COP HATER

Partners: Robert Loggia; Gerald S. O'Loughlin

COP HATER (1958). Director: William Berke.

Detective Steve Carelli (Robert Loggia) and his partner, Mike (Gerald O'Loughlin), look for a man who has been gunning down cops at the rate of one a day. Steve has a deaf-mute girlfriend,  Teddy (Ellen Parker), and Mike has a wife named Alice (Shirley Ballard). In between having drinks, fooling around with the ladies in their lives, and occasionally talking to suspects, the two detectives -- who always seem tired even though they actually do very little -- eventually uncover a suspect or two. But will they ever find the right guy?

Russell Hardie and Jerry Orbach

Cop Hater is based on a novel by Ed McBain of the well-known 87th Precinct series. These books feature Detective Steve Carella, although the film changes his name to Carelli. The movie is a misfire on virtually every level. For one thing, considering the fact that cops are being killed, the movie has absolutely no urgency or pacing at all. As noted, Carelli and Mike don't seem to do very much actual detective work, and nobody but their boss, Lt. Byrnes (Russell Hardie), seems to give a damn about much of anything. Loggia is only okay as Carelli, but O'Loughlin is quite good as his partner, Hardie is excellent as the Lieutenant, and a very young Jerry Orbach makes a decided impression in his one big scene as a young punk, leader of a boy gang that may be responsible for a murder. 

Other good bits are provided by Vincent Gardenia as Danny the Gimp, and Glenn Cannon as Rip, another member of the Grovers gang. As Mike's wife, Shirley Ballard proves no actress, although she somehow managed to amass 42 credits. Lincoln Kilpatrick, Lulu B. King, and Janet Manson, among others, are given some good moments. Albert Glasser's [Beginning of the End] score oddly gets melodramatic during what are supposed to be tender romantic scenes -- it's certainly not the composer's highwater mark. Agatha Christie's "ABC Murders" provides the basic premise for the murders themselves. The Mugger, also directed by William Berke, was another adaptation of an Ed McBain novel. 

Verdict: Lackadaisical treatment sinks this from the start. *1/2.