The Killing is a 1956 film noir directed and co-written by Stanley Kubrick. It was initially met with very poor box office results. The Killing has gained a cult following and was placed number 15 in a list of Top 25 Film Noirs. A number of critics also placed it in their year-end lists of the best 1956 films.
Summary[]
Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter, police officer, bartender, and a betting teller named George (Elisha Cook Jr.) for one last job before getting married to his fiancee, Fay (Coleen Gray). But George tells his wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), about his scheme to steal money from a racetrack where he works, and she makes a plot of her own.
Plot[]
Johnny Clay is a veteran criminal planning one last heist before settling down and marrying Fay. He plans to steal $2 million from the money-counting room of a racetrack during a featured race. Johnny assembles a team consisting of a corrupt cop, a betting window teller to gain access to the backroom, a sharpshooter to shoot the favorite horse during the race to distract the crowd and keep the winnings from being paid out, a wrestler to provide another distraction by provoking a fight at the track bar, and a track bartender.
George Peatty, the teller, tells his wife, Sherry, about the impending robbery. Sherry is bitter at George for not delivering on the promises of wealth he made when they married, so George hopes telling her about the robbery will impress her and keep her from leaving him. Sherry does not believe him at first, but, after learning that the robbery is real, enlists her lover Val Cannon to steal the money from George and his associates.
The heist is successful, although the sharpshooter is shot and killed by a security guard. The conspirators gather at the apartment where they are to meet Johnny and divide the money. Before Johnny arrives, Val appears with an associate to hold them up. A shootout ensues and a badly wounded George emerges as the only man standing. He goes home and shoots Sherry before collapsing.
Arriving at the apartment, Johnny sees George staggering in the street and knows that something is wrong. He buys the biggest suitcase he can find and struggles to stuff all the money in. At the airport, Johnny and Fay must check the oversized bag as regular luggage. Johnny reluctantly complies. While the couple waits to board the plane, the suitcase falls off a baggage cart onto the runway and breaks open, its loose banknotes swept away by the gusts from the aircraft's propellers.
Fay and Johnny seek to flee, but are unable to hail a cab before the police are alerted to them. Fay urges Johnny to escape. He refuses, calmly accepting the futility. Muttering "What's the difference?", he is approached by two officers seeking to arrest him.
Cast[]
- Sterling Hayden as Johnny Clay
- Coleen Gray as Fay
- Vince Edwards as Val Cannon
- Jay C. Flippen as Marvin Unger
- Elisha Cook Jr. as George Peatty
- Marie Windsor as Sherry Peatty
- Ted de Corsia as Policeman Randy Kennan
- Joe Sawyer as Mike O'Reilly
- James Edwards as track parking attendant
- Timothy Carey as Nikki Arcane
- Tito Vuolo as Joe "Piano"
- Joe Turkel as Tiny
- Jay Adler as Leo the Loanshark
- Kola Kwariani as Maurice Oboukhoff
- Dorothy Adams as Mrs. Ruthie O'Reilly
- Rodney Dangerfield as Onlooker (uncredited)
Awards[]
In 1957, The Killing won the BAFTA Award for Best Film.
Home video[]
In 2011, The Criterion Collection released The Killing on Blu-ray and DVD, with another Kubrick film, Killer's Kiss, being included as a special feature.