# Murder by Contract
**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.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / producer | Irving Lerner; produced by Leon Chooluck for Orbit Productions, Inc.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) |
| Screenplay | Credited to Ben Simcoe, a pseudonym; Ben Maddow contributed without credit[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) • [3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/) |
| Principal cast | Vince Edwards (Claude), Phillip Pine (Marc), Herschel Bernardi (George), Caprice Toriel (Billie Williams), Michael Granger (Mr. Moon)[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract) |
| Production | A quickie shot in eight days on a microscopic budget; completed early February 1958[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) |
| Music | An all-guitar score composed and performed by Perry Botkin[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract) |
| Release | December 1958, Columbia Pictures; copyright registered 1 October 1958 (LP12201)[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) |
| Later standing | 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes critics' Tomatometer (13 reviews); released on DVD in 2009 in Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol. 1[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/murder_by_contract) • [4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Claude 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.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract) • [3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/) 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.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)
Claude 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.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)
His 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.[6](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/murder-by-contract/1418421) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) 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.[6](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/murder-by-contract/1418421) • [3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)
## Production
The 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.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract) • [1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)
**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.[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/) 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.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/) • [7](https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2013/03/25/irving-lerner-a-career-in-context/)
**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.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) 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.[3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)
## Style and music
The 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."[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/) • [2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)
Lucien 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."[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/) • [8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/324) 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.[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)
## Reception and influence
Murder 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.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/) 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."[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/murder_by_contract)
**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.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT) 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.[8](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/324) TCM notes that Howard Shore devised a similarly guitar-flavored score for Scorsese's The Departed (2006).[2](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)
**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.[4](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/) • [3](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/) • [9](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2021/01/columbia-noir-2-indicator/)
## References
1. [Murder By Contract (1958), AFI Catalog of Feature Films](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/52672-MURDER-BYCONTRACT)
2. [Murder by Contract, by Jay Carr, TCM](https://www.tcm.com/articles/183439/murder-by-contract)
3. [Recommended Viewing: Murder by Contract, Jonathan Rosenbaum (December 27, 2023)](https://jonathanrosenbaum.net/2023/12/recommended-viewing-murder-by-contract/)
4. [Murder by Contract (1958), Toronto Film Society film notes](https://torontofilmsociety.com/film-notes/murder-by-contract-1958-2/)
5. [Murder by Contract, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/murder_by_contract)
6. [Murder by Contract, Eye Filmmuseum](https://www.eyefilm.nl/en/whats-on/murder-by-contract/1418421)
7. [Irving Lerner: A Career in Context, Chicago Film Society](https://www.chicagofilmsociety.org/2013/03/25/irving-lerner-a-career-in-context/)
8. [Murder by Contract. 1958. Directed by Irving Lerner | MoMA](https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/324)
9. [Columbia Noir #2, Indicator, Blueprint: Review](https://blueprintreview.co.uk/2021/01/columbia-noir-2-indicator/)
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*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*
*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*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license