The Sniper

The film opens with Eddie calling the shrink he had while serving 18 months in a prison psycho ward for bashing a woman over the head. He feels that uncontrollable inner rage coming over him again. But the vacationing shrink can’t be reached until he returns in two weeks.

Out of despair, Eddie self-inflicts second degree burns on his right hand holding it over a stove. The doctor treating the wound in the emergency room of the hospital suspects he might need psychological help, but then gets too busy with an emergency situation to follow through.

Delivering a dress to Jean Darr, an attractive brunette piano performer in a bar, Eddie becomes upset with her when she turns her attention away from him and to her boyfriend who appears. She hustles Eddie out the back entrance, which seems to upset him so much that he waits for her to leave work at night and makes her his first victim. This brings a hardened police Lieutenant Kafka to investigate the murder. Soon another victim pops up, May Nelson. She’s a barfly who rejected him at a bar when she caught him in a lie about the kind of work he does.

The newspapers headlines play up the serial killer angle, challenging the police to catch the killer. The manhunt becomes a political football, as the present administration is blamed for their ineptness. Under public pressure Lt. Kafka rounds up all known sex offenders for questioning but is told by the police psychiatrist, Dr. Kent, that he is wasting his time. Kent then lectures the newspaper men and the police about the killer, stating he is killing his mother each time. The shrink says they should be looking for someone who got into trouble before for attacking a woman and possibly received psychological treatment. —Ozu’s World Movie Reviews