Snappy "Daily Tribune" reporter Kenny Blake (Hugh Beaumont) falls hard for oddly attractive Toni Kirkland (Ann Savage) when he barges in her mansion to interview her tycoon husband, Harvey, and before you know it, she's suggesting he bump off her spouse. They rig the killing to make it look like an accident but when Kirkland's business partner is tried and sentenced to death for the murder, Kenny's editor gets a hunch something's not right and starts his own investigation...
According to Ann Savage in a 2002 interview, when prolific Poverty Row director Sam Newfield's APOLOGY FOR MURDER played Grauman's Chinese Theater, Paramount got an injunction against it and the movie was yanked after two days, never to play again for many years. PRC began the project as "Single Indemnity" (with uncredited script work by DETOUR's Edgar G. Ulmer) and Paramount was apoplectic because it was a shameless knock-off of Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY. It's all there -the first glimpse of Ann Savage in a wing-backed chair, legs crossed (the only thing missing is the ankle bracelet); the witty repartee between Ann and Hugh, the suspenseful near-snags in trying to make the murder look like an accident; the close-up of Ann's face as Hugh bashes her husband's head in off-screen; Hugh's editor-cum-mentor getting suspicious and starting his own investigation, the cat-and-mouse between him and Hugh as the noose tightens; the bloody denouement at Ann's house; a wounded Hugh staggering back to his office to type out a confession; the running bit with a cigarette & lighter between Hugh and his mentor...
As a ten-cent copy-cat of James M. Cain's Walter & Phyllis, "golly gee" Hugh Beaumont (LEAVE IT TO BEAVER's Ward Cleaver) and DETOUR's ruthless virago Vera acquit themselves well in tailor-made roles and PRC's road company redux is quite entertaining in it's own right -on a very low-brow level, of course. Monogram's ultra-cheapie DECOY (1946) was a surprise hit in a recent Warner Bros. Film Noir boxed set but due to legal hassles, APOLOGY FOR MURDER may never get the same chance.
According to Ann Savage in a 2002 interview, when prolific Poverty Row director Sam Newfield's APOLOGY FOR MURDER played Grauman's Chinese Theater, Paramount got an injunction against it and the movie was yanked after two days, never to play again for many years. PRC began the project as "Single Indemnity" (with uncredited script work by DETOUR's Edgar G. Ulmer) and Paramount was apoplectic because it was a shameless knock-off of Billy Wilder's DOUBLE INDEMNITY. It's all there -the first glimpse of Ann Savage in a wing-backed chair, legs crossed (the only thing missing is the ankle bracelet); the witty repartee between Ann and Hugh, the suspenseful near-snags in trying to make the murder look like an accident; the close-up of Ann's face as Hugh bashes her husband's head in off-screen; Hugh's editor-cum-mentor getting suspicious and starting his own investigation, the cat-and-mouse between him and Hugh as the noose tightens; the bloody denouement at Ann's house; a wounded Hugh staggering back to his office to type out a confession; the running bit with a cigarette & lighter between Hugh and his mentor...
As a ten-cent copy-cat of James M. Cain's Walter & Phyllis, "golly gee" Hugh Beaumont (LEAVE IT TO BEAVER's Ward Cleaver) and DETOUR's ruthless virago Vera acquit themselves well in tailor-made roles and PRC's road company redux is quite entertaining in it's own right -on a very low-brow level, of course. Monogram's ultra-cheapie DECOY (1946) was a surprise hit in a recent Warner Bros. Film Noir boxed set but due to legal hassles, APOLOGY FOR MURDER may never get the same chance.