The Killing (1956)

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

I had high hopes for this movie because all the good reviews I saw, but it wasn't that good. I really enjoyed the cinematography and the dialogues but something I really disliked was the background voice explaining everything like if we were dumb. The acting was good but the story not that much. Also the ending felt kind of rushed and dumb but it made me laugh.

I have to admit that in movies of this type, I generally pull for the crook to get away with the murder or the robbery or whatever he or she has done. In this movie, the inimitable Sterling Hayden plays Johnny, a guy who orchestrates the robbery of a race track of two million dollars, putting together a complicated, synchronized effort. As is often the case with such plans, things happen to make it run less smoothly than hoped. One of the best parts of this film is Elisha Cook (remember the gunsel in "The Maltese Falcon"). He is a fragile, loose cannon who loves a woman who is only interested in money. He holds out hope that she will love him and we all know it is not going to happen. His big mouth leads to dramatic results. She can't keep her nose out of the action. There is one thing that really bugs me. There is an issue with a rickety suitcase bought at a pawn shop. When you see what happens, you'll get my drift.

"The Killing" is the first film by Stanley Kubrick that was financed entirely by others believing in his talent, and we could not hope for more. The film is thrilling and follows the classic Hollywood gangster story, but with the touch of the genius: as always in his pictures, the characters are watched from a distance, a sneer that knows their efforts to make things go their way is useless, as the world works in mysterious ways, such that a series of small accidents can destroy the "perfectly" planned robbery. As usual nobody gets what they wanted in a Kubrick film. The time labyrinth through which the viewer is introduced to the events is also a feature that will come back in an even more complex way in the author's mature works.A fantastic noir/gangster movie, filled with Kubrick themes.

The Killing is a smart-ass heist drama - a noir of the highest order - with a lip-smacking precision which is at odds with the summation: that all human designs are futile and frustrating. Stanley Kubrick's 84-minute labyrinthine thriller transports the moral contortions of film noir to the overwrought atmosphere of the race-track, suffusing them together with dread-inducing temporal uncertainty. The Killing is a story of a group of low-level hoods that hops around a heist at a race track, viewing the events from the perspective of the men involved. Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden, competently thumping a restrained characterization), just released from a 5-year stint in prison, instigates the operation, recruiting inside men from the track like bartender Mike, book-keeper Marvin, and clerk George (Elisha Cook, a particular standout), along with corrupt policeman Randy Kennan to orchestrate the daring heist. Each represents a specific role in the intricate process, a key piece to the overall puzzle which is deliberated over through clandestine meetings. Our unlikely schemers all believe their newly acquired riches will salvage whatever opportunities they've previously squandered. But as in most film noir, here too a dame holds the key to doom. The weak-willed George naively believes the money will satisfy his wide-eyed viper of a wife, Sherry (spectacularly portrayed by Marie Windsor). Her passive-aggressive interrogations are ripe with assaults on George's nonexistent masculinity, and what begins as idle pillow talk quickly avalanches into full-blown disaster. Overall the plot works like clock-work; drawing us into the scheme and then milking the pleasures of witnessing it unfold exactly as planned. Well almost! The movie soon settles into a thrilling vein culminating into an unexpected and brutally ironic climax as the group's hard-earned cash literally blows away - a compelling image of great symbolic value that visually mirrors early images of the racetrack grounds littered with losing tickets. Kubrick holds the image for maximum impact, and the look on Hayden's face is a deft summary of film noir's intrinsic fatalism: all are doomed, and the only question is how.It is a tremendous pleasure to see how it all unfolds, largely because Kubrick directs it with the skill of a consummate pro (despite being all of 27 years old then). Kubrick's structuring of the material makes it a brisk film noir, moving us around the narrative like an unassembled jigsaw puzzle that slowly but surely comes together in the end, but never in the way we might expect it. And by doing so, he propels the acidic realm of film noir into something even darker!