Blu-ray Review – The Killing (1956)

The films of Stanley Kubrick can reasonably be categorised into a genre of their own, according to Ben Wheatley who talks with fondness about the late director’s work on the excellent Blu-ray release of The Killing. If Kubrick’s body of work is indeed a genre in itself, then The Killing represents a genre piece within a genre. That may be taking the superlatives down a meta-corridor of self-referential whimsy, but certainly The Killing stands as one of the most enduring, influential crime dramas of the 1950’s.

 Sterling Hayden plays career-criminal Johnny, who organises a make-or-break heist at the racetrack with a plan to steal two million dollars. He pulls together a troupe of criminals with the aim of sabotaging the feature race by shooting the favourite horse on-track and making off with the day’s takings in the ensuing chaos. The heist comes under threat when emasculated, crooked bookmaker George (Elisha Cook Jr.) lets his wife in on the plan and she ropes her boyfriend into muscling in on the steal.

This is Kubrick finding his feet as a director but, as Wheatley elaborates, even a formative Kubrick film easily brushes aside most of the competition. Kubrick was still in his twenties when he directed The Killing, with only a couple of features under his belt, but his mastery of storytelling and striking, his visceral sensibility is already apparent.

Efficiently racing through a taut narrative, this is storytelling with the utmost cohesion and economy. The splintered narrative stream, flitting back and forth in time between characters adds to the sense that the movie is building to a dangerous crescendo and has gone on to influence filmmakers like Tarantino and Christopher Nolan. Kubrick’s temporal-hopping choice adds weight to the sense of something like hopelessness as the well-laid plans across well-laid storylines intersperse. For all Hayden Sterling’s bluster and machismo, and by the way he is bristling with coiled, tense viciousness, you’re almost sure from the get-go that the plan is doomed to failure. The stark, bleak abruptness of the ending acts like a slap in the face, just in case you got your hopes up.

It’s not flawless. Professional wrestler and chess player Kola Kwariani loses his shirt and body-presses cops in the trackside bar in a ropey set-piece fist fight that dates the film to some extent and looks frail in comparison to its other bursts of violence.

The Blu-ray release comes with the aforementioned talking head from Down Terrace director Wheatley espousing his love of Kubrick and the lasting effect The Killing had on his own work. As an added bonus, Kubrick’s 1955 noir, Killer’s Kiss is included in its entirety as a special feature, allowing fans to enjoy a double bill of Kubrick’s early work.

[rating=4]
Chris Banks

Genre:Crime, Film Noir, Thriller Distributor: Arrow Academy BD Release Date:9th February 2015 (UK) Director:Stanley Kubrick Cast:Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards Buy:The Killing + Killer’s Kiss [Blu-ray]