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AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

whpratt1 Enjoyed this 1958 film dealing with a serial cop killer on the loose in New York City and a horrible heat wave which has most of actors always complaining about the heat. Robert Loggia (Detective Steve Carelli) is a very dedicated policeman and he works with Teddy Franklin, (Ellen Parker) who is an attractive gal. Alice Maguire, (Shirley Ballard) plays the role as a very sexy wife to Detective Mike Maguire, (Gerald O'Loughlin) but Alice is getting tired of being married to a cop and she wants her husband to quit because of all the cops being killed by a mad man throughout the City of New York. There are some sexy scenes which were considered very naughty to see a girl naked with a towel wrapped around her and a few other scenes with girls showing plenty of their legs. This is a great mystery and very good acting by Robert Loggia. Enjoy.

dougdoepke The early 50's were the era of Jack Webb, police procedure, and the docu-drama, where law enforcement was portrayed in the best possible professional light. After all, there was an emerging Cold War to fight. On the other hand, this late 50's movie, adapted from an Ed McBain novel, is edging away from that ideal toward a more realistic portrayal of policing in a city precinct. Dragnet, it ain't. Too bad that the result comes across as something of a trashy, exploitation flick because there's a good story with several interesting passages plus a neat twist ending buried beneath the tacky titillation. Someone's knocking off cops for no apparent reason, a psycho the detectives figure. So the heat at the precinct is really on with no real suspects. Nonetheless, much of what follows is pretty muddled and hard to follow. It's not an A-grade adaptation or narrative, to say the least.The way the cops are portrayed is interesting for the time. They knock people around, drink a lot (maybe on duty), and seem sex-starved much of the rest of the time. In short, the detectives appear not that different from most young American males. Given today's relaxed standards, colorful episodes like rousting a street gang or ogling a nude woman in a towel may seem tame, but in 1958, such scenes were quite daring. The trouble is that too much of the drama and suspense is sacrificed to a lot of cheesecake scenes, which may have sold tickets but do little to advance the story. Too bad, because the acting from a New York cast comes across as unforced and natural, plus the main characters don't look like typical Hollywood types. Even the girls, though sexy, aren't tinsel town perfect. With a better structured, less exploitative script, the film could have risen above the drive-in level. As the results stand, however, there's not much beyond an historical interest in the evolution of the cop film. Besides, guys can get more titillation by just switching over to the Playboy channel.

rsternesq Very interesting, well done look at the late 1950's in NY, on the streets, in the precinct house. What is so amazing is that you really can tell which actors will end up stars or at least significant players. Charisma is very real and evident here. Robert Loggia is a revelation. I've never seen him so young and yet he is very macho and attractive. The camera loves him and I'll bet that a lot of viewers do as well. A boyish Jerry Orbach is certainly an eye full as well. Recommended as a very interesting exploration of the past that is now just receding beyond easy recollection. Cannot say that the female performers are as memorable but then, one can't have everything but this dishes up quite a lot and the author certainly deserves his subsequent career.

sol ****SPOILERS**** Graphically brutal movie for a film released in the 1950's about a cop killer on the loose with the entire city police department mobilized to track him down. When two policemen are shot and killed in two days who happened to be partners at the same police precinct for no apparent reason, other then being policemen, the word is out on the street that whoever knows anything about those murders better talk. Or else the full heat of the police force will come down on them. After checking out every hood and punk gang member in the city the police department came to the conclusion that whoever committed those killings did it only out of his personal hatred of policemen and are looking for a cop hating psycho. What they don't know is that the person behind these murders is a lot closer to them then they think.Det. Carelli and Maguire, Robert Loggia and Gerald S. O'Loughlin, are assigned to the case but unknown to them one of the detectives is the real reason behind this slew of killings. Later Det. Maguire gets gunned downed in the street and his partner, Det. Carelli, starts to put together what he knows of the case. Det. Carelli comes up with an unbelievable theory to who's doing these killings from his talking to Det. Maguire and his wife Alice, Shirley Ballard. Going through the motions looking for the killer Det. Carelli is at the bar one night with reporter Hank Miller,Gene Miller. Who's meddlesome actions with this story about a cop killer to get his big scoop almost cost the life of a cop who was mistaken for him. Thats when Miller tried to get a story out of a local teenage gang member by threatening him and his gang with unwanted media exposure. Det. Carelli drunk and not thinking tells Miller what he thinks is going on with the police killings and who's behind them. Miller irresponsibly prints the story that tips off the killer. Miller also foolishly prints the address of Det. Carelli's fiancée the pretty but hearing-impaired Teddy Franklin, Ellen Parker. Busting into her apartment the cop killer Marcer, Hal Riddle, finds Teddy alone and waits for Det. Carelli to show up and murder him. Alerting Carelli when Teddy sees the door light go on, thats the way she can tell if someone is ringing since Teddy can't hear. Det.Carelli surprises Macer and after having it out with him beats a confession out of Mercer not only to his killing the three cops but who was really behind and had him do those killings. This is in 1958 before the Supreme Court's passing of the 1966 Miranda decision. For a person to be read his rights and be presented with a lawyer before he says anything. Fine big city police drama that plays like an episode of "Naked City" but is far far more realistic as well as brutal without being filmed in city of New York, the name New York City is never mentioned in the film. Even though "Cop Hater" does look like it was filmed there.