Vashirdfel Simply A Masterpiece

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

st-shot Edmond O'Brien makes Popeye Doyle look like a crossing guard as a corrupt cop in Shield to Murder. High on The American Dream he turns other lives into nightmares or worse in this compact cynical story of police corruption.Trigger happy detective Barney Nolan waylays a gambler with a wad and wastes him using a silencer. Not the first time he's shot someone but the thin blue line is not about to be crossed. Nolan has big plans for the cash with his hat check girlfriend that he is violently jealous over along with a house he just bought in the burbs. The pressure begins to build when the mob comes calling for their money and a witness to the initial robbery mysteriously dies but Nolan remains resolute in his dream and expires from it on his front lawn under a hail of bullets.O'Brien plays Nolan with paranoid intensity, a victim as well as victimizer in the corrupt world he has made his living. The pressure on his face never subsides (unless facing off with his girlfriend) as he mightily attempts to make a go at a tenuous caper. Special mention should also go to Carolyn Jones doing a loopy bar fly kibitzing with Nolan on his demented level. In a couple of years she would get an Academy Award nomination for a variation of it in The Bachelor Party.Visually there are actual gaffes with a boom mike shadow but two particularly well edited scenes resonate; a shootout in a locker room and pool area along with a brutal beat down in a restaurant reaffirming Nolan's vicious nature. With nothing redemptive outside of his warped love for his girl O'Brien's Nolan remains unsympathetic from end to end making Shield to Murder an ugly but decent watch.

jarrodmcdonald-1 Previously, Edmond O'Brien had made a name for himself in crime dramas like D.O.A. and 711 Ocean Drive. In those pictures, he plays a man of justice, sometimes put in compromising positions and dealing with ironic situations. This time, he is decidedly on the wrong side of the law. Mostly, the plot of Shield for Murder can be described as a good-cop-turns-bad-cop story, with O'Brien playing a crooked detective whose increasing corruption becomes more and more obvious with each additional crime he commits. Yet the drama is played fairly realistically and remains believable throughout the film's entire running time. Viewer interest is achieved by including assorted oddball characters and with a spectacular chase during the final minutes, where O'Brien is embroiled in a tense shoot-out at a men's athletic club.The supporting cast is more than adequate-- including a memorable turn by Carolyn Jones as the girl at the diner. And while the climactic ending is predictable, it's fun watching O'Brien's character get the usual what's-coming-to-him after causing so much trouble.

kidboots Detective Barney Nolan's (Edmond O'Brien) name is a by word at the local police station for corruption and brutality. As Captain Gunnerson lists the shootings linked to Barney over the years, shootings that he always had an alibi for, a call comes through that a bookie has been shot in the back, down a deserted alley - and Barney has already put himself in the clear. This is a tension filled movie with the crime and O'Brien's character established before the opening credits. O'Brien also directed and is at pains to show that once, long ago, he was a caring cop. There is a scene involving a juvenile delinquent who is brought to the station belligerent and taciturn - he is turned over to Barney and within minutes he has delved into just what makes the boy tick. With just a few sentences he has shown that he once felt he could make a difference. There are little touches like this all through the film. Barney's "I want to make a difference" cop has been corrupted by the filth around him. Carolyn Jones is a stand out in the small role of a blonde lush who picks up Barney in a bar. She is just terrific, especially her "I'll show you how to look tough" speech but Barney's demeanour throughout the scene suggests "this is why I am what I am".Barney's real girl friend is Elizabeth Taylor clone Marla English who as Patty Winters finds a job as a cigarette girl - Barney doesn't like her parading herself but as she says "How am I ever going to keep a job if you keep beating up my bosses"!!! The murder victim is also missing $25,000 and it is for Patty that Barney has stolen it. In Barney's idea of the American dream - money equates to normality, and having a perfect little wife to go with the perfect house, and his eagerness as he shows Patty around the fully furnished project home is almost sad. But... also in the back yard is a perfect hiding place for the money which is the icing on the cake!! Hot on Barney's tail is Detective Mark Brewster (John Agar) once Barney's protégé but now, as the movie draws to it's conclusion, keen to bring the rogue cop to justice.The movie definitely has it's fair share of violence - a particularly brutal scene in a night club where two men corner him and the violence in which he pistol whips them has the patrons screaming in terror. There is also a witness to the original murder - a deaf mute (David Hughes) who is keen to write down all he knows about the crime to any policeman who will listen but unfortunately the station sends Barney!!! Apart from a few preachy speeches and an obvious "gaffe" where a boon microphone shadow shows up on a white wall this is a terrific film with marvellous location shooting, including a climatic shoot out at a local swimming baths.

telegonus I cannot say that this is one of the better films noir, but it's a good example of the way this kind of film was drifting in the early fifties: away from the studios; toward independent production; more cars, fewer subways; a vaguely documentary air, ala Jack Webb, rather than the more elegant stylization we associate with the forties; more outdoor scenes, fewer cramped rooms; and overall a movement away from the Gothic and toward a more contemporary, which is to say paranoid mood. Having said this, it ain't a bad picture. Edmond O'Brien (who also had a hand behind the camera) plays a basically decent and fair cop who gives in to temptation and steals some money from a bad guy. He pays dearly for his transgression. O'Brien is edgier and tougher than usual; the rest of the cast is okay. This is an extremely watchable film. It involves you more than most police thrillers. I enjoyed it thoroughly.