Destination Murder

Synopsis

Laura Mansfield (MacKenzie), a college student home on break, witnesses her father’s murder. (The father is played by silent screen veteran Franklyn Farnum). Thinking she can identify the assassin, and dissatisfied with the seemingly lethargic police investigation, Laura sets out to avenge her father’s death by tracking down his killer on her own. Her inquiries lead her to hook up with Jackie Wales (Clements), a weaselly messenger boy who moonlights as a hit man. Jackie in turn leads Laura to crime kingpin Armitage (Dekker) and his henchman Stretch Norton (Hatfield).

Armitage, as is required of all crime kingpins, has his headquarters in a ritzy nightclub. He enjoys administering beatings to errant subordinates in his private office while listening to loud, uptempo player-piano renditions of the Moonlight Sonata. Even worse, he always speaks of himself in the third person: "Armitage thinks this! Armitage wants that!" Very annoying!

Suffice it to say that Laura’s efforts, with a bit of help from the cops, bear fruit: by the end of the film Jackie, Stretch, and Armitage are all dead, and Laura is free to continue her education. But wait! Why was Daddy offed in the first place? The clear implication is that he was a rival crime kingpin who was muscling in on the Armitage Gang. So will Laura take over leadership of Pop’s organization, thus becoming a queenpin? The viewer can only speculate.

Discussion

Destination Murder is a nifty little 72-minute B-level crime melodrama from RKO. Perhaps its most unusual aspect is the lack of a "hero". The three top male cast members (Stanley Clements, Hurd Hatfield, and Albert Dekker) all play criminals! The protagonist is a woman! Is Destination Murder an early example of feminist cinema?

One would be hard put to find a more obscure leading lady than Joyce MacKenzie (1929-2021), a ringer for Barbara Hale. With fewer than 30 screen appearances (including television) her name, when she was credited at all, was usually found well down the cast list. The one exception was when she was billed second as Jane to Lex Barker’s Tarzan in Tarzan and the She-Devil (1953; directed by Kurt Neumann). Nevertheless, MacKenzie is well-suited to the role of Laura in Destination Murder. Far from being a sweet innocent coed, she is feisty, resourceful, and even a little nasty at times. She smokes, drinks, and looks right at home as a scantily-clad cigarette girl in Armitage’s nightclub.

Stanley Clements (1926-1981) specialized in playing characters named Stash. His first appearance as Stash was in Right To the Heart (1942; directed by Eugene Forde), a seemingly routine B picture starring Brenda Joyce and Don DeFore. He next assayed the role as a member of the East Side Kids (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bobby Jordan, Gabe Dell, et al) in Smart Alecks (1942; directed by Wallace Fox). Could this be the same Stash from Right To the Heart?

Clements appeared in two more East Side Kids films as Stash in '42 and '43. The name was retired temporarily, then reappeared in 1950 in Military Academy With That Tenth Avenue Gang (directed by D. Ross Lederman); this time Stash was actually the leader of a group of juvenile delinquents rather than a flunky. Clements’s final use of the moniker was in Boots Malone (1952; directed by William Dieterle), billed second to William Holden(!); the full name of his character was Stash Clements, oddly enough. Although his character in Destination Murder is not named Stash, Clements is convincing as a low-life punk.

Hurd Hatfield (1917-1998) never played a character named Stash (although Stretch is pretty close) but he did assume the title role in The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1945; directed by Albert Lewin), a literate but somewhat stiff version of Oscar Wilde’s classic novel. Hatfield later regretted playing the part, feeling doing so had held him back as a leading man. He was an odd choice to play an underworld henchman in Destination Murder, and his somewhat androgynous persona lends a slight whiff of lavender to his relationship with Armitage.

Albert Dekker (1905-1968) had important roles in such notable films as The Killers (1946; directed by Robert Siodmak), Kiss Me Deadly (1955; directed by Robert Aldritch), and The Wild Bunch (1969; directed by Sam Peckinpah), his last screen appearance. The sordid circumstances of his death are the stuff of Hollywood legend.

Edward L. Cahn (1899-1963) was a prolific director of low-budget programmers, with titles like The Gas House Kids In Hollywood (1947), Zombies Of Mora Tau (1957), and Guns Girls and Gangsters (1959). Presumably Destination Murder is one of his better efforts. His It! The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) heavily inspired the much higher-budgeted Alien (1979; directed by Ridley Scott).