Murder by Contract is a 1958 film noir directed by Irving Lerner. Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Ben Maddow did uncredited work on the film. Centering around an existentialist hit man assigned to kill a woman, the film is often praised for its spare style and peculiar sense of cool.Though not widely seen at the time of its release, it finally appeared on DVD, included in the boxed set, "Columbia Pictures Film Noir Classics, Vol.