Kid Glove Killer (MGM 1942, Van Heflin, Lee Bowman)

Hard-boiled murder mystery Kid Glove Killer was Van Heflin’s first role and the great director Fred Zinnemann’s first stint in the director’s chair. Heflin plays a relentless police pathologist on the trail of the mayor’s slayer. He comes smack up against star lawyer Litel and his attention to detail just might cost him his life. Look for an early Ava Gardner bit part as a carhop.

Before he made his feature film debut on Kid Glove Killer, director Zinnemann had helmed several shorts in the ‘Crime Does Not Pay’ series of short films. He would go on to direct such classics as High Noon (1952).

production details
USA | MGM | 74 minutes | 1942
Director: Fred Zinnemann
Script: Allen Rivkin, John C. Higgins,

cast
Ava Gardner as Car Hop (uncredited)
John Litel as Matty
Cliff Clark as Captain Lynch
Lee Bowman as Gerald I. Ladimer
Samuel S. Hinds as Mayor Daniels
Van Heflin as Gordon McKay
Marsha Hunt as Jane Mitchell
Eddie Quillan as Eddie Wright
Cathy Lewis as Bessie Wright (as Catherine Lewis)
Nella Walker as Mrs. Daniels
Robert Blake as Boy in Car (uncredited)