Born to Kill is a 1947 American film noir starring Lawrence Tierney and directed by Robert Wise. It was the first film noir to be directed by Wise, who later directed The Set-Up (1949), The Captive City (1952), and Odds Against Tomorrow (1959). The film also features Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, and Elisha Cook Jr.
Born To Kill | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Robert Wise |
Produced by | Herman Schlom |
Screenplay by | Eve Greene Richard Macaulay |
Based on | Deadlier than the Male 1943 novel by James Gunn |
Starring | Claire Trevor Lawrence Tierney Walter Slezak Phillip Terry Audrey Long |
Music by | Paul Sawtell |
Cinematography | Robert De Grasse |
Edited by | Les Millbrook |
Distributed by | RKO Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 92 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The film was released in the U.K. as Lady of Deceit and in Australia as Deadlier Than the Male.
Screenplay
Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) has just received a Reno divorce in Nevada. That night, she goes to a casino and makes eye contact with a man whom, though she does not know it then, is the 'other' boyfriend, Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney), of the woman Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell), who has been her neighbor during her stay in Nevada. Wilde, an insanely jealous man who won't abide anyone "cutting in" on him, spots Laury in the casino with her gentleman caller, Danny (Tony Barrett). When Helen later returns home, she finds Laury's dog loose outside and returns it; she then discovers both Danny and Laury murdered.
Helen says nothing to the police; she's leaving town for San Francisco immediately and doesn't want to be impeded. At the train station, she runs into Sam (who is leaving to avoid heat surrounding the murders which, unknown to Helen, he committed). Helen is instantly attracted to his self-confidence and brutality, but she is engaged to marry a wealthy boyfriend, Fred (Phillip Terry) in San Francisco. Sam wants to call on her there; he arrives at Helen's residence and meets Georgia Staples (Audrey Long), Helen's foster sister, also rich. Sam soon shifts his attentions to her and, after a whirlwind romance, marries her for her money. Helen sees this clearly but neither this, nor Helen's engagement, nor Sam's realization that she has learned the truth about the murders, is an impediment to their having an affair.
Meanwhile, back in Reno, Mrs. Kraft, the owner of the boarding house where Helen lived, has hired a mercenary, verse-quoting detective, Albert Arnett (Walter Slezak), to find out who killed Laury. The detective follows Sam's friend, Marty (Elisha Cook Jr.), to San Francisco. Marty attends Sam's wedding; Arnett inserts himself in the kitchen where he begins asking many questions about Sam. Helen speaks to Arnett, who will not reveal who hired him but suggests that Sam is responsible for the Reno murders.
On the phone, Sam overhears Helen making a call to Arnett and begins to suspect she is "against him". Arnett and Helen discuss her paying him to keep quiet Sam's involvement in the murders; when she gets home, Sam confronts her. She tells him about the detective and insists she believes nothing of the accusations. Marty is there during this conversation, so he learns who hired Arnett. Marty meets with Mrs. Kraft and convinces her to meet him in an isolated area that night, where he will reveal to her information regarding Laury's murder. He intends to murder the woman, as he and Sam have apparently decided this is the best course of action. Before he leaves to carry out this plan, Marty stops into Helen's room to suggest that she should end her affair with Sam. Sam sees Marty coming out of Helen's room; later, as Marty is attempting to murder Mrs. Kraft, Sam shows up. He suggests Marty is trying to cut in on his action with Helen, and kills him.
For a while, Fred has been troubled by Helen's increasingly cold demeanor, "especially since Sam came into this house". He calls off their engagement. Arnett makes one last stab at blackmailing Helen and, upon her refusal, advises her that the police will be there in an hour. Helen confesses all to Georgia. When Sam arrives she tries to manipulate him into killing Georgia, but the police arrive. Georgia remarks that it was Helen who called them, so Sam turns his murderous rage on her. He fatally shoots her before he is slain by police.
- Claire Trevor as Helen Brent
- Lawrence Tierney as Sam Wilde
- Walter Slezak as Albert Arnett
- Phillip Terry as Fred Grover
- Audrey Long as Georgia Staples
- Elisha Cook Jr. as Marty Waterman
- Isabel Jewell as Laury Palmer
- Esther Howard as Mrs. Kraft
- Kathryn Card as Grace
- Tony Barrett as Danny
- Grandon Rhodes as Inspector Wilson
- Martha Hyer as kitchen maid (uncredited)
- Ellen Corby as second maid (uncredited)
Box Office
The film recorded a loss of $243,000.
Critical response
At the time it was released, the film was condemned by the New York Times critic Bosley Crowther. He called it "a smeary tabloid fable" and "an hour and a half of ostentatious vice." His review concluded: "Surely, discriminating people are not likely to be attracted to this film. But it is precisely because it is designed to pander to the lower levels of taste that it is reprehensible."
In 2006, critic Fernando F. Croce wrote of the film, "The usually meek Robert Wise trades his chameleonic tastefulness for full-on, jazzy misanthropy in this nasty melodrama...Wise swims in the genre's amorality, scoring a kitchen brawl to big-band radio tunes, terrorizing a soused matron at a nocturnal beach skirmish, and leaving the last word to Walter Slezak's jovially corrupt detective."
More recently, critic Robert Weston said, "This was the first and the nastiest of the noirs directed by Robert Wise...Wise came to genre with a background in the Val Lewton horror team and the expressionistic films of Orson Welles, so he was the right tool for the job when it came to film noir...As the title suggests, Born to Kill is a film about the grimmest corners of the human condition, the wicked place where sex, corruption and violence join hands and rumba round in darkness. Director Robert Wise suggests that we all share a collective dark side, that one way or another we are all 'born to kill,' and in the final throw of the dice, only the incontrovertible laws of chance can set the record straight."