Cop Hater (1958)

Director: William Berke

Writers: Evan Hunter, Henry Kane

Composer: Albert Glasser

Starring: Robert Loggia, Gerald S. O'Loughlin, Ellen Parker, Shirley Ballard, Russell Hardie, Hal Riddle, Bill Neff, Gene Miller, Vincent Gardenia, Ralph Stanley, Jerry Orbach, Steve Franken

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Cop Bait! She winks... she loves... she kills... and it's always a guy with a badge!

Plot: The hardworking detectives of the 87th Precinct in an unnamed city during a massive heat wave investigate the seemingly random murders of policemen.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again? No.

I dig these short 40s/50s crime pictures. You're in and you're out and lots of people get hurt.  I only started watching it because of the genre, era and that it starred a really young Robert Loggia (his first picture as the lead).  I had no idea it also had familiar faces like Vincent Gardenia, Jerry Orbach and Steve Franken.  That was just icing on the cake.  It's a fun picture but there were a couple of things that got in the way for me.  One was Hal Riddle's strange performance as the police captain, Mercer.  He's got this sullen demeanor throughout the entire picture.  Yeah, I get it, he's upset that someone's killin' cops but he's just so emotional about it that I wonder if this guy were real if the entire department wouldn't look down on him like a total weak-ass wus.  It's that out there.  Then there's the obvious missed line of reasoning when it comes to the detectives.  The first two detectives that are murdered were partners (one being black which was a nice touch). Not one of these guys figured there might be a connection.  Not one. That's the first thing I thought of.  Oh, then there's the poster art, tagline and trailer THAT GIVE AWAY THE FUCKING ENDING!!!  I'm glad I didn't see/read/watch them before I watched the picture.  Geez, Hollywood.  The fuck?  Despite all of that it's still a fun movie.  And it was nice having Carelli's (Loggia) gal be deaf and mute.  It didn't serve the story in any way.  That's just how she was and it was another nice touch.