I, the Jury (1953 film)
Encyclopedia
I, the Jury is a mystery-thriller film from 1953, based on the novel I, the Jury
by Mickey Spillane
. It was directed by Harry Essex
, produced by Victor Saville
's company, Parklane Pictures and released through United Artists
.
The film is notable for being the first film based on a Mike Hammer novel. Biff Elliot stars as Hammer. It was filmed in 3-D
and was available with stereophonic sound
.
The story begins with Mike Hammer on the vengeance trail when Jack, his wartime buddy, is murdered. Hotheaded Hammer sets out to find the killer, working his way through an increasingly large pile of suspects (and corpses).
), Jack's war buddy, vows to avenge his friend's death despite a warning from Pat Chambers (Preston Foster
), captain of the homicide squad, to let the police handle the case. Pat is unable to calm Mike, who roughs up a wisecracking reporter before leaving the crime scene. Knowing that Mike will forge ahead with an investigation regardless of his advice, Pat urges the offended reporter to publish an article broadcasting that Mike is on the job.
Mike goes to see Jack's fiancée, Myrna Devlin, a torch singer and reformed drug addict, but she is too distraught to talk with him. The next day, Mike's secretary Velda tells him about the article, titled "I, the Jury," which suggests that Mike knows the identity of the killer, thereby making him a target. Because Pat has given him a guest list from Jack's recent party, Mike surmises that the police captain is using him to draw out the killer. Mike begins his investigation based on the guest list, first visiting wealthy fight promoter and art collector George Kalecki (Alan Reed
) in upstate New York. Kalecki introduces his live-in friend, John Hansen, as college student Hal Kines (Bob Cunningham), and claims they were home together after the party. As Mike is leaving he looks through a window and sees the men arguing. Mike next visits alluring psychoanalyst and author Charlotte Manning (Peggie Castle
), who was treating both Jack and Myrna. Charlotte flirts with Mike but provides no new information.
Afterward Mike finds Pat waiting for him, and Pat tells him that Kines moved out of Kalecki's house and that Kines believes Mike attempted to shoot him. Kines's new address is the same building where two other party guests, twin sisters Esther and Mary Bellamy, reside. Mike searches Kines's apartment and finds photos of him and Kalecki in Europe
before and after World War II
. When Kines returns unexpectedly and grabs Mike's arm, the detective beats him up, then goes upstairs to see Mary, who knew Jack when he worked as a guard at her father's estate. As Mike resists Mary's attempts to seduce him, he questions her about the party and learns that Charlotte drove her, Myrna and Esther home that night after Jack and Myrna had an argument.
Later at his office, ex-boxer Killer Thompson reveals to Mike and Velda (Margaret Sheridan
) that Kalecki, his former manager, runs a numbers racket. Mike seeks more information about the racket but his questions earn him only a severe beating by some thugs. Charlotte tends to his wounds and restores his spirits with a kiss, then asks if Jack might have left a message for Mike before he died. Mike slips into Jack's apartment through a window to avoid the policeman on guard, and finds a note from Pat, who anticipated his arrival. Mike also finds Jack's diary, which includes notations about a woman named Eileen Vickers (Mary Anderson), who changed her name to Mary Wright, as well as a note that Jack had been planning to raid a dance school with the police in a few days. Mike locates Eileen's father, veterinarian R. H. Vickers, who reveals that he had asked Jack to help his daughter after she ran away from college with John Hansen. Mike finds Eileen at a dance school that is a front for prostitution. Although she is shocked to hear about Jack's death, she only knows that he wanted her to get help from Charlotte.
Despite all the information he has gathered, Mike has more questions than answers. He and Pat continue their research by looking through college yearbooks and find the photo of Hal Kines, who is identified as John Hansen. After police implement Jack's raid on the dance studio, they find Eileen's and Kines's dead bodies in Eileen's room. After Kalecki admits that he and Kines had argued over the young man's involvement with Esther, Mike is baffled as to why he was found with Eileen. Confusion continues to mount, and Charlotte and Mike are nearly killed when someone fires at them outside his office. Mike is awakened that night by Bobo, a slow-witted former boxer now working as a department store Santa Claus, who warns Mike that "the big man" is after him. After learning that Kines has been posing as a college student for twenty years, Velda suspects that he may have been running Kalecki's numbers racket at school, using his identity as a student as a cover. Mike goes to search Kines's room at the fraternity house and discovers Kalecki inside burning Kines's papers. Kalecki shoots at Mike and is killed when Mike fires back. Mike grabs Kalecki's gun just as the police arrive to arrest him.
Angered that Mike is taking the law into his own hands, Pat waits until the next day to release him from jail. Mike then gives him Kalecki's gun and they later search Kalecki's safe-deposit box, which is filled with stolen vintage European jewelry. The detectives now realize that Jack must have been investigating Kalecki and Kines, who had been fencing stolen jewelry from Europe for years. A police analyst determines that although all four murders were committed by the same weapon, it was not Kalecki's gun. Knowing that Myrna was once a jewel thief, Pat now suspects that she may have been influenced by Kalecki to murder her fiancé.
As before, Mike confides in Charlotte, with whom he has fallen in love, and tells her he believes that Kines worked the college campuses to recruit new thieves for Kalecki. When Pat learns that Myrna is drunk in a bar, he sends Mike and Charlotte to retrieve her, and they take the drunken woman to Charlotte's apartment to sober up. After Mike leaves, however, Charlotte injects Myrna with sodium pentothal and questions her about Jack, but Myrna is too disoriented to respond. Mike, meanwhile, is beaten up by Kalecki's thugs at his office, but he turns the tables on them and they are eventually arrested; however, they reveal no new information when questioned. When Myrna is found dead in the street from a hit and run accident, the medical examiner finds the needle mark on her arm, prompting Pat to assume that she had returned to drug use. Mike then realizes that Charlotte murdered Myrna, and surmises that Charlotte found out about the jewelry racket during a hypnosis section with Kines and that she plans to take over Kalecki's business. Mike waits for Charlotte in her apartment and levels his accusations at her. Charlotte attempts to seduce him, but in fact is reaching for a hidden gun as she embraces him, forcing Mike to kill her in self-defense.
I, the Jury
I, The Jury is Mickey Spillane's first novel featuring private investigator Mike Hammer.-Plot summary:New York City, summer 1944. Although she runs a successful private psychiatric clinic on New York's Park Avenue, Dr. Charlotte Manning — young, beautiful, blonde, and well-to-do —...
by Mickey Spillane
Mickey Spillane
Frank Morrison Spillane , better known as Mickey Spillane, was an American author of crime novels, many featuring his signature detective character, Mike Hammer. More than 225 million copies of his books have sold internationally...
. It was directed by Harry Essex
Harry Essex
Harry Essex was a prolific American screenwriter. He was born on 29 November 1910 in New York City. He died on 5 February 1997 in Los Angeles. His career spanned more than fifty years...
, produced by Victor Saville
Victor Saville
Victor Saville was an English film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954...
's company, Parklane Pictures and released through United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
.
The film is notable for being the first film based on a Mike Hammer novel. Biff Elliot stars as Hammer. It was filmed in 3-D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...
and was available with stereophonic sound
Stereophonic sound
The term Stereophonic, commonly called stereo, sound refers to any method of sound reproduction in which an attempt is made to create an illusion of directionality and audible perspective...
.
The story begins with Mike Hammer on the vengeance trail when Jack, his wartime buddy, is murdered. Hotheaded Hammer sets out to find the killer, working his way through an increasingly large pile of suspects (and corpses).
Plot
Shortly before Christmas in New York, one-armed insurance investigator Jack Williams (Robert Swanger) is looking at a college yearbook photo of John Hansen when someone slips into his apartment and shoots him to death. Hot-headed private investigator Mike Hammer (Biff ElliotBiff Elliot
Biff Elliot is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as popular detective Mike Hammer in the 1953 version of I, the Jury, and as his guest appearance in the Star Trek episode "The Devil in the Dark".-Early life:...
), Jack's war buddy, vows to avenge his friend's death despite a warning from Pat Chambers (Preston Foster
Preston Foster
Preston Foster was an American stage and film actor, and singer. Foster entered films in 1929 after appearing as a Broadway stage actor. He was appearing in Broadway plays as late as October 1931 when he acted in a play titled Two Seconds starring Edward J. Pawley...
), captain of the homicide squad, to let the police handle the case. Pat is unable to calm Mike, who roughs up a wisecracking reporter before leaving the crime scene. Knowing that Mike will forge ahead with an investigation regardless of his advice, Pat urges the offended reporter to publish an article broadcasting that Mike is on the job.
Mike goes to see Jack's fiancée, Myrna Devlin, a torch singer and reformed drug addict, but she is too distraught to talk with him. The next day, Mike's secretary Velda tells him about the article, titled "I, the Jury," which suggests that Mike knows the identity of the killer, thereby making him a target. Because Pat has given him a guest list from Jack's recent party, Mike surmises that the police captain is using him to draw out the killer. Mike begins his investigation based on the guest list, first visiting wealthy fight promoter and art collector George Kalecki (Alan Reed
Alan Reed
Alan Reed was an American actor and voice actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spinoff series...
) in upstate New York. Kalecki introduces his live-in friend, John Hansen, as college student Hal Kines (Bob Cunningham), and claims they were home together after the party. As Mike is leaving he looks through a window and sees the men arguing. Mike next visits alluring psychoanalyst and author Charlotte Manning (Peggie Castle
Peggie Castle
Peggie Castle was an American actress who specialized in playing the "other woman" in B-movies. She was also billed under the names Peggy Castle and Peggie Call.-Career:...
), who was treating both Jack and Myrna. Charlotte flirts with Mike but provides no new information.
Afterward Mike finds Pat waiting for him, and Pat tells him that Kines moved out of Kalecki's house and that Kines believes Mike attempted to shoot him. Kines's new address is the same building where two other party guests, twin sisters Esther and Mary Bellamy, reside. Mike searches Kines's apartment and finds photos of him and Kalecki in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
before and after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. When Kines returns unexpectedly and grabs Mike's arm, the detective beats him up, then goes upstairs to see Mary, who knew Jack when he worked as a guard at her father's estate. As Mike resists Mary's attempts to seduce him, he questions her about the party and learns that Charlotte drove her, Myrna and Esther home that night after Jack and Myrna had an argument.
Later at his office, ex-boxer Killer Thompson reveals to Mike and Velda (Margaret Sheridan
Margaret Sheridan
Margaret Elizabeth Sheridan was an American actress of the early 1950s, and protégée of director Howard Hawks. The raven-haired beauty is best remembered for her role as Nikki Nickolson opposite Kenneth Tobey in the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World.-Career:She was born in...
) that Kalecki, his former manager, runs a numbers racket. Mike seeks more information about the racket but his questions earn him only a severe beating by some thugs. Charlotte tends to his wounds and restores his spirits with a kiss, then asks if Jack might have left a message for Mike before he died. Mike slips into Jack's apartment through a window to avoid the policeman on guard, and finds a note from Pat, who anticipated his arrival. Mike also finds Jack's diary, which includes notations about a woman named Eileen Vickers (Mary Anderson), who changed her name to Mary Wright, as well as a note that Jack had been planning to raid a dance school with the police in a few days. Mike locates Eileen's father, veterinarian R. H. Vickers, who reveals that he had asked Jack to help his daughter after she ran away from college with John Hansen. Mike finds Eileen at a dance school that is a front for prostitution. Although she is shocked to hear about Jack's death, she only knows that he wanted her to get help from Charlotte.
Despite all the information he has gathered, Mike has more questions than answers. He and Pat continue their research by looking through college yearbooks and find the photo of Hal Kines, who is identified as John Hansen. After police implement Jack's raid on the dance studio, they find Eileen's and Kines's dead bodies in Eileen's room. After Kalecki admits that he and Kines had argued over the young man's involvement with Esther, Mike is baffled as to why he was found with Eileen. Confusion continues to mount, and Charlotte and Mike are nearly killed when someone fires at them outside his office. Mike is awakened that night by Bobo, a slow-witted former boxer now working as a department store Santa Claus, who warns Mike that "the big man" is after him. After learning that Kines has been posing as a college student for twenty years, Velda suspects that he may have been running Kalecki's numbers racket at school, using his identity as a student as a cover. Mike goes to search Kines's room at the fraternity house and discovers Kalecki inside burning Kines's papers. Kalecki shoots at Mike and is killed when Mike fires back. Mike grabs Kalecki's gun just as the police arrive to arrest him.
Angered that Mike is taking the law into his own hands, Pat waits until the next day to release him from jail. Mike then gives him Kalecki's gun and they later search Kalecki's safe-deposit box, which is filled with stolen vintage European jewelry. The detectives now realize that Jack must have been investigating Kalecki and Kines, who had been fencing stolen jewelry from Europe for years. A police analyst determines that although all four murders were committed by the same weapon, it was not Kalecki's gun. Knowing that Myrna was once a jewel thief, Pat now suspects that she may have been influenced by Kalecki to murder her fiancé.
As before, Mike confides in Charlotte, with whom he has fallen in love, and tells her he believes that Kines worked the college campuses to recruit new thieves for Kalecki. When Pat learns that Myrna is drunk in a bar, he sends Mike and Charlotte to retrieve her, and they take the drunken woman to Charlotte's apartment to sober up. After Mike leaves, however, Charlotte injects Myrna with sodium pentothal and questions her about Jack, but Myrna is too disoriented to respond. Mike, meanwhile, is beaten up by Kalecki's thugs at his office, but he turns the tables on them and they are eventually arrested; however, they reveal no new information when questioned. When Myrna is found dead in the street from a hit and run accident, the medical examiner finds the needle mark on her arm, prompting Pat to assume that she had returned to drug use. Mike then realizes that Charlotte murdered Myrna, and surmises that Charlotte found out about the jewelry racket during a hypnosis section with Kines and that she plans to take over Kalecki's business. Mike waits for Charlotte in her apartment and levels his accusations at her. Charlotte attempts to seduce him, but in fact is reaching for a hidden gun as she embraces him, forcing Mike to kill her in self-defense.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
| Biff Elliot Biff Elliot Biff Elliot is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as popular detective Mike Hammer in the 1953 version of I, the Jury, and as his guest appearance in the Star Trek episode "The Devil in the Dark".-Early life:... |
Mike Hammer Mike Hammer Michael "Mike" Hammer is a fictional detective created by the American author Mickey Spillane in the 1947 book I, the Jury .-Description:... |
| Preston Foster Preston Foster Preston Foster was an American stage and film actor, and singer. Foster entered films in 1929 after appearing as a Broadway stage actor. He was appearing in Broadway plays as late as October 1931 when he acted in a play titled Two Seconds starring Edward J. Pawley... |
Capt. Pat Chambers |
| Peggie Castle Peggie Castle Peggie Castle was an American actress who specialized in playing the "other woman" in B-movies. She was also billed under the names Peggy Castle and Peggie Call.-Career:... |
Charlotte Manning |
| Margaret Sheridan Margaret Sheridan Margaret Elizabeth Sheridan was an American actress of the early 1950s, and protégée of director Howard Hawks. The raven-haired beauty is best remembered for her role as Nikki Nickolson opposite Kenneth Tobey in the 1951 science fiction classic The Thing from Another World.-Career:She was born in... |
Velda |
| Alan Reed Alan Reed Alan Reed was an American actor and voice actor, best known as the original voice of Fred Flintstone on The Flintstones and various spinoff series... |
George Kalecki |
| Mary Anderson | Eileen Vickers |
| Tom Powers Tom Powers Tom Powers was an American stage and film actor. He was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, USA and died in Hollywood, California, of heart disease.- Career :... |
Milt Miller |
| Frances Osborne | Myrna Devlin |
| Bob Cunningham Bob Cunningham Bob Cunningham is a retired professional Canadian football fullback. Between 1948 and 1951, he played 29 games for the Montreal Alouettes, scoring a touchdown in their 1949 Grey Cup championship He played for the Ottawa Rough Riders from 1952 to 1955, winning the Jeff Russel Memorial Trophy in 1953... |
Hal Kines |
| Tani Guthrie | Mary Bellamy |
| Joe Besser Joe Besser Joe Besser was an American comedian, known for his impish humor and wimpy characters, and is now best remembered for his brief stint as a member of the Three Stooges in movie short subjects of 1957-59... |
Pete, Elevator Operator |