This movie had a somewhat interesting premise and started out promisingly but later went off the rails, unfortunately, and the ending really ruined it for me.
The lead is played by Jim Hutton (Arnold Masters) as a sympathetic guy who was badly wronged. He is falsely imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit, while he was caring for his aged mother. A scuzzy and greedy doctor refused to help due to inability to pay (the sleaze is also an unshady womanizer with chicks less than half his age, probably). A sleazy nurse who was supposed to look after his mother while he is in prison neglects to do so, leading directly to her death; she later essentially hastens the death of another aged patient, quite maliciously.
Masters himself is a likeable guy, soft-spoken and polite. He meets a dude in prison (played well by Stack Pierce, an actor with a great deal of presence) who has a strange pendant and means to somehow remotely murder; they strike an odd brief friendship; and the dude leaves Masters the pendant and books after he dies. Masters ends up being released after the real killer confesses. He learns how to use the technique to get much-deserved revenge.
The sci fi aspects are ludicrous, but whatever; that's not the real point of the movie.
While in prison, Masters had worked with a sympathetic psychiatrist (appealing and attractive Julie Adams, playing Dr. Laura Scott), who tried to help him.
The film goes out of its way to portray the people Masters kills as richly deserving of their fates. I found the movie pretty good up to this point.
Unfortunately for Masters, a loudmouth cop, Morgan, played by. Paul Burke, finds a connection between those oddly killed and Masters. No other cop finds his connection of any interest as there's just nothing to directly link Masters with any of the deaths.
Then, without a shred of evidence even remotely connecting Masters directly with any of the murders (one involved the nurse in a room with the doors and windows locked and absolutely no signs of entry by anyone else, with the death looking like a freak accident), Morgan improbably gets a series of invasive warrants, including a phone tap, as well as round-the-clock surveillance of Masters, whom he harasses repeatedly. Masters is invariably polite to jerk Morgan but gives nothing away. Dr. Scott appears later and objects to Morgan's methods at first. But then she inexplicably takes a shine to the loudmouth cop and sleeps with him. Masters, who had secretly been in love with Scott, is appalled. Yes, nice guys generally finish last. If they hadn't made Morgan such an ass, I might not have hated the ending so much.
The movie might have been salvaged with one slight change: the way it ends, Morgan finds Masters in a deep trance (the dude is using the technique), and appears on the surface to be dead. Even though the same thing had happened before (with a coroner nearly performing an autopsy before Masters awoke, badly embarrassing all the authorities), jerko Morgan quickly arranges to get the body cremated. Masters tries to take out Morgan before he dies but is too late.
As Masters had shown signs of starting to 'lose it' toward the end, I might have been okay with his death at this point if he had taken Morgan with him, as Dr. Scott was never going to be with Masters anyway, but unfortunately, he fails to do so in time, and smirking Morgan is left the victor. He essentially executed a live man (whom he knew was alive) with no evidence that would ever remotely stand up in any court.
Too bad; this might have been a decent little movie otherwise. As it was, I really hated it.
The lead is played by Jim Hutton (Arnold Masters) as a sympathetic guy who was badly wronged. He is falsely imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit, while he was caring for his aged mother. A scuzzy and greedy doctor refused to help due to inability to pay (the sleaze is also an unshady womanizer with chicks less than half his age, probably). A sleazy nurse who was supposed to look after his mother while he is in prison neglects to do so, leading directly to her death; she later essentially hastens the death of another aged patient, quite maliciously.
Masters himself is a likeable guy, soft-spoken and polite. He meets a dude in prison (played well by Stack Pierce, an actor with a great deal of presence) who has a strange pendant and means to somehow remotely murder; they strike an odd brief friendship; and the dude leaves Masters the pendant and books after he dies. Masters ends up being released after the real killer confesses. He learns how to use the technique to get much-deserved revenge.
The sci fi aspects are ludicrous, but whatever; that's not the real point of the movie.
While in prison, Masters had worked with a sympathetic psychiatrist (appealing and attractive Julie Adams, playing Dr. Laura Scott), who tried to help him.
The film goes out of its way to portray the people Masters kills as richly deserving of their fates. I found the movie pretty good up to this point.
Unfortunately for Masters, a loudmouth cop, Morgan, played by. Paul Burke, finds a connection between those oddly killed and Masters. No other cop finds his connection of any interest as there's just nothing to directly link Masters with any of the deaths.
Then, without a shred of evidence even remotely connecting Masters directly with any of the murders (one involved the nurse in a room with the doors and windows locked and absolutely no signs of entry by anyone else, with the death looking like a freak accident), Morgan improbably gets a series of invasive warrants, including a phone tap, as well as round-the-clock surveillance of Masters, whom he harasses repeatedly. Masters is invariably polite to jerk Morgan but gives nothing away. Dr. Scott appears later and objects to Morgan's methods at first. But then she inexplicably takes a shine to the loudmouth cop and sleeps with him. Masters, who had secretly been in love with Scott, is appalled. Yes, nice guys generally finish last. If they hadn't made Morgan such an ass, I might not have hated the ending so much.
The movie might have been salvaged with one slight change: the way it ends, Morgan finds Masters in a deep trance (the dude is using the technique), and appears on the surface to be dead. Even though the same thing had happened before (with a coroner nearly performing an autopsy before Masters awoke, badly embarrassing all the authorities), jerko Morgan quickly arranges to get the body cremated. Masters tries to take out Morgan before he dies but is too late.
As Masters had shown signs of starting to 'lose it' toward the end, I might have been okay with his death at this point if he had taken Morgan with him, as Dr. Scott was never going to be with Masters anyway, but unfortunately, he fails to do so in time, and smirking Morgan is left the victor. He essentially executed a live man (whom he knew was alive) with no evidence that would ever remotely stand up in any court.
Too bad; this might have been a decent little movie otherwise. As it was, I really hated it.