''Cop Hater'' is a 1958 American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...

film noir police procedural film, based on the 1956 novel ''

Cop Hater ''Cop Hater'' (1956) is the first 87th Precinct police procedural novel by Ed McBain. The murder of three detectives in quick succession in the 87th Precinct leads Detective Steve Carella on a search that takes him into the city's underworld and ...

'' by

Ed McBain Evan Hunter, born Salvatore Albert Lombino,(October 15, 1926 – July 6, 2005) was an American author and screenwriter best known for his 87th Precinct novels, written under his Ed McBain pen name, and the novel upon which the film '' Blackb ...

, the first in a series of books about the

87th Precinct The 87th Precinct is a series of police procedural novels and stories by American author Ed McBain (a writing pseudonym of Evan Hunter). McBain's 87th Precinct works have been adapted, sometimes loosely, into movies and television on several o ...

in New York City. The film was produced and directed by

William Berke William A. Berke (born October 3, 1903 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – died February 15, 1958 in Los Angeles, California) was an American film director, producer, actor and screenwriter. He wrote, directed, and/or produced some 200 films over a ...

, written by Henry Kane, and stars

Robert Loggia Salvatore "Robert" Loggia ( , ; January 3, 1930 – December 4, 2015) was an American actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for '' Jagged Edge'' (1985) and won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for ...

and Gerald O'Loughlin.''Cop Hater'' at ''Forgotten Films''
/ref>

Plot

During an intense summer heat wave in New York City, two cops are murdered and it's up to the detectives of the 87th Precinct to find the killer. Steve Carella (

) and Mike Maguire ( Gerald O'Loughlin) are the lead investigators on the case, but they can't seem to make any progress, and their work is made more difficult by a reporter, Hank Miller (Gene Miller), who keeps sticking his nose in. The two cops try to keep their personal lives separate from their work, but it keeps bleeding through. When Maguire is shot and killed, Carella has to comfort his partner's sexpot wife Alice (Shirley Ballard), and then goes on a bender with the reporter, inadvertently revealing his suspicions about the case, and putting his girlfriend Teddy, a deaf-mute author (Ellen Parker), in jeopardy. When a hood (Hal Riddle) shows up at her apartment, Carella overpowers him and forces a confession: he killed all the cops, but Maguire had been the intended victim all along, as his wife wanted him out of the way.

Cast

(per closing credits) Cast notes: *The opening credits list 25 cast names and the closing credits list 27 cast names. The first nine cast names are in the same order in both opening and closing. All the remaining cast names are in a different order. * Johnny Seven is billed as "John Seven" in the opening credits and as "Johnny Seven" in the closing credits. *Kate Harkin is billed as "Kathryn Harkin" in the opening credits and as "Kate Harkin" in the closing credits.

References

External links

* * * {{Ed McBain 1958 films Film noir 1958 crime films American crime films American black-and-white films 1950s English-language films Films directed by William A. Berke Films scored by Albert Glasser Films set in New York City Films shot in New York City American police detective films United Artists films 1950s police procedural films Films based on novels by Ed McBain 1950s American films