The Killing (1956)

Director:

Stanley Kubrick

Writers:

Stanley Kubrick (screenplay)
Jim Thompson (dialogue)

Release Date:

6 June 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller | Film-Noir

Tagline:

These 5 Men Had a $2,000,000 Secret Until One of them told this Woman!

Plot:

Crooks plan and execute a daring racetrack robbery.

Plot Keywords:

Racetrack | Robbery | Airport | Heist | Dog

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award.

Cast

Sterling Hayden	...	Johnny Clay
Coleen Gray	...	Fay
Vince Edwards	...	Val Cannon
Jay C. Flippen	...	Marvin Unger
Ted de Corsia	...	Policeman Randy Kennan (as Ted DeCorsia)
Marie Windsor	...	Sherry Peatty
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	George Peatty (as Elisha Cook)
Joe Sawyer	...	Mike O'Reilly
James Edwards	...	Track Parking Attendant
Timothy Carey	...	Nikki Arcane
Kola Kwariani	...	Maurice Oboukhoff
Jay Adler	...	Leo the Loanshark
Tito Vuolo	...	Joe Piano - motel manager
Dorothy Adams	...	Mrs. Ruthie O'Reilly
Herbert Ellis	...	2nd American Airlines Clerk

Also Known As:

Bed of Fear (USA) (working title)
Clean Break (USA) (working title)
Day of Violence (USA) (working title)
Die Rechnung ging nicht auf (Austria) (West Germany) [de]
Atracament perfecte (Spain: Catalan title) [ca]
Atraco perfecto (Spain) [es]
Casta de malditos (Argentina) [es]
Coup manqué (Belgium: French title) [fr]
Ha-Hereg (Israel: Hebrew title) [iw]
I klopi (Greece) (reissue title) [el]
L'ultime razzia (France) [fr]
Mislukte opzet (Belgium: Flemish title) [un]
Mordet (Finland: Swedish title) [sv]
O Grande Golpe (Brazil) [pt]
Peli on menetetty (Finland) [fi]
Rapina a mano armata (Italy) [it]
Son darbe (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Spelet är förlorat (Sweden) [sv]
Tappo (Finland) [fi]
The Killing (Finland) (reissue title) [fi]
To hrima tis orgis (Greece) [el]
Ubistvo (Serbia) [sr]
Um Roubo no Hipódromo (Portugal) [pt]

Runtime:

85 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1956) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Finland:K-15 (2003) | Finland:K-16 (1960) (cut) | Spain:T | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:L | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | Norway:16 | Canada:14A (video rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Ireland:12 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG | USA:Approved (PCA #17836) (original rating) | West Germany:12

Filming Locations:

Bay Meadows Racetrack - 2600 S. Delaware Street, San Mateo, California, USA

Company:

Harris-Kubrick Productions

Trivia:

The horse targeted for assassination was named Red Lightning, running in the seventh race, the $100,000 Added Landsdowne Stakes.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the opening sequence, both the narrator and the track announcer refer to the "fifth" race. But the bet tickets that Marvin Unger has say "sixth race". The subtitles say both 5th and 6th for different references.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: At exactly 3:45 on that Saturday afternoon in the last week of September, Marvin Unger was, perhaps, the only one among the hundred thousand people at the track who felt no thrill at the running of the fifth race. He was totally disinterested in horse racing and held a lifelong contempt for gambling...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lat sau san taam (1992)

Kubrick-Noir: recommended

Everything about this movie fascinates me. Even the unexpected ending has a compelling and unique flavor to it. Sure, it looks like many crime dramas of the 50's. But we are talking about of a movie with a director of the prodigious talents of Stanley Kubrick.

Sometimes you wonder which genre Kubrick could not have handled brilliantly. He seems to know exactly what to do in such a wide variety of movies...Crime, Drama, War, Surreal, Historical Epic, Science Fiction and Black Comedy. My only wish would have been if Kubrick could have made MORE movies. When he died, that left only Woody Allen as the only major director who is working as a pure artist in the film medium.

THE KILLING is filled with crime-noir touches that form an absorbing whole that is hard to beat. The acting is top-notch, the scenes are set in gold taking from every crime movie and creating a whole that could not have been done so well by just any director - perhaps only Hitchcock could have pulled this off. Then there's the jazzy score that underlines the action which punch and atmosphere that just curdles off the screen.

Even if you're not a Kubrick fan (which might surprise many people when they find out he was the director) you will enjoy this movie.

Right to the end...which I won't reveal...but has an inevitability written with classical balance and a submission to fate that leaves a wry smile on your face.

Sterling Hayden is great in this role and he populates this character with just the right sort of mystery to keep you guessing until the end.

Recommended without reservation.