldness and amoral nature, none of this made sense--nor did the rather half-hearted ending where, inexplicably, his character behaved VERY inconsistently. Again, as I said above, with a bit of polishing to the script they could have ironed out these problems and had a great film. As it was, it was very good but no more.