No Right To Kill (1956)

A frustrated, failed writer (John Cassavetes) murders an old woman (Augusta Ciolli) who runs a pawn shop in a fit of rage. Loosely based on CRIME AND PUNISHMENT by Fyodor Dostoevsky and directed by Buzz Kulik (BRIAN'S SONG). I'm a big fan of those live television productions during the so called Golden Age of television in the 1950s. Unfortunately, the times they've adapted a great literary work, it's almost always doomed to fail. This production (updated to present day New York) is no exception. It reduces Dostoevsky's great novel to the most simplistic level. Three years later, a big screen adaptation (CRIME AND PUNISHMENT U.S.A.) set in Los Angeles did a much better job of bringing the novel into a contemporary 1950s setting. But that era had wonderful actors and directors (many of them going on to major careers) doing live television and that's where this production shines, in its performances. With Terry Moore, Joe Mantell, Robert H. Harris and Penny Santon.