Without Warning!

Found this on youtube--thought it might be campy and funny.... hardly! It's low-budget yes--but very well done. Wonderful to see what Los Angeles looked like in the very early 1950's!! Serial killer before that term was invented. Worth your time!!

This story of a serial killer came out 55 years ago. It's dated primarily in that it isn't gory and graphic. At moments, it feels as if it's about to go that way. But of course the censors wouldn't have allowed it.

The director, though not in anyone's pantheon, has great noir cred. "Down Three Dark Streets" alone is something to be very proud of.

The pace is just right. The acting, by people wholly unknown to me, is professional and convincing.

We know almost from the start who the killer is. It's a matter of whether and when he will be caught. The film languishes more on his bland good looks than on the appearance of any of his victims. He's nice enough looking: rather baby-faced. We see him without his shirt in a long, not extraneous, scene.

The attention paid to the killer reminded me of "The Sniper," which came out at the same time. "The Sniper" is better known and was done on a higher budget. But I wouldn't say it's better. This is a very good, scary movie.

This film noir is a typical Hollywood B picture of the early fifties, made on a low budget and with obscure talent. However, it works very well. It was the first film directed by Arnold Laven, whose subsequent career, which lasted until 1985, was mainly in American television series, although his second film was VICE SQUAD (1953), starring Edward G. Robinson and Paulette Goddard, so he was moving up from B status already. None of the actors in this film ever achieved significant status. The story concerns a psychotic serial killer, well played with suitably demented expressions and a great deal of tension by Carl Martin, who was jilted by a blonde of a certain type, so he repeatedly seeks out blondes who resemble her, in order to kill them and thus get back at her. From the beginning of the film, there is no secret about who the killer is, and we see him at work, stalking and stabbing the women to death with his garden shears (he is a professional gardener). The film is thus all about how they can identify and catch him, since his fingerprints are not on file and there are so few clues. The film lapses from time to time into a 'police procedural drama', but only briefly, and I suspect it was originally designed as one but then they decided to cut most of that out and just get on with the story, which was a good idea. For those who like early fifties noir, this film has a great deal of interest, is well made, and holds the attention.

I'd been aware of this film's existence for some years, and although I never imagined it to be a classic, it did seem promising, given the highly competent Levy-Gardner-Laven team (The Rifleman, The Monster That Challenged the World, Slaughter on Tenth Avenue), and Adam Williams, a young character actor (The Big Heat, North by Northwest, The Space Children)I've always enjoyed.

On the most basic level, Dark Sky Films has put together a splendid, bargain-price DVD presenting a 35mm print that is flawless, except for a single, brief "cut" in the film stock late in the story. Otherwise, this b&w thriller is pristine, even shimmering, without speck, scratch or other visible flaw. Where has this print been all these years--Fort Knox? I was stunned by its beauty. A photo gallery is a pleasing extra, and the menu is imaginatively augmented with visual and audio snippets. Open the case and the inner sleeve is decorated with original ad art and a scene from the film.

As a murder thriller with strong overtones of police procedural (complete with v/o narration by the fabulous Reed Hadley), Without Warning is superior stuff, with effectively understated performances, smart, concise direction and plenty of suspense and surprise, including a shock moment near the beginning that will knock you back in your chair.

Williams is creepily attractive (or maybe attractively creepy) as the quiet, psychotic killer of women, with character vet Ed Binns appealingly dogged as the working-stiff police detective assigned to bring the monster to heel. Meg Randall is pleasant and convincing as the central female character(who ends up in considerable peril), and there's a nice turn (in this UA release) by pretty Columbia contract player Angela Stevens (Three Stooges shorts, Creature with the Atom Brain, lots of westerns), as a good-time girl who comes to a bad end.

As other reviewers have commented, Without Warning also is an invaluable visual and aural record of vanished Los Angeles, particularly Chavez Ravine. As archaeology alone, then, the picture is fascinating.

I can't emphasize enough the pleasure and satisfaction Without Warning provides. It's worthy on multiple levels; grab it!

Like most people, probably, I had never heard about "Without Warning!" before, but it's a surprisingly tense and bleakly atmospheric mixture between film-noir and drama. The plot follows both a frustrated serial killer, who scouts for lurid blond women in sleazy Hollywood bars, and the police inspectors that are trying to catch him via profiling and the little pieces of forensic evidence that he leaves behind at each crime scene. I'm certainly not an expert of CSI-cinema, but since this film was released in 1952 already, it simply must be one of the earliest productions to make use of advanced & specialized researching techniques. The story of crazed killer Carl Martin is quite an unsettling one. With his good manners, baby-faced appearance and admirable job as a city gardener, he's the last person one would suspect to be a homicidal maniac. But at the beginning of each month, right after he cashed in his paycheck and can afford to dress up nicely and offer drinks to ladies, he prowls for pretty blonds that resemble his unfaithful ex-wife and lures them to remote places to stab them with his gardening shears. Police lieutenants Hamilton and Wade quickly figure out his patterns and profile, but can they arrest Martin before he unleashes his angers again on the innocent store owner's daughter Jane? Perhaps the film could have done without the redundant and overly dramatic voiceover guidance, but director Arnold Laven ("The Monster that Challenged the World") maintains a steady pace as well as a good balance between serial killer suspense and intriguing police work. The escape of Carl Martin following the murder of the stunningly hot nameless victim (Angela Stevens) that almost went wrong, as well as the entire finale up in the Hollywood hills, are genuinely exhilarating; - especially taking into consideration "Without Warning!" is a low-budgeted B-movie.