unknown infuence


Being relatively obscure, this film has a sort of unknown influence (BTW, screw that pretentious hack Tarantino, I hope he never has or will see this film just so he can steal from it and call it an "homage"). Two great directors: Jean-Pierre Melville and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, have cited this film as influence for their own hitman films: "Le Samourai" and "The American Soldier" respectively--in turn these two films that have had a profound effect on a number of popular directors in a number of movements and countries.It is perhaps the missing link between the noir era hitman film, "This Gun For Hire" and the hitman film of the neo-noir era, with all its foreign and modern permutations. It might not be a visual beauty, but it's so uniquely off-beat--it satirized this sub-genre's tropes long before Seijun Suzuki put them through the wringer in his "Branded to Kill."

Anyhow, I just truly appreciate this film, which I only saw incidentally...cinephiles unite and go see this film!
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Yeah, I'm so bad I kick my own ass twice a day.
-Creeper, the Hamburger Pimp from "Dolemite"

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Murder by Contract is also referred to by Marty Scorsese as an influence of his--I suppose some parallels can be drawn to the respective "training" sequences of Claude and Travis Bickle. He also worked with the film's director Irving Lerner on New York, New York, which is probably one of his worst films.

Moreover, the Coen brother might have possibly homaged Murder by Contract with their The Man Who Wasn't There, though I'm not sure if this was at all intended.

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Murder by Contract is indeed a highly respected B-Film Noir masterpiece. It's practically perfect and wonderfully directed and deserves great recognition. It's minimalism and it's editing have had a huge influence on many film-makers around the world.


"Ça va by me, madame...Ça va by me!" - The Red Shoes

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