Cop Hater (1958)

The cop hater here is a cop killer who guns down police detectives in the streets in this no-frills adaptation of Ed McBain’s first of a zillion 87th Precinct crime novels. A young Robert Loggia is on the case when he’s not romancing his deaf-mute girlfriend (Ellen Parker). It’s another simple plate of ham and runny eggs from director William Berke, who pumped out about ninety B-movies in a mere twenty-five years like a true cinematic short order cook. This is one of his last films. The storytelling is held together with duct tape and twine sometimes, but it all moves at a fast pace. The only memorable character is Shirley Ballard as the frosty, leggy wife of one of the detectives (she also looks pretty good in a leopard print swimsuit). That’s all true to McBain’s book though, which sinks deep into the investigation procedural and sketches out its characters with a few cliches and some snappy lines. Look for a young Jerry Orbach (as a juvenile delinquent) and Vincent Gardenia (as a dopey police informant) in small roles.