From my favorite movies..

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Naive young lady Karen (a sweet and appealing performance by the pretty Margo Norton) wants to help her struggling filmmaker boyfriend Christopher (excellently played by Jared Martin) raise money so he can divorce his wife. Meanwhile, jolly psycho prankster Otto (a gloriously unhinged portrayal by William Finley) stalks the building where Christopher is shooting a low-grade adult feature in order to keep himself afloat. Writer/director Brian De Palma concocts an offbeat and interesting avant-garde meditation on the elastic medium of film that addresses such compelling themes as art vs. commerce, voyeurism, and illusion vs. reality. Moreover, De Palma loads this film with a wealth of inspired stylistic flourishes: snappy jump cuts, dynamic hand-held camera-work, freeze frames, double exposure, artificially sped-up film, and an elliptical narrative that depicts an icepick murder from three different perspectives. The amusing sense of irreverent humor and De Palma's obvious delight with playing around with cinema's boundless possibilities keep things fairly light and breezy until the truly jarring conclusion. Better yet, this picture pokes wickedly hilarious fun at the seedy and shameless "just give 'em what they want" mentality of the crassly pandering exploitation movie industry while offering a neat and illuminating peak at same. Bruce Torbet's crisp black and white cinematography gives the film an impressively handsome look. Both John Herbert McDowell's zany score and the groovy theme song hit the swinging spot. Well worth a look for De Palma fans.

I'm so glad that Something Weird Video has issued this lost low budget film. This is Brian De Palma's first Solo attempt at feature film making. The Wedding Party was made earlier with two other fresh faced film students Cynthia Munroe and Willford Leach. Murder is Depalma's first flight on his own. He does a great job considering what he had to work with. There are some flaws with the picture; but it's very engaging and easy to watch.The b/w photography is as a plus, The acting is so so, with the exectpition of William Finley who steals the show despite having his lines dubbed in! Finley also writes and sings the Title Song, which isn't bad if you like 1960's garage rock!! The film is very dated. In fact it's dated 1967 on the title screen. It wasn't released until the following year; in a single New York theater!! Until Something Weird's DVD issue this film was next to impossible to see.I find Murder A La Mod interesting because it foreshadows his entire career. Many themes Mr. Depalma uses in later films are already in motion: His obsession with Hitchcock is touched upon with a wildly unpredictable shower scene! Voyeurism Peep Art and Porno Making are all integrated as they will be in his subsequent films: Greetings(1968), Hi Mom(1969) and Sisters(1973). Jennifer Salt looks fabulous in her film debut as a girl having trouble taking it all off. She does a great job, I wish she had a bigger part.Some other De Palma hallmarks present are: the speed ed up frame, the Hitchcock like editing in the murder scenes, misogyny, New York grubbiness and exploitation. It feels like the work of someone just fooling around without having any undue pressure placed upon them. The film is very disturbing and the violence is very graphic for 1967. The first murder takes place right after the opening credits!!! We then follow the Second murder through a series of takes that show the same thing from different angles. Just like Stanley Kubrick's racetrack robbery in The Killing(1956). Not to mention a whole slew of 1990's imitators who shall remain nameless. There are all kinds of holes in the plot, but the whole thing is so surreal that it works anyway. The Killer Male lead is the biggest problem with the film in my opinion. I wouldn't say that it is a great film; but sure is interesting and very worth while for the Brian De Palma or 1960 exploitation Drive-In fan. I give it a 6 out of 10

I bought this expecting nothing because I knew nothing of it, I had always thought Greetings was De Palma's first feature but I was wrong I guess. I thought this movie would have the feel of a student produced documentary or something small like that, but this film is somewhat wide in scope and pleases for a movie of it's age. I can't believe this unseen gem has aged so well while mainstream crap from the 60's just chatters on. This movie is the wave of the future that was to come. If you've ever seen Quentin Taretino's Jackie Brown and remember the sequence where all the characters go to the mall and it's told from three different points of view and you liked that then you'll love this movie. It's 80 minutes of that and I can't believe for this to have been so early in De Palma's career that he was able to pull it off so well. William Finnely does another great turn at acting in this movie as Otto a somewhat retarded stage hand and actor who goes beyond his means in this movie. It is from this where I can see why Brian De Palma would later hire him for 1974's The Phantom of the Paridise. He plays a character a little like that. Watch this movie, especially if you love De Palma and Finnley.

Just finished watching this early De Palma, and I am glad that I was finally able to see it. I have seen almost all his early films and this one certainly was not boring, in fact there were a few thrills and chills. I found the story confusing but it still kept my attention. It featured some good DePalma stylish moments,as well as clumsy comedy. I was reminded of some of his later works, and when you watch this film it is apparent that DePalma really knew how to get the right thriller feel, even way back in his black and white days.....this film, in its own way is about as good as "The black dahila", but you gotta be a DePalma fan.......