Murder by Contract

Murder by Contract is a 1958 film noir directed by Irving Lerner. Academy Awardnominated screenwriter Ben Maddow did uncredited work on the film. Centering on an existentialist hit man assigned to kill a woman, the film is often praised for its spare style and peculiar sense of cool.

Vince Edwards plays Claude, a disaffected man who, in search of money, decides to become a contract killer. After successfully killing targets in a barber shop and a hospital, as well as his own boss, Claude is given a contract to kill the witness in a highprofile trial in Los Angeles. At first calm about the assignment, Claude becomes more nervous when he discovers the witness in question is a woman Caprice Toriel. Claude scrambles to find a way to kill the witness, who never leaves her closely guarded house. After several complicated attempts which involve high voltage and flaming arrows, Claude is convinced he has killed the witness, but discovers that the police have faked her death. Convinced he will be unable to fulfill the contract, Claude quits, only to find the two men who have been assisting him have now been instructed to kill him. After killing the men, Claude finally succeeds in sneaking into the witnesss house, but hesitates when hes about to strangle her. The relief police arrive Claude attempts to escape but is killed during a shootout.The films main character, Claude, is set apart from the other hit men in the film by his unwillingness to carry a gun most of his victims are dispatched in unusual ways and his casual approach to murder, which he treats as a business. He spends the first several days of his visit to Los Angeles sightseeing instead of planning the assassination. Claudes casualness comes from the fact that he views men as largely predictable, and for that reason is unwilling to kill a woman women, in his opinion, are more complicated. ........

Source: Wikipedia