From the B-Movie Hive: Cop Hater

The number of now-recognizable faces that populate the universe inhabited by the characters in the 1958 film Cop Hater would almost have you believe this was an A-list effort rather than another drone inhabiting the B-movie hive. Those who appreciate the talents of those hardcore supporting actors of the last half century will know what I mean when you consider that the cast of Cop Hater includes Robert Loggia, Gerald S. O'Laughlin, Vincent Gardenia and a very young Jerry Orbach as the leader of a street gang. The title Cop Hater is quite accurate in this stylish little B-movie, but perhaps not in the way you imagine during its surprisingly sexual and violent opening minutes.

The always dependable Ed McBain and his book of the same name about his 87^th precinct provides foundation for this tight, quick-moving little flick. The joy of watching a B-movie is often the fact that budget constrictions tear away any superfluous scenes and subplots. Keep this concept of cinematic pleasure at the forefront of your mind as the Cop Hater moves from the terse scenes inside the police precinct to scenes involving the domestic life of the leading police officers investigating the murder of one of their own that opens the film.

Those scenes are especially important and interesting as they include the surprising appearance of a deaf-mute girlfriend and the bored sexpot wife of another cop. Pay special attention to these scenes and do not fast forward; the domesticity is there for a reason and to miss them is to miss the core of the plot of this offering from the B-movie hive.

Cop Hater is an especially interesting movie to catch precisely due to the way that it integrates the activities of the cops looking for someone who hates cops so much that they murder them and the love lives of a couple of those cops. You can bet that at some point the orbit of the wives and girlfriends will arrive at an apogee (or is it perigee) of the central issue of finding the cop hater. To say too much more would be to give away what will either be a very surprising climax or a confirmation of your estimation of how this story will end.

Along the way, you should enjoy the ride that Cop Hater offers. Vincent Gardenia pops up for a quick, but memorable scene. Another captivating aspect of the flick is the tense buildup to an attack upon one of the characters by Jerry Orbach's gang members. Gerald S. O'Laughlin is involved in a number of scenes involving a sexpot wife that seem a little ahead of its time as far as the sexual component of their marriage goes for a pre-1960s movie.

Cop Hater is available for instant viewing on Netflix as of the publication date of this article. I will try to update the article when it no longer becomes available and you should instead seriously consider getting it via DVD disc in the mail.