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Script Writing 101 by Kubrick
The "killing" in the title refers to "making a killing," which is what ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) wants to do as a kind of last heist before running off to matrimonial bliss with his girl friend Fay (Coleen Gray). This early work by Stanley Kubrick qualifies as a film noire, I suppose, since we are compelled to identify with the bad guys, especially with Clay who is a regular kind of joe who just happens to be a stick up artist. The Hollywood "code" that demanded that all bad guys get their just desserts before "The End" (yes, they still ran "The End" in 1956) was apparently still in effect, so I'm not so sure. I recall that Hitchcock in his television series used to make fun of the code by sometimes ending his weekly episode with the bad guy getting away clean, only to appear himself after the commercial and tell the audience that the bad guy was, alas, run over by a truck after helping an old lady cross the street, or something like that.

The Killing, aka, "Clean Break" from the novel by Lionel White, is a tightly plotted thriller, scripted and directed by Kubrick in a very instructive style. By that I mean Kubrick demonstrates just how tension can be created and maintained by aiming all the action and characterizations toward a single event, in this case the seventh race at (either Hollywood Park or Santa Anita, I couldn't figure out which). This "spokes all pointing toward the hub of the wheel structure" (if I may call it that) has been much admired and imitated. I am thinking in particular of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). It looks easy to do and it plays so well, but if we don't care about or identify with the characters, it won't work. Kubrick makes us identify with his second-rate hoods by giving them dimension and motivation. Elisha Cook Jr., in perhaps his greatest role, plays the little guy loser to perfection. I say "perhaps" because I have only seen about a dozen of the over one hundred films in which this great character actor has appeared. His desperate face with the wide, round eyes (as he's about to be hit or blasted away) is not to be forgotten. Marie Windsor plays his two-timing, money-hungry wife, the dame that gums up the works.

This is a superior venture not only because of the tight plotting but because of the vivid atmosphere created and because of some memorable scenes and some clever "movie business" attached to the scenes. I am thinking of the black parking lot attendant who thinks he is being befriended (or perhaps more) by one of the hoods, and the middle aged woman carrying on the conversation with her dog at the airport (a kind of Hitchcockian aside, actually). I was amused by the appearance of a chess and checker parlor ("15 cents an hour") because Kubrick was an avid chess player, although he wasn't very good. It's too bad he never made a film with Humphrey Bogart who loved to play on the set between scenes.

Most modern thrillers have several plot red herrings not only to keep us guessing but to divert our attention away from the loose ends they never manage to clean up. Kubrick's rather brutal method of tying up all the loose ends lacked subtlety, but at least he cleaned them up. And there were only a couple of red herrings. One was having the money man show up at the track drunk so we'd think maybe he was going to somehow screw things up, and the other was when Marie Windsor's character intimates to her jealous husband that Clay had his way with her, which makes us expect that Cook will gum up the works in a fit of jealousy.

The final sequence at the airport and what happens to the contents of the suitcase is not to be missed, after which Clay's final words of profound exasperation are just perfect.

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Gritty noir classic, A lost Kubrick Gem!
Listen up Noir fans - get this film! The Killing is nothing short of brilliant. This little-known gem is also the U.S. directing debut of - hold onto your fedora - Stanley Kubrick! True fans of Noir crime fiction will also appreciate this: guess who wrote the screenplay? The master himself, Jim Thompson (also wrote the novels The Grifters, Aftter Dark..., The Killer Inside Me, Heed The Thunder). This film is a classic "caper" flick with Sterling Hayden giving us his terse, gruff best as the leader of a gang who wants to pull a payroll heist. Trouble, big, violent, ugly trouble ensues. I won't spoil it for you, but I promise this flick delivers in a big way and it is surprising how much they got away with given the year this baby was shot. Unlike many movies of the era, this thing pulls no punches and is about as subtle as a brass-knuckle sandwich. Footnote: real fans of the noir genre may also appreciate this. James Ellroy, author of L.A. Confidential (to name just one of his many outstanding novels), cited The Killing as his favorite film of all time and the inspiration behind many of his stories and characters.

ENJOY!

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Tightly plotted, hamstrung by dialogue.
The Killing (Stanley Kubrick, 1956)

For many years, I have been fond of saying that the only Kubrick film I could stomach was Lolita. While The Killing isn't up to those standards (and certainly doesn't rate a spot in IMDB's Top 250, where it sits as I write this), it's certainly a film with rewatchability potential.

Johnny Clay (The Godfather's Sterling Hayden) has just gotten out after a five-year stint in prison, and needs cash. He concocts a scheme to knock over a racetrack to the tune of $2 million, give or take a few rubles. Putting together a core team of five guys, and with two on the periphery, they plan and execute the crime. That, of course, is when things start getting interesting.

This is good, solid film noir, for the most part. Where it fails to make the cut are in the narration (and Kubrick's bouncing back and forth in time like a pinball, which necessitates it) and the dialogue, written by cult favorite Jim Thompson (The Grifters, The Killer Inside Me, etc). The dialogue has about as much meat to it as one finds in a typical Spillane novel; it's fun, but "timeless" is not a word I'd use to describe it by a longshot. That being the case, it's hard for the actors involved to really get their heads around most parts; they do the best they can with what they have, and in some cases, that's enough to make the characters come alive. Elisha Cook, Jr., is especially good, despite having some of the most ineffectual dialogue ever written for a straight mystery film.

The strongest part of the film, on the other hand, is the ending, a shaggy-dog-story style beauty that would later appear in a different form in Ocean's Eleven (the original, good version, not that overblown Soderbergh piece of trash). It is inevitable, and beautiful.

Worth watching, but don't expect greatness. ***