Please murder me is a nice noir thriller on which the influence of Billy Wilder's classic Double Indemnity is clearly felt. It also is a film that could have been a lot better had their been no Code in place and with better casting of the lead. The issues here are straight out of Tennessee Williams.Raymond Burr is a respected defense attorney, upright and honest, but not as shrewd as the one he would shortly start playing on the small screen. His best buddy is Dick Foran who took a bullet for him in World War II and married Angela Lansbury in that order.Lansbury has apparently lost that zing in her marriage and shoots Foran and then gets Burr to get her off on self defense. He's got it bad for Lansbury, always has. But she's picked out hunky young artist Lamont Johnson for herself. That zing is where Tennessee Williams comes in. As for the casting I'd have rather seen someone like Gloria Grahame or Jennifer Jones in the lead here. Of David Selznick would never let his wife into a cheap independent like this one. Still Grahame or Jones would have been believable as a woman who Burr humiliates and destroys himself for.Not bad, but not Angela Lansbury.

Fair little thriller concerns an alleged battered wife (Landsbury) who's supposedly killed her wealthy husband (Foran) in self defence, acquitted of his murder thanks to her romantic liaison with the man's war-time best friend and now eminent attorney (Burr). But Landsbury's gold digging past is about to emerge and Burr concocts an outrageous plan to expose her as a murdering black widow.Decent cast showcases Burr rehearsing the familiar court-room proceedings that would soon matriculate into "Perry Mason" fame, while John Dehner plays a capable DA and Lamont Johnson features in an acting role as Landsbury's artist 'friend' before he turned to directing. You might also notice future "Dukes of Hazzard" Denver Pyle early in the picture as a detective, and then if you're keen-eyed, "Batman"'s 'Aunt Harriet' Madge Blake in a very minor role playing a maid.Economical treatment coasts along leaving little room to properly establish a water-tight plot, generating more than a few contrivances that barely paper over the cracks. Notwithstanding, if you're prepared to overlook a few conveniences "Please Murder Me" still offers a strong cast and mild entertainment for a modest 75 minute investment.

Opening with attorney Craig Carlson buying a gun before settling down to leave a message for the police regarding a murder – his own impending murder, the film offers much in the way of plotting. We flashback to when Carlson confesses to his old friend that not only is his friend's wife leaving him, but that she is leaving to be with him and that he is representing her in the divorce. His friend takes it much better than expected but soon a moment of violence sees all the characters changed or shown in a new light, with the stakes high.I watched this film out of curiosity because not only it is now in the public domain but it also features two very famous names in the lead roles. The opening of the film is odd because it has no sound other than the music, which is an odd effect that doesn't help the atmosphere; likewise the visuals are too dark and not the layered sort of shadowing I'm used to with films from the period that do this sort of darkness well. The plot jumps to the crux of the matter very quickly and as a result it lacks build and development in the characters, robbing the film of audience involvement. What this leaves is the very stiff plotting which folds out reasonably well with interesting turns but nothing too thrilling or exciting. It isn't helped as an idea by just how very "television" the whole thing feels – it is stagey and the delivery of it all is stiff and lacks a spark that it badly needed.The acting is equally stiff and although this isn't too surprising, it is still disappointing. Burr is in the sort of stiff lawyer mode that would later work in Perry Mason but here it is too stiff and doesn't fit the material, I would have liked a bit of emotion in his delivery, particularly towards the back end of the film. By contrast Lansbury is a bit too hammy and melodramatic in her role, she is supposed to be a real femme fatale but she doesn't convince in that role at any point. The supporting players all go the same way – very stiff and lacking in delivery.Please Murder Me offers an interesting plot but it never really delivers it. The whole film lacks spark and life, which is partly due to the very stiff delivery across the board – cinematography is televisual at best, the direction is basic and the performances are just far too unnatural and lacking emotion. A shame because I was looking forward to seeing the two stars in an unusual vehicle, but this isn't much cop.

Raymond Burr stars as an attorney caught up in the murder of his best friend (Dick Foran) thanks to his affection for his friend's wife (Angela Lansbury). This was a full year before he started doing Perry Mason, so the movie might be of particular interest to his fans if it was the inspiration for his casting.There isn't all that much else here that's interesting though. Lansbury is always good, but her character here is very one dimensional and the motives for her crime in the mystery are totally obvious. There's an interesting performance by Lamont Johnson as a painter who's also in love with the "femme fatale", but the Burr character is pretty straightforward. It's frankly bizarre to see an actor like Burr doing these romantic scenes with Lansbury, and his halting delivery does not match his character here very well as it does in most films I've seen him in. There's no mystery at all really, and the whole suspense is supposed to be around the title of the film and the way that Burr's character is setting up the Lansbury character to implicate herself (double jeopardy prevents her being tried again for the original murder, presumably). He does so with a very large tape recorder which she doesn't notice when she comes into the room I guess.A few perhaps unintentionally fun moments and basically the rest of the thing could have been done for TV.