I, the Jury
Christmas, the season of joy, goodwill and forgiveness, but not for New York private detective Mike Hammer; his friend Jack Williams whom he served alongside in the war has been murdered, shot in his apartment, and while the police are on the case Hammer is determined to solve it first himself regardless of where it leads him or what might be required.
Williams an insurance investigator, he had been at a party shortly before his demise, Hammer using the guest list to line up his suspects, among them the beautiful Bellamy twins, Esther and Mary, art collector and fight promoter George Kalecki and his handsome young companion Hal Kines with whom he often argues, and psychoanalyst Charlotte Manning who had been treating both Williams and his girlfriend Myrna Devlin, a Greenwich Village nightclub singer with a troubled past.
Based on Mickey Spillane’s first novel which introduced Mike Hammer to the world, published in 1947, I, the Jury was written and directed by Harry Essex and released in 1953 in 3D, a format which has not been replicated in StudioCanal’s new 4K restoration as part of their Cult Classics collection, though the oversight is a minor one, adding little other than a gimmick to the production.
Starring House of Bamboo’s Biff Elliot as Mike Hammer, like Brian Donlevy taking over the established role of Bernard Quatermass his interpretation of the already popular character something of a shock, delivering dialogue which is recognisably Spillane’s but without any nuance or deeper comprehension, his emotional spectrum stunted and his ever-present variations of anger indicated by the volume with which he shouts his lines.
The supporting cast including Preston Foster as Captain Pat Chambers, happy to let Hammer do the legwork on the case, and Peggie Castle as obligatory femme fatale Charlotte Manning, I, the Jury is populated by needy and damaged people, the convoluted plot built around the twin mysteries of the murder and how so many of the women seem to find Hammer attractive considering he is little more than a bad-tempered thug with a gun.
Hammer’s office block recognisable as the Bradbury Building later occupied by retired Blade Runner Rick Deckard, the requisite film noir grimness where no one can be trusted is counterpointed by the holiday postcards which introduce each new location, discussed among other topics by crime writer and Spillane collaborator Max Allan Collins in his commentary on the new edition which also features a second archive commentary from Elliot and an archive interview.
I, The Jury is available on Bu-ray and DVD from StudioCanal now
