A really annoying existentialist hitman travels to California to murder the witness against an organized crime boss. At one point, I thought it would be one of those honor-among-murderers thing. He's outraged when he learns he's supposed to kill a woman, but it's because he thinks he should have been paid extra because women are "unpredictable".
There's no one to get behind in this thing. He only has two weeks before the trial starts, but he spends day after day just hanging around. He wants to go to the beach. The two guys there to assist him are getting panicky. The woman is under guard by police at her house. The hitman finally comes up with an elaborate plan to murder her.
He later decides the job is "jinxed" and refuses to go forward.
Directed by Irving Lerner. Starring Vince Edwards, Phillip Pine and Herschel Bernardi.
Martin Scorsese said it was the movie that had the greatest influence on him, but he also called it a "guilty pleasure":
...there’s a getting-in-shape sequence that’s very much like the one in Taxi Driver. The spirit of Murder By Contract has a lot to do with Taxi Driver.
Lerner was an artist who knew how to do things in shorthand, like
Bresson and Godard. The film puts us all to shame with its economy of
style, especially in the barber-shop murder at the beginning. Vince
Edwards gives a marvelous performance as the killer who couldn’t murder a
woman....
Reportedly filmed in seven days.
81 minutes. Free on Tubi.
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