Product Description

A lawyer feels guilty for helping to get an adulterous woman acquitted for killing her husband / A series of mysterious accidents occur to the husband of an unfaithful woman.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50009 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-01-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 90 minutes

Customer Reviews

Two Forgotten Noirs
"Please Murder Me" was made a year before Raymond Burr began his role as Perry Mason on tv. In fact, Burr portrays a defense attorney who must defend his fiance(played by Angela Lansbury) against murder charges. The first third of the movie is set in the courtroom and if you didn't know better you would think you are watching a Perry Mason episode. We see the slim Burr as he looked in the first season of Mason, as opposed to the extra large Burr who played the heavy in his early movie roles.

Burr's character is an idealist, and when he learns that Lansbury is not the innocent victim he thought she was, he spends the rest of the movie trying to correct the miscarriage of justice he had unwittingly become an accessory to. Another main character is played by Lamont Johnson who is better known as a tv and movie director.

The picture quality is good, tho there are some instances where the picture jumps and some dialogue is clipped, but these are to be expected from a film of this age.

My main reason for reviewing this dvd is the second attraction, a long forgotten programmer titled "A Life At Stake". It stars Lansbury and a young Keith Andes. The name Keith Andes meant nothing to me as I watched the opening credits, but as soon as I saw him, I recognized him from numerous guest starring roles on tv and in movies.

This movie was made only a couple of years before Please Murder Me, but Lansbury is quite sexy and dangerous looking here, as opposed to the latter movie where she looks almost middle-aged. Andes and Lansbury sizzle in their love scenes which are erotic and somewhat masochistic.

Andes is a loner who goes into a business deal with Lansbury and her much older husband, well played by Douglas Dumbrille. Against his better judgement, Andes agrees to let Lansbury take out an insurance policy on his life. He quickly learns that Lansbury and Dumbrille want him dead, so they can collect on the policy. Andes goes to the insurance company trying to get the policy cancelled and then to the police who claim there is nothing they can do. But the script has Andes doing so many illogical things for a man in his predicament that it is hard for the viewer to take things seriously. For example, if you knew that two people were trying to kill you, would you agree to meet them at a secluded mountain cabin? Would you accept any food or drink they offered you? At one point, the paranoid Andes is walking along a city street at night and believes he is being followed by a larger man. What does he do? He leaves the relative safety of the public street and walks down a dark deadend alley. There is also the character of Lansbury's younger sister who has a crush on Andes. However her actions only seem to confuse things more. This film was probably meant to be suspenseful like D.O.A. But there are so many plot holes and the characters act so illogically, that it fails to sustain any real suspense.

Even with all these flaws, I enjoyed Stake more than PMM just because of the very good acting of Andes, Lansbury and Dumbrille. I noticed that Stake was directed by Paul Guifoyle who was better known as a character actor during Hollywood's golden age.
Sometimes a flawed gem like this is more fun to watch than a more straightforward film like PMM.

Picture quality is good on this film also.

bad dvd transfer
I never finished the dvd as the sound and picture were so bad. I got thru the first ten minutes and had to turn it up so loud. terrible. save your money

Thank goodness for Angela Lansbury
I bought this only because I am a keen admirer of the actress Angela Lansbury. The two films - both B movies - were of interest because she was in them. But the transfer to dvd was appalling - obviously little attempt had been made to find the best prints and they were full of scratches, lapses in sound etc. The dvd was not expensive, but hardly a bargain in v1ew of the quality of the prints transferred.