The Killing (1956) - Updated

Stanley Kubrick is one of the most acclaimed directors of all time and The Killing is his first great film. The main focus of the action takes place at a racetrack, but a great deal of the story takes place in other places before and after the job is pulled.  Recently released Johnny (Sterling Hayden) is the mastermind behind a intricately planned job. It's a whole complex jigsaw puzzle involving a few "Average Joes" and a couple professionals. When you put it together it all adds up to the perfect heist.

Marvin is a friend of Johnny's and a fatherly figure who is backing the deal. George (Elisha Cook Jr.) is the paranoid window teller banking on the job so he can hold onto his shallow wife. Randy is the policemen who is set to pick up the plunder. Then, Mike is the bartender who is supposed to help with the distraction. Johnny lines up the brawn Maurice to start a fight at the race track with Mike. He gets a sharpshooter named Nickki to bump off a horse and it's all set. All their plans revole around the Seventh Race and they have it planned out to the minute. The beauty of the Killing is that it all but works like clockwork. The horse is shot, the brawl does its job, the vault is cleaned out and the money gets picked up. Only a few small problems crop up.

After the job is another matter as the perfect timetable begins to break down. In a matter of  seconds things blow up thanks to George's backstabbing wife (Marie Windsor). Soon the carnage is strewn all over the floor. Johnny holds onto the money as previously decided since things go awry and he makes the getaway. His girl (Coleen Gray) is waiting at the airport and it looks to be smooth sailing from here on out.

Thanks to a yippy dog and a precarious perch the money laden suitcase takes a tumble and the contents flies off. All too soon its raining money and there's nothing Johnny can do about it. He leaves the terminal with Fay, but with no taxi to be had, he gets nabbed and there is no chance to escape. After everything lining up so perfectly for him, in a cruel turn everything that could go wrong did. He was not going to be so lucky.

The title of this film always struck me as ambiguous, whether it meant the amount of money being taken or the deaths that take place I'm not sure. However, I do know that The Killing is tautly constructed. The non-linear and sometimes overlapping narrative is held together by the narrator. He seems fit for a newsreel but he complements the straightforward procedure of the film with time stamps included.

Because of the lead performance of Sterling Hayden and the main plot element of a heist, this film can sometimes be confused with John Huston's The Asphalt Jungle (1950). However, I enjoy this story line more because the heist is not the issue. It is the aftermath and all the problems happen so rapidly.

It is a wonderful unraveling of the entire story and although we do not see Johnny arrested, he might as well be because there are two men with pistols drawn walking right towards him. The Killing was not a big payoff for him, but it certainly is for the audience.

4.5/5 Stars