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 "title": "Murder by Contract",
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 "excerpt": "Murder by Contract (1958) is an Irving Lerner film noir starring Vince Edwards as hitman Claude, with Perry Botkin's guitar score; a low-budget Columbia B picture that influenced Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.",
 "snippet": "Murder by Contract (1958) is an Irving Lerner film noir starring Vince Edwards as hitman Claude, with Perry Botkin's guitar score; a low-budget Columbia B picture that influenced Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.",
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 "markdown": "# Murder by Contract\n\n**Murder by Contract** is a 1958 American black-and-white film noir directed by Irving Lerner, starring [Vince Edwards](https://www.edgepedia.org/vince-edwards) as Claude, a methodical contract killer who takes jobs in Los Angeles to save money for a house, and who is hired to assassinate a woman scheduled to testify before a grand jury. The film runs 80 to 81 minutes and was released by [Columbia Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/columbia-pictures) in December 1958.<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup>\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / producer | Irving Lerner; produced by Leon Chooluck for Orbit Productions, Inc.<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup> |\n| Screenplay | Credited to Ben Simcoe, a pseudonym; Ben Maddow contributed without credit<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)</sup> |\n| Principal cast | Vince Edwards (Claude), Phillip Pine (Marc), Herschel Bernardi (George), Caprice Toriel (Billie Williams), Michael Granger (Mr. Moon)<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup> |\n| Production | A quickie shot in eight days on a microscopic budget; completed early February 1958<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup> |\n| Music | An all-guitar score composed and performed by Perry Botkin<sup>[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup> |\n| Release | December 1958, Columbia Pictures; copyright registered 1 October 1958 (LP12201)<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup> |\n| Later standing | 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes critics' Tomatometer (13 reviews); released on DVD in 2009 in Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1<sup>[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/murder_by_contract)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)</sup> |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nClaude is a ruthless and efficient hitman who regards killing as a trade. He explains that he wants to buy a house on the [Ohio River](https://www.edgepedia.org/ohio-river) to share with his unseen girlfriend, and that assassination at $500 a job will pay for it far faster than wage work.<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)</sup> After an interview with the intermediary Mr. Moon (Michael Granger) that parodies a corporate hiring process, he waits two weeks in his furnished room, exercising and following a fixed routine until the call comes.<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup>\n\nClaude kills only with legal weapons such as a knife, his hands, rope, or a razor; he never carries a gun and never speeds, so that in every respect but his vocation he is law-abiding. The killings themselves are never shown on screen; the film cuts to blackouts or off-screen sounds as Claude advances on his victims.<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup>\n\nHis new assignment in Los Angeles is to eliminate Billie Williams (Caprice Toriel), a former gangster's woman set to testify against her ex-boss, while his handlers, Marc (Phillip Pine) and George (Herschel Bernardi), monitor the operation, and she is guarded day and night by separate bodyguards.<sup>[6](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/murder-by-contract/1418421)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup> Claude's distaste for women, and for this target in particular, undermines his professional calm; as coincidence and bad luck frustrate his plans, he attempts to back out, and the hunter becomes the hunted.<sup>[6](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/murder-by-contract/1418421)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)</sup>\n\n## Production\n\nThe film was made cheaply and quickly. TCM's Jay Carr describes it as \"a quickie shot in eight days on a microscopic budget,\" and the AFI Catalog records production completed in early February 1958 under Orbit Productions, Inc., with a Columbia copyright claim dated 1 October 1958.<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup>\n\n**Blacklisted talent.** Director Irving Lerner and the uncredited screenwriter Ben Maddow were blacklisted leftists, according to the critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, who reads the film as a black comedy about capitalism: a hitman as an independent contractor working toward a house, hired by an unseen employer.<sup>[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)</sup> Lerner had begun in the New York wing of the Workers Film and Photo League and later worked for the Office of War Information; near the end of the blacklist period he managed to direct Murder by Contract and City of Fear for Columbia.<sup>[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[7](https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2013/03/25/irving-lerner-a-career-in-context/)</sup>\n\n**Locations.** Filming took place at actual sites around Los Angeles, among them Ventura Boulevard in the [San Fernando Valley](https://www.edgepedia.org/san-fernando-valley), the Hollywood Freeway together with the interchange downtown, the Thelma Todd House along [Pacific Coast Highway](https://www.edgepedia.org/pacific-coast-highway), the Glendale train station, the Hall of Records in the Los Angeles Civic Center, and a Studio City driving range.<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup> A climactic sequence was shot on [Charlie Chaplin](https://www.edgepedia.org/charlie-chaplin)'s old studio lot, on what remained of an exterior set used for The Great Dictator.<sup>[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)</sup>\n\n## Style and music\n\nThe film's most distinctive element is its score: a single guitar, composed and played by Perry Botkin, a veteran big band guitarist who had been [Bing Crosby](https://www.edgepedia.org/bing-crosby)'s musical director for nearly two decades. The minimalist score runs through the picture and has been compared to Anton Karas's zither music for [The Third Man](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-third-man) (1949); Variety's 1958 review praised it for its \"fine atmospheric backing.\"<sup>[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup>\n\nLucien Ballard's high-contrast black-and-white cinematography and the lean storytelling complete the minimalist style. Critics have noted that the film owes little to the silky sheen of postwar noir; the Time Out Film Guide calls it \"taut, spare, amoral,\" adding that \"it doesn't look restricted, it looks restrained.\"<sup>[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/324)</sup> TCM's essay describes it as a \"cusp noir,\" a film noir turned film blanc with a fade to white, carrying early signals of postwar societal change.<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup>\n\n## Reception and influence\n\nMurder by Contract attracted little attention on release and did not score a hit, but it has since been reappraised as a minor classic of the B-picture tradition.<sup>[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)</sup> On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 100% Tomatometer from 13 critics; Time Out's Tom Charity calls it \"a terrific, no-nonsense B movie which comes on like something by Jean-Pierre Melville: cool, calm and dispassionate.\"<sup>[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/murder_by_contract)</sup>\n\n**Scorsese.** Martin Scorsese has called Murder by Contract \"the film that has influenced me the most,\" adding that he had a clip of it in [Mean Streets](https://www.edgepedia.org/mean-streets) but had to cut it because it was too long, and that the sequence in [Taxi Driver](https://www.edgepedia.org/taxi-driver) (1976) in which [Travis Bickle](https://www.edgepedia.org/travis-bickle) gets into shape was inspired by the film.<sup>[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)</sup> He dedicated his 1977 film New York, New York to Lerner's memory, citing the spare guitar score, Ballard's cinematography, and the lean storytelling as influences.<sup>[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/324)</sup> TCM notes that Howard Shore devised a similarly guitar-flavored score for Scorsese's The Departed (2006).<sup>[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)</sup>\n\n**Home video.** The film was released on DVD in 2009 in the boxed set Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1, alongside [The Big Heat](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-big-heat) and 5 Against the House, and later in an Indicator edition of Columbia noir titles that includes a Scorsese introduction.<sup>[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)</sup><sup> • </sup><sup>[9](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2021/01/columbia-noir-2-indicator/)</sup>\n\n## References\n\n1. [Murder By Contract (1958), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)\n2. [Murder by Contract, by Jay Carr, TCM](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)\n3. [Recommended Viewing: Murder by Contract, Jonathan Rosenbaum (December 27, 2023)](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)\n4. [Murder by Contract (1958), Toronto Film Society film notes](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)\n5. [Murder by Contract, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/murder_by_contract)\n6. [Murder by Contract, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/murder-by-contract/1418421)\n7. [Irving Lerner: A Career in Context, Chicago Film Society](https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2013/03/25/irving-lerner-a-career-in-context/)\n8. [Murder by Contract. 1958. Directed by Irving Lerner | MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/324)\n9. [Columbia Noir #2, Indicator, Blueprint: Review](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2021/01/columbia-noir-2-indicator/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Film noir and neo-noir films › Released 1940 to 1975*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n",
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 "speakable": "Murder by Contract is an Irving Lerner film noir starring Vince Edwards as hitman Claude, with Perry Botkin's guitar score; a low-budget Columbia B picture that influenced Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver."
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