Rent The Killing (1956)

Early work from a master - The Killing review by Count Otto Black

Like many classic noir films from this era, the best of which is probably "Rififi", this is the story of a robbery in three acts. One, the meticulous plan comes together. Two, it is carried out with machine-like precision. Three, it all falls apart because the robbers are not machines, but human beings who sometimes make mistakes. In this film, the "oops, bad move!" moment comes about five minutes in, so even as the robbery is planned and executed, you can see the robbers' downfall becoming more and more inevitable.

So it's not about whether they'll get away with it - in a movie made this long ago, there's exactly zero chance that they will. It's about who they are, why they do it, how they do it, and why it goes wrong. Although we get to know some of them far better than others because there are so many characters (perhaps a few too many), they're an interesting bunch. Their motives cover all shades of good, bad and indifferent, and none of the core members of the gang are truly evil. In fact, as in "Rififi", some of the supporting cast are much nastier than the actual criminals. And I particularly liked the little touch of making the hulking brute whose role is to provide a distraction with a bit of mindless violence by far the most intelligent character in the film.

It's not perfect. Kubrick is still learning his craft, and the robbery itself is a little confusing. There are also a few very clunky shots where the camera lingers for so long on something trivial or irrelevant that there might as well be a subtitle reading: "this will be important later". And the voiceover narration is actually worse than the one in "Blade Runner"! All the same, this is one of the very best of the numerous fifties noir crime thrillers.

Very exciting and worth seeing - The Killing review by MR

Very exciting, you know pretty quickly why it's going to unravel, but it is a terrific watch, and the moments when various unexpected problems turn up are clever. You notice the camera often dwells on Elisha Cook's face - think the director must have loved it, which isn't surprising, he's an intense actor, always the loser.

Racetrack Heist (spoiler). - The Killing review by Steve

Stanley Kubrick's heist-noir imitates the genre conventions established in John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle in 1950. The star of that film, Sterling Hayden also features, though as the leader of the caper, rather than a heavy.  

It’s a racetrack robbery worked by inside men, particularly a crooked bookie, expertly played by Elisha Cook jr. He's a sexual flop, pitilessly squeezed by his unfaithful, predatory wife (Marie Windsor). As it must, the caper falls apart disastrously on the big day.

There is a good hardboiled script, which employs the unusual device of telling the story from the multiple points of view of all the gang members, supplemented with the sort of strident third person voiceover familiar from documentary noirs like The Naked City.  

This low budget thriller was Kubrick's first significant release. It didn't sell too many tickets, but is made with considerable style and gave him the opportunity to direct Paths of Glory the following year. Now it is a genre classic.