Fred Zinneman who would go on to direct such classics as High Noon, From Here To Eternity, and The Sundowners made his feature film debut with Kid Glove Killer. If you think you may have seen it before, the film is an expanded feature film version of one of MGM's Crime Does Not Pay series, They're Always Caught. The short subject won an Oscar in that category and it was only four years earlier. You have to know that a lot of people must have gone into the movie house and while watching Kid Glove Killer had to have sworn they had seen this before.
What happens is that the reform mayor of a small city, played by Samuel S. Hinds is killed by a bomb in his home. As in the earlier short film forensics plays a big part in eventually determining who the perpetrator is. CSI man Van Heflin with microscope at the ready sorts through the maze of tiny clues to eventually get the responsible party.
The big problem with Kid Glove Killer is that what was added was a romance between Heflin and Marsha Hunt with Lee Bowman also showing some interest in Hunt. The original film, They're Always Caught did have one red herring suspect and in Kid Glove Killer that part is played by Eddie Quillan.
But it's so obvious who the real killer is that all the suspense is let out of the film. If you can't figure it out watching Kid Glove Killer you have to be deaf, dumb, and blind. Instead of putting in a romantic triangle what should have happened is the story should have been expanded to include a few more additional suspects. I think Kid Glove Killer would have been much the better for that.
Still director Zinnemann got good performances from his cast working from a flawed story.
What happens is that the reform mayor of a small city, played by Samuel S. Hinds is killed by a bomb in his home. As in the earlier short film forensics plays a big part in eventually determining who the perpetrator is. CSI man Van Heflin with microscope at the ready sorts through the maze of tiny clues to eventually get the responsible party.
The big problem with Kid Glove Killer is that what was added was a romance between Heflin and Marsha Hunt with Lee Bowman also showing some interest in Hunt. The original film, They're Always Caught did have one red herring suspect and in Kid Glove Killer that part is played by Eddie Quillan.
But it's so obvious who the real killer is that all the suspense is let out of the film. If you can't figure it out watching Kid Glove Killer you have to be deaf, dumb, and blind. Instead of putting in a romantic triangle what should have happened is the story should have been expanded to include a few more additional suspects. I think Kid Glove Killer would have been much the better for that.
Still director Zinnemann got good performances from his cast working from a flawed story.