Producer Robert Fellows intended to follow the film with another based on Spillane's 1964 novel The Snake, but the second film was never produced.[3]
Plot
Ever since his assistant Velda went missing, private detective Mike Hammer has been drinking and he is now homeless. Although Hammer hasn't worked a case in seven years, his old police friend Capt. Pat Chambers asks for his assistance on a job. Chambers and Hammer were both in love with Velda, which had ended their friendship. The case involves a senator who has been murdered.
Hammer is needed to talk with Richie Cole, a dying sailor who refuses to speak with anybody else. According to federal agent Art Rickerby, not only has Richie been shot by the same gun recently used to kill a politician, he is actually an undercover federal agent.
Hammer's investigation leads to Laura Knapp, the late senator's widow. She is beautiful and seductive, but Hammer does not trust her. He learns that they are caught in the fallout from a network of spies operating during World War II. Now a killer nicknamed the Dragon is trying to silence people who had information about the spy operation. Hammer finds and kills the Dragon. He confronts Laura with his suspicions about her involvement. Laura fires a shotgun that Hammer had rigged to backfire in order to test her loyalty. It is not clear if Velda is still alive.
Spillane recalled meeting crime figure Billy Hill in London and invited him to the film set. According to Spillane, Hill provided firearms that were used in the film.[5] Spillane also noted that the producers surrounded him with actors who were shorter than he was.
Reception
The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the film "is mainly an excuse for tough-guy talk about some insane plot for world conquest engineered by the 'commies', and a series of violent, sadistic fights." The publication was critical of Spillane's acting ability but still praised his performance as "the film's main point of interest".[6]
Variety wrote that Spillane "turns in a credible job" as Hammer, and that Rowland managed to get good performances from both the principal cast as well as the secondary actors.[7]
The Radio Times Guide to Films gave the film 2/5 stars, writing: "Author Mickey Spillane plays his own creation, hard-boiled private eye Mike Hammer, in this all-American B-movie that, for tax reasons, was based and financed in Britain. Little is made of a promising plot about murder and corruption in American politics, while Spillane is shown to have more ego than acting talent. British starlet Shirley Eaton plays a blonde femme fatale who, fatally, doesn't know one end of a shotgun from the other."[8]
Leslie Halliwell said: "Comic strip thuggery with the author playing his own slouchy hero; the general incompetence gives this cheap production an air of Kafkaesque menace."[9]
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