THE KILLING (1956)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick, Starring: Sterling Hayden, Elisha Cook Jr., Marie Windsor. Crime, Thriller, US, 1956, 85mins, Cert 12.

12 years before he would film apes discovering a monolith and 15 years before Malcolm McDowell’s droogs would indulge in bit of the old ultra-violence, Stanley Kubrick chose to adapt a crime novel entitled ‘Clean Break’ for his third feature film and in so doing produced one of the most highly regarded heist movies.

Employing hardboiled crime fiction writer Jim Thompson to write the ripe nourish dialogue, the film plays out like a game of chess, with the various protagonists all being pawns in the elaborate scheme of ring leader Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) to rob $2million from a racetrack on a big race day. With a radio commentator-like narration intoning, each of the film’s characters are introduced to us, along with the dates/times of the non-linear narrative (of which there’s no point in trying to keep up with) which jumps back and forth, often days at a time, before we finally arrive at the actual robbery. Assisting Hayden with his plan are a rich assortment of characters including a race-track cashier George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr. - who I remember most from the original HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL), his gold-digging and cheating wife Sherry (Marie Windsor), a crooked cop, a bartender with a sick wife, and a marksmen tasked with shooting a racehorse. It’s a rich selection and they’re given some choice hardboiled dialogue to chew around with before we get down to the dramatic events at the racetrack.

The heist itself is giddily exhilarating and choreographed with a controlled precision that Kubrick would become renowned for. Little details such as a ‘lucky’ horse-shoe, an ill-fitting suitcase lock and a pampered lapdog take on seismic significance as the carefully plotted plan starts to unravel like a ball of string and the seemingly most innocuous character ultimately triggers a bloodbath.

THE KILLING is an early demonstration of how Kubrick could take genre-specific source material and fashion it with his own unique vision. It’s a gripping noir crime thriller in its own right, but it’s also a fascinating glimpse of what Kubrick would bring to cinema in the years following. 

****(out of 5*)

Paul Worts

(Originally published by FrightFest).