The Sniper

THE SNIPER-Columbia Pictures-1952- Arthur Franz stars as a woman hating, child abused psycho sniper preying on “dames” who reject him. Adolphe Menjou and Gerald Mohr are the police. Richard Kiley is a police psychiatrist who explains a lot! Marie Windsor is his first victim, shot in a Chinese restaurant.

Franz ‘s portrayal is very sympathetic and the ending is very untypical for the fifties. Frank Faylen is the police chief and a gaggle of familiar character actors make unbilled appearances: Charles Lane, Bryon Foulger, Victor Sen Young, Jean Willes, Paul Dubov and John Eldredge.

SNIPER is surprisingly straightforward and well directed by Hollywood veteran Edward Dymtryk (who directed Karloff in THE DEVIL COMMANDS in 1941). Unfortunately, Dymtryk’s later career was over- shadowed by his naming of names to the HUAC committee after spending several months in jail.

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