''Destination Murder'' is a 1950 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

film noir Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ' ...

directed by

Edward L. Cahn Edward L. Cahn (February 12, 1899 – August 25, 1963) was an American film director. Early life and education Cahn was born in Brooklyn, New York. He went to work at Universal Pictures in 1917 while still a student at UCLA. Career He ...

. The drama features

Joyce MacKenzie Joyce Elaine MacKenzie Hassing (October 13, 1925 – June 10, 2021) was an American actress who appeared in films and television from 1946 to 1961. She might be best remembered for being the eleventh actress to portray Jane. She played the rol ...

Stanley Clements Stanley Clements (born Stanislaw Klimowicz; July 16, 1926 – October 16, 1981) was an American actor and comedian, best known for portraying "Stash" in the East Side Kids film series, and group leader Stanislaus "Duke" Coveleskie in The Bowery ...

and

Hurd Hatfield William Rukard Hurd Hatfield (December 7, 1917 – December 26, 1998) was an American actor. He is best known for having played characters of handsome, narcissistic young men, most notably Dorian Gray in the film ''The Picture of Dorian Gray'' (1 ...

Plot

During a five-minute movie intermission, Jackie Wales leaves a theater, gets into a car, changes into a messenger's outfit, rings the doorbell of Arthur Mansfield, shoots him, then rushes back to the theater and his date. After her father is shot, Laura Mansfield sees the killer hurdle the house's gate. At the police station, she looks at suspects in a lineup. One of them is Jackie, whom she chats with outside the station, not revealing who she is. Laura lets him drive her home, then sees Jackie hurdle the gate as her dad's murderer did. s Police Lt. Brewster, the lead homicide investigator, ignores her tip and charges Arthur Mansfield's business competitor, Frank Niles, with the crime. Laura begins dating Jackie to keep an eye on him. He loses money gambling and goes to the Vogue nightclub to get a payoff from the men who run it. Instead, the boss, Armitage, brutally beats Jackie while the club's manager, Stretch Norton, starts the music of a player piano to drown out the noise. Laura is frustrated by Brewster's seeming lack of action in solving her father's case. She takes a job as a cigarette girl at Vogue to learn more about Jackie's employer. Armitage and Stretch have a conversation, during which they reveal the fact that Niles hired Jackie to kill Mansfield. Alice Wentworth, a gold-digger whom Armitage loves but who flirts with Stretch, goes to Jackie with a plan: Write a letter confessing to the murder, implicating Armitage for hiring him, then get a $5,000 blackmail payment that Alice will split with him. The scheme works. From the time they spend together, Laura ends up falling in love with Stretch and confessing her true identity. She does not realize that Stretch is the actual boss of the gang; Armitage works for him, as a front. Stretch persuades Alice to double-cross Jackie; she gives him Jackie's confession letter. Then Armitage starts the player piano, kills Alice, and burns Jackie's letter. Stretch also orders Armitage to kill Jackie on the way home. Eliminating loose ends, Stretch drugs Armitage, puts a gun in his hand, and acts as if his partner is about to betray him, getting Laura to shoot Armitage. Brewster, regardless, does not believe the case is solved, and recruits Laura and Niles for a sting operation in Norton's office, with Niles offering to take Armitage's place. The recorded conversation implicates mastermind Norton. He attempts to take Laura hostage, but Brewster frees her and the two men fight. When Norton has the upper hand and is about to kill Brewster, police detective Mulcahy shoots and kills Norton.

Cast

as Laura Mansfield *

as Jackie Wales *

as Stretch Norton *

Albert Dekker Thomas Albert Ecke Van Dekker (December 20, 1905 – May 5, 1968) was an American character actor and politician best known for his roles in '' Dr. Cyclops'', ''The Killers'' (1946), '' Kiss Me Deadly'', and ''The Wild Bunch''. Early life and c ...

as Armitage *

Myrna Dell Myrna Dell (born Marilyn Adele Dunlap; March 5, 1924 – February 11, 2011) was an American actress, model, and writer who appeared in numerous motion pictures and television programs over four decades. A Hollywood glamour girl in the early p ...

as Alice Wentworth *

James Flavin James William Flavin Jr. (May 14, 1906 – April 23, 1976) was an American character actor whose career lasted for nearly half a century. Early life The son of a hotel waiter of Canadian-English descent,Flavin's obituary, distributed by United ...

as Police Lt. Brewster *

John Dehner John Dehner (DAY-ner) (born John Dehner Forkum, also credited Dehner Forkum; November 23, 1915February 4, 1992) was an American stage, radio, film, and television actor. From the late 1930s to the late 1980s, he amassed a long list of performan ...

as Frank Niles * Richard Emory as Police Sgt. Mulcahy * Suzette Harbin as Harriet, Nightclub Maid * Buddy Swan as Arthur, Blue Streak Messenger * Bert Wenland as Dave, Blue Streak Messenger *

Franklyn Farnum Franklyn Farnum (born William Smith; June 5, 1878 – July 4, 1961) was an American character actor and Hollywood extra who appeared in at least 1,100 films. He was also cast in more films that won the Academy Award for Best Picture than any o ...

as Arthur Mansfield, Laura's Father * Steve Gibson and the Redcaps as Singing Group

Release and reception

''Destination Murder'' was release June 6, 1950. Herb Rau, writing for ''

The Miami News ''The Miami News'' was an evening newspaper in Miami, Florida. It was the media market competitor to the morning edition of the '' Miami Herald'' for most of the 20th century. The paper started publishing in May 1896 as a weekly called ''The Miami ...

'' in 1950, called the premise ridiculous and the plot confused. Much later, in a 2011 synopsis for the website AllMovie, critic Hans J. Wollstein agreed that the plot is baffling and attributed much of that confusion to important elements lacking in the screenplay: Note: Screenwriter Don Martin is not the famed '' Mad'' cartoonist of the same name.

References

External links

* * * (

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Archive Collection) {{Edward L. Cahn 1950 crime drama films 1950 films 1950s crime thriller films American crime thriller films American crime drama films 1950s English-language films American black-and-white films Film noir RKO Pictures films Films directed by Edward L. Cahn 1950s American films