Rent The Sniper (1952)

Incel on the Rooftops - The Sniper review by griggs

You don’t need a degree in internet culture to clock this as proto-incel. The Sniper trails a deeply messed-up bloke in San Francisco who fixates on women and starts picking them off with a rifle, and the film is disturbingly upfront about his hatred in a way that goes beyond standard noir sexism. Some of the lines still make you wince, even for the 1950s.

What’s more interesting is the quasi–public information angle. Dmytryk opens like he’s making a civic warning about untreated mental illness, and keeps coming back to the idea that this is a man the system already knows is dangerous. Arthur Franz does a good job of being both pitiable and creepy, while Adolphe Menjou’s detective spends most of his time arguing procedure.

As a thriller, it’s solid rather than spectacular, but the on-location shooting around San Francisco’s hills and rooftops gives it some bite. The clash between nasty gender politics and surprisingly blunt talk about mental health makes it an uneasy, oddly compelling watch.

Crime Picture. - The Sniper review by Steve

Sleazy exploitation thriller about a psychotic serial killer who is murdering random young women in San Francisco. It's all shot on location which gives a potent impression of realism, and the character of a police psychiatrist is on hand to explain the sexual motivation of the homicidal loner. There is some editorial content which advocates more progressive policing.

The same arguments were made going back to the precode era; but no one ever wants to pay tax. And we're still there now, especially regarding violence against women. Aside from the dated psychological content, this is a really exciting manhunt with the 'Frisco police hapless in pursuit of the anonymous maniac while public panic is stirred up by the idiotic news agenda.

It's all deliriously trashy and influenced low budget thrillers for a decade. In 1952 Arthur Franz was exclusively a B actor but he is mesmeric in the title role. The supporting cast of cops are in his shadow, though Richard Kiley is engaging as the crime shrink. Marie Windsor gives the investigation some convenient glamour as a night club singer/murder victim.

It was the first Hollywood film by Edward Dmytryk following imprisonment for alleged communism, and he gives it style without slowing the action. The final tracking shot which ends in a close up of the captive killer is a knockout. There's a procedural docu-noir approach and plenty is made of its social significance, but it's just a sensational, scuzzy crime picture.