[Note: Lancaster previously won Best Actor for his role inElmer Gantry (1960).] Its box-office revenue (domestic) was only $12.73 million (against a budget of $6.2 million), making it the lowest-earning film of the five Best Picture nominees.The most successful film of the year was Paramount""s action-adventureRaiders of the Lost Ark (1981).Plot SynopsisThe Opening Titles Sequence:The romantic crime drama opened with a closeup of fresh lemons being sliced into quarters by a young and pretty woman.Cinematographer Ernest Lazlo had worked on another famous, earlier film noir,D.O.A.(1950), which prepared him for this film.In both, he used German expressionistic lighting and shadows, reminiscient ofThe Cabinet of Dr.Caligari (1920).This independent film features a cheap and sleazy, contemptible, fascistic private investigator/vigilante named Mike Hammer whose trademarks are brutish violence, the end-justifies-the-means philosophy and speed.Plot SynopsisOpening Title Sequence:The opening itle sequence was accompanied by a musical solo performed by Danny Kaye as an acrobatic "court jester" - "Life Could Not Better Be" - "Life could not better be, better be, better be It could not possibly, no sirrrah, sirrah, sirree Songs could not gayer be, sound your do, re, or mi Re, mi, fa, so, la si, Fa la la la follow me...To the primitive mind, any sufficiently-advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic.But imagine: cities, vehicles, weapons, entire continents - all grown.To think that one could create a new world with such a simple little object.It""s like a seed.And all it needs is water." After a small portion of one of the crystals was cut off, Stanford dropped it into a pool of water within Luthor""s model version of the cityscape (with moving trains).Confused and horrified, Rod had apparently jumped through the window and fled to escape.The murder was reported to police - and although a razor was suspected as a weapon, nothing was found at the scene.