I used to think Wendell Corey was a boring, milquetoast third-string leading man until I recently saw THE KILLER IS LOOSE.  Director Budd Boetticher’s harrowing 1956 film noir stars Corey as a terrifyingly calm, quiet, utterly deranged bank robber.  During his arrest after a heist, cop Joseph Cotten accidentally shoots and kills Corey’s wife.  Corey naturally vows revenge  -- after all, what self-respecting deranged movie criminal wouldn’t?  He makes a brutal escape from a prison work gang and attempts to carry out his vengeance by stalking Cotten’s beautiful wife (the spectacular Rhonda Fleming).  This one is a nail-biter.