If 1958's wonderful Murder By Contract is any indication of director Irving Lerner's talents, it's a crime that he's not better-known. Made on a shoe-string budget with a group of solid, no-name actors, the film is an entirely original look at the life of a hitman, from his first job to his last. Lerner tells his story with a remarkably economy, shaping characters and scenes with little to no dialogue, and wasting no time with unnecessary introductions. Combined with that business-like coldness, however, the film offers a surprising sense of humor that gives it a depth that few of its low-budget, no-name companions could match.

Murder By Contract is the story of Claude (Vince Edwards), a man whose normal, stable, mainstream life isn't earning him the money he needs to move ahead in life. His primary focus is buying a house for himself and his unseen girlfriend, and he decides the most practical path to that goal is contract killing. Claude is meticulous and infinitely patient; in order to become a better killer, he trains himself not to feel, and to kill only with tools that are not illegal (knives, his hands, etc. -- no guns). When he feels he is ready to begin work, he contacts Mr. Moon (Michael Granger), a man who, though he denies any knowledge of the dark things at which Claude hints, agrees to call him -- eventually. And only once. The scenes of Claude waiting are among the best in the film: Virtually wordless, they are brief, poetic glimpses into his soul, and elaborate more fully on his character than pages of dialogue ever could. In just a few shots, we see his limitless patience, his focus, and his determination; by the time Mr. Moon calls, only three or four minutes of screen-time have passed, but we know Claude well enough to understand exactly why he chose contract killing as his key to the future. Nothing affects him: Not stress, not the passage of time, and not doubt.

After a series of successful, meticulous hits -- each of them shown briefly and effectively with Lerner's remarkably intelligent eye -- Claude gets a call that sends him across the country, to do a job in LA about which he knows nothing. Arriving in LA, he is greeted by George (Herschel Bernardi) and Marc (Phillip Pine), surely two of cinema's greatest mafia "handlers." The two have been told, apparently, to do Claude's bidding, as long as he kills his target on time. George is mostly fascinated by Claude and his remarkable composure -- "I like when he talks, it's educational" -- while his partner Marc responds to virtually everything the killer says or does with Jack Lemmon-style fury, all exasperated, indignant twitches. The pair of them are wonderful to watch, and the interactions among the three men that pepper the film's final hour are magnificent: As they drive around LA, their conversations and irate monologues are tinged with respect, humor, and touches of surrealism. Claude, unexpectedly, is much more interested in going to the beach than he is finding out about his target, and his cerebral serenity leaves his anxious handlers tied up in knots. He's impossible to intimidate or rush, and the result is that Marc and George, in spite of their constant chiding, find themselves nursing a growing fear of their strange charge.

When Claude finally relents and asks about his target, all hell breaks lose. She's a woman, and he doesn't kill women, at least not for the amount of money he's being paid. His aversion to murdering the fairer sex, however, stems not from their vulnerability or harmlessness. In fact, Claude reminds us over and over again how much women disgust him, and it's because of their weaknesses -- they're "unreliable and unpredictable" -- that he's uncomfortable with his assignment. As the time for the killing draws closer, Murder By Contract returns to a more traditional noir path, paved with killings, surprising twists, and tragic mistakes. That path ends with a dead that is almost perfect in its ability to bring together all of the elements that have made the movie so effective -- humor, darkness, violence and economy are all present in equal measure.

Though its director never because a star, Murder By Contract's cinematographer, Lucien Ballard, was a soon-to-be giant in the industry. Fresh from shooting such noir masterpieces as Laura and Stanley Kubrick's The Killing, and a more than a decade away from making The Wild Bunch, Junior Bonner, and The Getaway with Sam Peckinpah, Ballard's magical touch is visible in virtually ever shot of Lerner's film. The movie flows with a remarkable ease and confidence, and Ballard's camera captures Claude's actions in a way that makes it almost an accomplice in his crimes, so close is its connection with the killer.

Tragically unavailable on either VHS or DVD in the US, Murder by Contract is a perfect example of why we need festivals like the recently completed b-noir series at New York's Film Forum. A web search suggests that the movie has played in numerous other noir-fests around the country, so keep your eyes peeled.