***SPOILERS**** The police only clue to the string of killings in the L.A area is that he uses plow shears on his victims who are 30 or under blonde females and murder his victims on the first week of the month. That as it turns out is because it's right after payday and he's got enough cash to take them out on a date before he off them. The killer himself crazed and deranged gardener Carl Martin, Adam Williams, has this thing against young blonde women since his wife, also a blonde, kicked him out of the house when she realized that he was nuts as well as dangerous.Doing gardening work for the Saunders plant and flower nursery Martin used it for covering up his crimes, with 25 pound bags of horse & cow manure, and keeping everyone including the police guessing to who he really is. A murderous psycho and woman heater who wants to get even with those-young blondes-that he feels have done him wrong. Martin even goes so far as getting into a gunfight with two highway patrolmen who caught him in the act. That's after he was caught red handed by them with a blonde, Angela Stevens, that he just murdered whom he picked up a a local bar the nigh before promising to show her a good time! With the L.A police lead by Lt. Pete Hamilton, Edward Binns, hot on his tail Martin slips up in trying to murder his boss Fred Saunders', John Maxwell, daughter Jane, Meg Randall,who besides being a blonde, those that he targets, but feels that she's on to him in his murderous actions around town.***SPOILERS**** With Let. Hamilton and his partner Det. Sgt. Don Warde, Harlan Warde, arriving at his home to question as well as arrest Martin he slips out holding Meg , who came to pick up a plant he ordered for her, hostage. The final scene has Martin gunned down before he could do any more damage as both Let. Hamilton & Sgt. Warde double back and catch him off guard giving Meg a chance to escape.If Martin would have stuck to just gardening all this hurt and suffering on his part would have never happened. But the fact that his wife put the hurt on him by walking out on the creep flipped him out and used the tools of his trade, like plow shears and bags of horse and cow manure, to both commit as well as cover up his crimes!

Like THE SNIPER and HE WALKED BY NIGHT, this film follows both the police and the serial killer they're trying to catch. And it lives up to that standard of quality. As usual, the procedural elements are the weakest parts, with nice attention to detail but rather dry and routine (the corny voice-over, the forensic evidence, the false confessions, the rounding up of the usual suspects, the psychological profiling, the dead-end leads and near misses). But the film absolutely shines when dealing with the killer. Adam Williams (recognizable as the baby-faced baddie from NORTH BY NORTHWEST) is creepy without being at all silly, an air of quiet danger hangs over him. There's a thick tension and dread as he stalks his victims and evades the authorities, with those conflicted moments when you almost don't want him to get caught. The supporting performances are not as memorable, but overall quite solid without anything to complain about. The photography is generally excellent, with terrific use of close-ups and a lot of good location work. Nice score as well. Well-paced and riveting film with some very fine qualities, a nice hidden gem. I'll be buying this one.

This story of a serial killer came out 55 years ago. It's dated primarily in that it isn't gory and graphic. At moments, it feels as if it's about to go that way. But of course the censors wouldn't have allowed it.The director, though not in anyone's pantheon, has great noir cred. "Down Three Dark Streets" alone is something to be very proud of.The pace is just right. The acting, by people wholly unknown to me, is professional and convincing.We know almost from the start who the killer is. It's a matter of whether and when he will be caught. The film languishes more on his bland good looks than on the appearance of any of his victims. He's nice enough looking: rather baby-faced. We see him without his shirt in a long, not extraneous, scene.The attention paid to the killer reminded me of "The Sniper," which came out at the same time. "The Sniper" is better known and was done on a higher budget. But I wouldn't say it's better. This is a very good, scary movie.

This is a virtually spotless transfer and for Film Noir fans who have to put up with beaten up prints of unjustly forgotten films that alone I think perhaps has lead other writers here to rate the movie a bit too highly. It is a police procedure picture (with a surprising amount of forensics used for the time) that unfortunately comes to an obvious ending that reduces what came before it. It is especially well scored and photographed on real(and unique) locations that make it seem very fresh.It is like THE SNIPER, though that film deals with wider issues and has a harder edge and most distinct style, where this plays out like a really good episode of something like THE NAKED CITY, or DRAGNET. The ending is safe and small. The characters although well acted are really stock "types" and don't really become three dimensional.That said the first half of the film is very good and all the positives other writers on IMDb have said are true. But this doesn't ever become a drama, staying safely in melodrama land and that keeps it as mostly by the numbers B picture. Everybody does their job well but also safely within the confines of a programmer. The script just can't let them break out into a real classic noir.