Wed 4 Dec 2019
THREE CAME TO KILL. United Artists, 1960. Cameron Mitchell, John Lupton, Steve Brodie, Lyn Thomas. Director: Edward L. Cahn.
The benchmark for movies such as this — a family being held hostage by a gang of killers planning to assassinate some high government official — is probably Suddenly, the film released in 1954 in which Frank Sinatra’s target is the President of the US. [My review of that film can be found here.]
Even though that earlier film is much more well-known, I found myself enjoying this one a whole lot more. The target is the head of some small (fictitious) Middle-Eastern country who is about to fly out of the US from the Los Angeles airport> The reason this film is a lot more believable and suspenseful (if those two qualities are not one and the same) is that Cameron Mitchell and Steve Brodie look exactly like the kind of guys who might be hired could carry out such an assignment. Tough and professional all the way.
It goes without saying– doesn’t it? — that they do get tripped up, but their plan is a good one, and they do come awfully close to carrying it out. This is a low budget film, but it’s still an enjoyable one, with one caveat I can’t help but mention. Whoever had the final say on this film must have thought the viewership was going to consist of folks with movie IQ’s of less than 80. All the ever present voice-over narration managed to do is to repeat in detail what was plain as day to see on the screen.
December 5th, 2019 at 8:12 am
Dirctor Cahn is credited with one great Western (LAW AND ORDER, 1932) and slew of anonymous co-features, but his aggressively anonymous style was sometimes used to good effect, as in IT! THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE and THE SHE CREATURE — even a blunt instrument has its uses.
December 5th, 2019 at 9:03 am
Right you are, Dan. Cahn doesn’t have much of a reputation when it comes to making movies. When I saw his name in the opening credits, I almost groaned out loud, but even though THREE CAME TO KILL is far from a masterpiece, I surprised myself as to how much I enjoyed it anyway.
December 5th, 2019 at 10:04 am
I don’t know this film and I enjoyed reading about it. Thank you.
Re: “Suddenly!” I feel Sinatra provided a tiny handful of impressive performances (‘Golden Arm’, ‘Manchurian’, ‘Eternity’). He occasionally worked hard (ex., breaking his wrist badly during ‘Manchurian’) but would agree he mostly mailed-in his work and too-often-played-a-pastiche-of-himself. Still, not a terrible career, all-in-all.
December 7th, 2019 at 5:02 pm
There’s a bit of a Cahn cult. TCM has even devoted a day or two to his films over the years. If not wholly successful his films are often intetesting.
December 7th, 2019 at 7:55 pm
Many auteurist film historians admire Cahn.
I’ve written about him at:
http://mikegrost.com/cahn.htm
December 7th, 2019 at 9:06 pm
Mike, I hope you get a chance sometime to see THREE CAME TO KILL. I’d like to read what you think about it also there on your website.
December 7th, 2019 at 11:20 pm
Steve, I’d like to see THREE CAME TO KILL too.
Your review is very interesting.