I, THE JURY (ESSEX, 1953) - Sometimes I think there’s an equivalent of Poe’s law for genre (whether books or movies or whatever): sometimes, authors/filmmakers are so committed to genre, and so unafraid of clichés, that their work could be mistaken for parody. I don’t think it quite applies to this film, but Spillane’s books are definitely SO! HARD! BOILED! with a protagonist who’s a) called Mike Hammer, b) instantly jumped by any and all attractive women he meets and c) has a complete disregard for due process.
The movie is slightly less extreme, but it was apparently originally a 3D film (which explains some shots, in retrospect), and it’s exceedingly cynical (spoilers ahead). I mean, the opening would have gotten Fuller’s approval: a man gets shot, then crawls, dying, towards the camera as opening credits roll. Later, semi-retarded man playing Santa Claus (for extra irony, the film takes place around Christmas - kitchy Christmas cards appear as intertitles) is brutally murdered. And in the end, Hammer shoots the main suspect, who asks, melodramatically “how could you?” - except she was about to do the exact same thing to him.
The best Mike Hammer film is, of course, KISS ME DEADLY, which sustains an atmosphere that is both gritty and surreal at the same time, and has a better Hammer* but this one entertained my greatly - and not just because some of the lines had BF (who, incidentally, was reading a fantasy novel at the time) groaning. Unfortunately, the print was dreadful, with murky grays where there should have been blacks - it may be due to the fact that the film was originally in 3D, or simply because it was likely a VHS rip: as far as I can tell, this one hasn’t gotten a dvd release yet.
*a lesser Velda, though - loved Margaret Sheridan in this
