San Francisco is the backdrop for one of the first Hollywood movies about a modern serial killer. Husband and wife writers Edward and Edna Anholt researched dozens of cases to create this psychological “expose” of a murderous loser who slips between the cracks of a bustling post-World War II metropolis. Arthur Franz provides a compelling turn as the psychically damaged sniper who provides a bloodstained Cook’s tour of mid-century San Francisco with Burnett Guffey’s camerawork alternating between shaded 1940s noir and 1950s docu-realism. Crisp direction by Edward Dmytryk and a stellar supporting cast with Adolphe Menjou, Gerald Mohr, Richard Kiley, Frank Faylen, and noir siren Marie Windsor.

Presented in 35mm courtesy of Sony Pictures.