Warning Shot (1967)

When staking out an apartment building, a policeman (David Janssen) tells a man (Donald Curtis) to stop but the man pulls a gun on him and the cop shoots him dead. But the man's gun mysteriously disappears and the dead man turns out to be a pillar of the community. How can he prove he's not just a trigger happy cop? Based on the novel 711 OFFICER NEEDS HELP by Whit Masterson and directed by Buzz Kulik. It's a well done if messy police drama. I liked it that Janssen's cop is a bit of a screw up rather than a typical above board hero type cop out to prove his innocence. Still, I think it might have been more interesting if we hadn't been shown the man actually pulling the gun so that we couldn't be sure of the cop's innocence until the very end. It could have used some tightening up and Joan Collins as Janssen's ex-wife could have easily have been eliminated from the film without any loss. Her scenes just drag the movie down. My favorite performance came from Eleanor Parker as the victim's boozed up nymphomaniac widow! With Walter Pidgeon, George Sanders, Lillian Gish, Stefanie Powers, Keenan Wynn, Ed Begley, Carroll O'Connor, George Grizzard, Sam Wanamaker and Jean Carson.