Female Trouble

The Sniper (Edward Dmytryk, 1952)

Always a surprise whenever a film from the past subverts any preconceived notions you hold for a particular era in cinema. Edward Dmytryk's chilling film noir, The Sniper (1952), is one of those types of films. Much like James Landis's The Sadist (1963) being the spiritual predecessor to films like Terence Malick's Badlands (1973) and Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1997), The Sniper's Eddie Miller (Arthur Franz) comes across as a precursor to Norman Bates and Frank Zito.

Dmytryk's thriller largely focuses on its antagonist, a violent misogynist working as a dry cleaning deliverer. Miller is an ace shot with a rifle and ever since his release from a prison psychiactric ward, he's been resisting the urge to pull the trigger on various women who have crossed his path. Here's the interesting thing: he wants to be stopped.

What finally pushes him over the edge and turns him into a killer is when he's friendzoned by a bar musician, Jean Darr (Marie Windsor), who, after asking for a special favour from him regarding an emergency dry clean, scurries him out of her apartment when her boyfriend arrives. This results with one of the most disturbing moments of the film, when she's callously shot in the head after leaving her work.

There isn't a clear cut protagonist in The Sniper to counterbalance Eddie Miller's deranged killings; instead we're provided with various characters who might have played the part if they were give enough screen time. Adolphe Menjou is perhaps the closest to one, however, as the elderly Police Lt. Frank Kafka (I'm not joking). There's also a very late introduction of a young criminal psychiatrist played by Richard Kiley, who hardly gets to do much, other than reveal the film's liberal social message; intervention and reform from a young age.

Given its plot of a serial killer armed with a sniper rifle, and the fact that it's set in San Francisco, I can't help but think that The Sniper must have been an inspiration to Don Siegel's classic seventies thriller Dirty Harry (1971). Obviously, the major differences being the latter features a gigachad protector played by the legendary Clint Eastwood. It also contains a more conservative message; criticising the legal system that protects a suspected menace with its bureaucratic red tape. Dmytryk's takes a far more liberal and compassionate view in this regard.

Genuinely surprised a film with such a dark subject matter would ever be released by a Hollywood studio — particularly Columbia Pictures. What would have been more fitting as a low-budget exploitation film produced by the likes of B-movie legend, George Weiss back in the day, is a highly polished and thoroughly thrilling Stanley Kramer production. Thus, The Sniper is not only an excellent film noir, but a serial killer film which might have been ahead of its time.