User Reviews

The audience knows that, but Joel McCrea, walking on his own property, does not. He sees what he believes to be a poacher and before he can even find out who the person is, shoots them with a rifle filled with buckshot, which would only bring them down but not kill them. At the same time, someone is aiming a rifle at the same person, and that's the bullet that eventually kills him. Desperate to avoid being prosecuted for murder, McCrea takes advantage of the fact that while carrying the body, he tripped over a large root and the body flew over a cliff.

Pretty soon he's visited by a rather bizarre Polish official (Herbert Lom) who bums ride with him and wife Evelyn Keyes who has all sorts of questions for him. But it turns out that Lom lives in a local mental hospital, and they aren't quite sure if he's a patient or not. Several other weird characters pop up to increase the intrigue, among them and ever so efficient British official played by Roland Culver.

Spy dramas can often be messy, and while this one has its moments, for the most part it's pretty clear cut. The British countryside is quite beautiful, and then they end up in London where there are confrontations at Victoria Station and inside the Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum where everything comes together. Pretty intriguing but I found it a little dull at times, and some of Keyes' line readings were a little bizarre. But as a light film noir spy drama, it has its share of interesting characters and is a decent thriller even if I wasn't entirely enthused by it.

Perennial western star Joel McCrea swapped his nineteenth cowboy togs for a twentieth century army uniform in director Robert Parrish's "Shoot First," a routine Cold War era espionage outing, co-starring Herbert Lom, Evelyn Keyes, and Roland Culver. McCrea is cast as retired U. S. Army Colonel Bob Taine. His wife (Evelyn Keys) and he reside in Dorset, England, where has also rented a tract of land with hunting privileges. One day, Taine spots a poacher on his property and gives the fellow a load of buckshot. Imagine Taine's surprise when he discovers the man he shot is in fact dead. In his alarm, he calls for an ambulance, but the man dies before help can arrive, so our protagonist buries him in the woods. Mind you, concealing the corpse of the man he shot isn't exactly what any law-abiding citizen would do, but Taine doesn't want to go to prison for an accidental shooting. No sooner has he done this than Scotland Yard enters the picture. Later, a natty gentleman in a suit and tie from British Intelligence, Randall (Roland Culver of "Thunderball"), visits Taine, but the colonel doesn't mention having shot anybody. Afterward, things get a little convoluted in Eric Ambler's screenplay based on Geoffrey Household's novel "Rough Shoot." Mind you, Taine couldn't have slain the poacher, but our protagonist isn't thinking rationally when he stashes the body in the brush. Actually, as it turns out, this fellow, who responsible for killing the man is a villainous soul named Hiart (Marius Goring) and he did it with a long-range rifle. The chief weakness in Ambler's screenplay is our firm suspicions that something is amiss because Joel McCrea doesn't go about killing people, premediated or otherwise. Nevertheless, Taine harbors some guilt. Eventually, he lets his wife in on his dark secret. Meantime, Randal brings in an eccentric gentleman, Sandorski (Herbert Lom of "The Pink Panther"), a retired Polish Army Colonel. We learn the dead man name was Reimann, and he was a member of Soviet spy network who was trying to defect. By this time, the police are closing in on Taine, but Randall orders them to stand down because Sandorski is going to team up Taine. Anybody who believes Taine could have killed Reimann with a load of buckshot will probably be chewing their nails as this 88-minute, United Artists, black and white thriller ramps up its suspense. Ultimately, Taine and Sandorski find out that the Soviets plan to used Taine's field to land a plane carrying another spy. "Shoot First" qualifies as a half-baked spy thriller that wraps up with a careening car chase.