The Killing Reviews

As someone who considers Stanley Kubrick one of the greatest directors who ever lived, 'The Killing' is not one of his very best (his masterpiece being '2001').

This said, 'The Killing' is a big step up from the still solid if flawed 'Killer's Kiss' and especially the very poor (for me his only misfire) 'Fear and Desire', which only had the camera work and use of light and shadow going for it.

My only two complaints with 'The Killing' are with the ending and the narration. The ending was rather rushed and anti-climactic, ending on too much of an abrupt note. The narration poses more of a problem, apparently it was forced into the film and the tacky execution really shows, it is annoyingly cheesy, over-explanatory and overused and the film would have fared much better without it like Kubrick intended.

However, 'The Killing' looks great, complete with brilliantly evocative camera work/cinematography, atmospheric use of light and shadow and suitably claustrophobic sets. The music score is a marked improvement over the music scores for 'Fear and Desire' and 'Killer's Kiss', it's not perfect with parts that are a bit too loud and intrusive but here it is not inappropriately jaunty, it has its haunting and tense moments without being too obvious and unlike 'Fear and Desire' it doesn't sound like a bad Bernard Hermann imitation.

Also significantly improved is the dialogue, excepting the narration. Here the script is witty and deliciously sardonic, providing some really enjoyable chemistry between the characters and actors. Kubrick directs with a masterly touch, with much more of his own style coming through (one can say that he had not found it with 'Fear and Desire', was starting to find it with 'Killer's Kiss' and found it with 'The Killing). The story is ground-breakingly non-linear but tightly paced and with some genuine suspenseful tension and moving poignancy.

Of a strong cast, yet another big improvement, standing out are Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor and Elisha Cook Jnr, who are all excellent in roles perfectly tailored for them.

In summary, while not one of Kubrick's best (he went on to do even better, with his first masterpiece being 'Paths of Glory') it is his first "very good" film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I like this early work of Stanley Kubrick. Very good story that is structured well with interesting characters.

Very nicely paced and set-up for 9/10s of the film. The scheming and characterizations are spot on and make this film a joy to watch. For the ending, however, Kubrick really has to jump through some ridiculous hoops and awkward set-ups to make it happen. It doesn't unglue the rest of the film but it certainly makes it so that the corners are peeling up a bit in the end.

The Killing is a film that has a very dark story and is a story with a very slow dialogue. It starts off really slowly within the first 30 minutes at least and then it just suddenly starts all over again. To be perfectly honest, I thought this film was rather thrilling and was quite impactful but I don't really refer it as a classic crime film as I don't as a classic Kubrick film.


The acting was good from Sterling Hayden as Johnny Clay. Johnny Clay is a veteran criminal planning one last heist before settling down and marrying Fay. His plan is to rob the money-counting room of a racetrack of two million dollars during a featured race, and to do this he assembles a team consisting of a corrupt cop; George Peatty, a betting window teller at the track to give access to the backroom; a sharpshooter to shoot the favorite horse during the race, distracting the crowd; a wrestler to provide another distraction by provoking a fight at the track bar, and the bartender.


I wouldn't call The Killing Kubrick's classic debut film to start with. I do still think Paths Of Glory takes that place. That is a better film than The Killing. Kubrick directs this one in a slight way how Scorsese directed GoodFellas. I will give Kubrick's work on The Killing credit that it is extremely underrated and wasn't taken into consideration by Hollywood until he made his later works most notably Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.


This isn't one of Kubrick's best works and it isn't Kubrick's worst film either but it is as I said one of his most underrated works along side Paths Of Glory and Lolita. I think if I give Barry Lyndon a re-watch in the future then The Killing could be but for the moment it isn't. This is a good film but it was too slow and it was well put together again until it actually got the hang of the storyline. The Killing should be watched if anyone is a fan of Kubrick's films. I wouldn't recommend just anybody to watch it, just a fan of Kubrick. The Killing is a classic crime film that sends through a crook's adventure into a robbery. Good film but wouldn't watch again.

"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 in the running of the fifth race. He was totally disinterested in horse racing and held a lifelong contempt for gambling. Nevertheless, he had a $5 win bet on every horse in the fifth race. He knew, of course, that this rather unique system of betting would more than likely result in a loss, but he didn't care. For after all, he thought, what would the loss of twenty or thirty dollars mean in comparison to the vast sum of money ultimately at stake". These were the opening lines of "The Killing" - one of the great "film noir" crime films of the 1950s directed by Stanley Kubrick (who also wrote the screenplay) about a complicated racetrack robbery. The film was only 89 minutes long and released as a supporting feature but is now regarded as a classic. This was "film noir" at its very best. The film had an outstanding cast including Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr, Vince Edwards, Coleen Gray, Ted de Corsia, Joe Sawyer, Timothy Carey, James Edwards and Jay C. Flippen. When ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) says he has a plan to make a killing everyone wants to be in on the action. The plan is to steal $2 million in a racetrack robbery but despite all their careful plotting things don't work out as they had hoped. Their carefully planned robbery was put in jeopardy when weak and pathetic George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr) let slip some vital information about the robbery to his beautiful but unfaithful wife Sherry (Marie Windsor). She in turn passes the details on to her boy friend Val Cannon (Vince Edwards) which puts everyone in danger. This was a typical "bad girl" role for Marie Windsor who seemed to specialise in tough broads in several "film noir" thrillers and Westerns. I met Marie several times in Hollywood and she told me that "The Killing" was one of her favourite roles along with "The Narrow Margin" with her friend Charles McGraw. The film was shot in just 24 days and Stanley Kubrick had to delay the start of filming in order to wait for Marie Windsor as she was busy finishing another film entitled "Swamp Women". Marie Windsor landed the part after Kubrick had seen her in "The Narrow Margin" (1952). Victor Mature and Jack Palance were both considered for the part played by Sterling Hayden. Kirk Douglas was so impressed with this film that he hired Kubrick for his next project "Paths of Glory" (1957). Frank Sinatra was interested in making the film but Stanley Kubrick beat him for the rights to the project. What I particularly liked about "The Killing" was the way that the action kept leading up to the seventh race (when the robbery was about to happen) and then we had flashbacks to earlier in the day showing what each member of the gang was doing and how they were involved in the scheme.
Favourite lines:
Sterling Hayden (to Timothy Carey): "You'd be killing a horse - that's not first degree murder, in fact it's not murder at all, in fact I don't know what it is".
Marie Windsor (to Vince Edwards): "You know he works at the track. Well, somehow, and don't ask me how, he's got connected with the mob. They're going to rob the track offices for the day's receipts!".
Hayden (to Windsor): "You like money. You've got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart".
Hayden (to Windsor): "I know you like a book. You're a no good nosey little tramp".
Voiceover (at racetrack): "Your attention, ladies and gentlemen. The horses are now on the track for the seventh race".