Murder by Contract

It's tough to kill someone who's not dependable.

Murder by Contract is directed by Irving Lerner and written by Ben Simcoe. It stars Vince Edwards, Philip Pine, Michael Granger, Caprice Toriel and Herschel Bernardi. Music is by Perry Botkin and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.

Claude (Edwards) one day decides he's had enough of being a regular Joe earning regular Joe wages. He decides to become a hit man, and after enacting a few clinical kills he works his way into the confidence of the mysterious Mr. Brink. This earns him a "big hit" in Los Angeles, where he is to snuff out the main witness in a big upcoming trial. All is going well until he finds out the target is a woman, so where once Claude was calm and assured, he now becomes...

I can't help but think this could have been so much better if only someone had taken a razor blade to the soundtrack. It's repetitive nature really annoyed me after about ten minutes. The story, though, is quite quirky and really centres around just three characters. "Claude" (Vince Edwards) is a contract killer - and an extremely efficient one - and his two minders who are supposed to liaise with their "chief" and sort out the logistics. All is going well until the latest target - a woman, a witness in an huge crime case - unsettles our otherwise meticulous and unshakable killer. Regrettably, this has been made on a shoestring with a tight turnaround, so we get little - if any - time to play any mind games with our assassin; what is it abo...