The Killer Is Loose

The Killer Is Loose (1956) is an American noir thriller directed by Budd Boetticher that you can watch online on iFILM. Detective Sam Wagner catches bank teller Leon Poole as the inside man in a robbery — and in the process accidentally shoots Poole's wife dead. Poole does his time quietly. At his trial he makes one promise: Wagner will pay for it.

The escape comes soon enough. What makes the film unsettling is not the violence but Wendell Corey's performance as Poole — a soft-spoken, methodical man who feels nothing except the pull of one fixed idea. Joseph Cotten plays Wagner with the dread of someone who understands that calm obsession is harder to stop than rage. Boetticher runs the whole thing in 73 minutes and wastes none of them — tight, cold, and nastier than its B-picture budget implies. Stream The Killer Is Loose (1956) online on iFILM.