(Some Spoilers) Dead serious in the job that he does Claude, Vince Edwards, is the absolute epitome of a gun for hire, or hit-man. Cold calculating and most of all careful Claude knows just how to deal not only with his victims but those behind the scenes who hire him to rub them out. We get to see just how disciplined Claude is in the first fifteen minutes of the movie when after having an interview with his soon to be boss Mr. Moon in how we see him going about in doing a number of "jobs" for him.
Being told to stay in his hotel room for a call, and he's employment with Mr Moon will be terminated if he didn't answer, Claude never leaves the room for two weeks! Exorcising his very fit and well-developed frame while waiting, until Mr. Moon finally calls him. Giving a hit-job to do for the secretive Mr. Moon Claude does it with style by posing as a barber and slitting the throat of his victim. The next "job" that Claude does for Mr. Moon is at the hospital again posing as a doctor, a precursor to Edwards role as TV Doc Ben Casey, and suffocating his next victim, who's in intensive care by cutting off his oxygen. Finished and payed off by Mr. Moon for a job, or job's, well done Claude pays him an unexpected visit doing a hit-job on him running his startled ex-employer through with a switchblade ; Claude is now working for Mr. Moon's boss Mr.Brink who for reasons that only he knows had Mr. Moon terminated.
Being paid $5,000.00, ten time his usual fee, Claude is given an all-expense paid vacation and two week stay in L.A to hit a US government witness who's to testify against his now boss Mr. Brink. Being put under the careful watch of his two mob controllers Marc & George when he arrived in the "City of Angels" Claude is soon to realize the devil in the details in his new job. The person Claude is to hit Billie Williams isn't his normal kind of victim. She's a woman who's not only Mr. Brinks ex-gun moll but who's also turning evidence against him.
At first just sightseeing and going swimming and deep sea fish diving Clude waste almost all his alloted time in plotting the hit he was assigned to do for Brink. George & Marc get really ticked off at the careless and paranoid way Claude is acting after telling him who the person that he's assigned to knock off is to be. It's then where he for the first time in the film Claude actually shows some feeling for one of his victims.
It's not that Billie is just a woman but that she's protected by dozens of police and federal agents. That makes the hit he's paid to do on her so difficult for Claude. After two aborted and messed up attempts on Billie's life, one which results in the death of an undercover police woman, Claude starts to feel that this job is jinxed and wan't out. Only to have himself then set up to be hit by his now angry and frustrated boss Mr. Brink.
Having a far easier time in dispatching both his controllers George & Marc, who were secretly contracted by Mr. Brink to knock him off, Claude goes after and sets his gun-sight on Billie for what's now become for him personal not professional reasons. Being the perfectionist that he is Claude is now more then ever determined to finish the job that he was originally contracted to do $5,000.00 or no $5,000.00.
One of the best movie about the inner workings and thoughts of a professional hit-man and how he operates in the world of crime. Never leaving any paper trail and always respecting, Claude tries not to use a gun on his job because their illegal, the law until he corners and rubs out his victim. Vince Edwards' cold-blooded portrayal of professional hit-man Calude is one of the best and at the same time most underrated performances of his career. Edwards presses all the right bottoms during the 81 minutes that he's in the movie where he goes form an almost zombie-like and mindless killer to a swathing and emotionally unstable kook. Who in the end when he finally has Billie right where he wants her to be, alone and in the house with him,he completely blows it and ends up with himself being blown away in return.
Being told to stay in his hotel room for a call, and he's employment with Mr Moon will be terminated if he didn't answer, Claude never leaves the room for two weeks! Exorcising his very fit and well-developed frame while waiting, until Mr. Moon finally calls him. Giving a hit-job to do for the secretive Mr. Moon Claude does it with style by posing as a barber and slitting the throat of his victim. The next "job" that Claude does for Mr. Moon is at the hospital again posing as a doctor, a precursor to Edwards role as TV Doc Ben Casey, and suffocating his next victim, who's in intensive care by cutting off his oxygen. Finished and payed off by Mr. Moon for a job, or job's, well done Claude pays him an unexpected visit doing a hit-job on him running his startled ex-employer through with a switchblade ; Claude is now working for Mr. Moon's boss Mr.Brink who for reasons that only he knows had Mr. Moon terminated.
Being paid $5,000.00, ten time his usual fee, Claude is given an all-expense paid vacation and two week stay in L.A to hit a US government witness who's to testify against his now boss Mr. Brink. Being put under the careful watch of his two mob controllers Marc & George when he arrived in the "City of Angels" Claude is soon to realize the devil in the details in his new job. The person Claude is to hit Billie Williams isn't his normal kind of victim. She's a woman who's not only Mr. Brinks ex-gun moll but who's also turning evidence against him.
At first just sightseeing and going swimming and deep sea fish diving Clude waste almost all his alloted time in plotting the hit he was assigned to do for Brink. George & Marc get really ticked off at the careless and paranoid way Claude is acting after telling him who the person that he's assigned to knock off is to be. It's then where he for the first time in the film Claude actually shows some feeling for one of his victims.
It's not that Billie is just a woman but that she's protected by dozens of police and federal agents. That makes the hit he's paid to do on her so difficult for Claude. After two aborted and messed up attempts on Billie's life, one which results in the death of an undercover police woman, Claude starts to feel that this job is jinxed and wan't out. Only to have himself then set up to be hit by his now angry and frustrated boss Mr. Brink.
Having a far easier time in dispatching both his controllers George & Marc, who were secretly contracted by Mr. Brink to knock him off, Claude goes after and sets his gun-sight on Billie for what's now become for him personal not professional reasons. Being the perfectionist that he is Claude is now more then ever determined to finish the job that he was originally contracted to do $5,000.00 or no $5,000.00.
One of the best movie about the inner workings and thoughts of a professional hit-man and how he operates in the world of crime. Never leaving any paper trail and always respecting, Claude tries not to use a gun on his job because their illegal, the law until he corners and rubs out his victim. Vince Edwards' cold-blooded portrayal of professional hit-man Calude is one of the best and at the same time most underrated performances of his career. Edwards presses all the right bottoms during the 81 minutes that he's in the movie where he goes form an almost zombie-like and mindless killer to a swathing and emotionally unstable kook. Who in the end when he finally has Billie right where he wants her to be, alone and in the house with him,he completely blows it and ends up with himself being blown away in return.