Without Warning! is a black-and-white

Black-and-white

Black-and-white, often abbreviated B/W or B&W, is a term referring to a number of monochrome forms in visual arts.Black-and-white as a description is also something of a misnomer, for in addition to black and white, most of these media included varying shades of gray...

 1952

1952 in film

The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....

 film noir

Film noir

Film noir is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. Hollywood's classic film noir period is generally regarded as extending from the early 1940s to the late 1950s...

 directed by Arnold Laven

Arnold Laven

Arnold Laven was an American film and television director and producer. He was one of the founders and principals of the American film and television production company Levy-Gardner-Laven. Laven was a producer of, among other things, the long-running western television series The Rifleman and...

. The film is shot in a semidocumentary

Semidocumentary

Semidocumentary is a form of book, film, or television program presenting a fictional story that incorporates many factual details or actual events, or which is presented in a manner similar to a documentary...

-style with police procedural voice-over narration in parts. Without Warning! was released commercially for the first time on DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 in 2005. Previously, the film was considered lost and unavailable for viewings.

Plot

A quiet gardener living in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 picks up blond women and is murdering them with garden shears. The police attempt to track him down but the man continues to kill. The killer lives in a shack on a hill overlooking Los Angeles (Chavez Ravine

Chávez Ravine

Chavez Ravine is an area in Sulfir Canyon that is the current site of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California.It was named after Julian Chavez, a Los Angeles Councilman in the 19th century.-History:...

).

Cast

• Adam Williams as Carl Martin
• Meg Randall
  Meg Randall
  Meg Randall was a film actress. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Randall signed a movie contract with Universal Pictures in 1949 and, that same year, appeared in the film noir classic Criss Cross and played Babs Riley in the comedy film The Life of Riley. Randall was credited as Gene...
  
   as Jane Saunders
• Ed Binns
  Ed Binns
  Edward Binns was a stage, film, and television actor.Binns was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. After appearing in a number of Broadway plays, Binns began appearing in films in the early 1950s...
  
   as Lt. Pete Hamilton
• Harlan Warde as Police Detective Sgt. Don Warde
• John Maxwell
  John Maxwell (actor)
  John Maxwell was an American film and television actor who appeared in over 100 films of the 1940s and 1950s. Many times the actor appeared in films uncredited. Occasionally he played larger roles in movies, such as in The Prowler...
  
   as Fred Saunders
• Angela Stevens as Blonde
• Byron Kane as Police Chemist Charlie Wilkins
• Charles Tannen as Wolf
• Marilee Phelps as Virginia
• Robert Foulk as Wilson, Motel Manager
• Connie Vera as Carmelita
• Robert Shayne
  Robert Shayne
  Robert Shayne , born Robert Shaen Dawe, was an American actor.-Career:Shayne played many character roles in movies and television, such as a 1943 movie entitled Wagon Wheels West, but he is best remembered for his portrayal of the recurring character Police Inspector William "Bill" Henderson on the...
  
  as Dr. Werner, Police Psychiatrist

Critical reception

Film critic Dennis Schwartz liked the film and wrote, "Arnold Laven ...does a solid job helming this serial killer slasher flick. William Raynor scripts it from his own story. It's shot in a semidocumentary style (much like TV's Dragnet), and serves as an entertaining lesser film noir. It's well-paced, taut and the performances are all crisp (especially the one of Adam Williams as the killer)."

External links

• Without Warning! at DVD Beaver (includes film stills)