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Here is another one of those films I didn't particularly care for the first time around, but gave it a second chance some years later and was rewarded. Now I love the film and am a Lawrence Tierney fan.

Tierney's intense character, his hot temper and insane paranoid jealousy are, well, fun to watch once you get to like this actor and his tough-guy roles. Tierney, in this film, would kill over the slightest thing that would suggest to him that he might be getting double crossed. Talk about a guy with mental problems!

Trevor was effective as the immoral woman who cared for money first, and everything else a distant second. As good as she and Tierney play off each other, for me, the most entertaining parts of the film were watching three of the supporting characters, played by Elisha Cook Jr., Walter Slezak and Esther Howard.

Cook played his normal film noir jittery-worried gangster accomplice and victim. He made a living playing these type of roles. Slezak was the Shakespeare/ Bible--quoting detective and Howard was a real hoot as an old lady trying to track down the killer of her young friend.

This is film noir in all its moodiness and hard attitude. If you find it a bit slow, please give it a second chance. These characters grow on you!

Superior film noir classic directed by the late Robert Wise about Claire Trevor and her love for a killer, Lawrence Tierney. A couple is murdered by Tierney in Reno because he was jealous and easily angered to the point of violence. Trevor finds the bodies but leaves after finalizing her divorce. While on the train, she meets up with Tierney and has instant chemistry with him. Only trouble is that she has a fiancée with a lot of money and Tierney is broke. Well, just like with any film noir, it gets more complicated with Tierney marrying Trevor's foster sister(a wealthy woman in her own right) and being tailed by sleazy, literate detective Walter Slezak. Wise does a more than adequate job creating tension and suspense in this film and leaving no character's sense of good in tact. All of the characters it seems are of dubious natures with Esther Howard's roly-poly drunk with a heart of gold coming out as the most ethical! The acting by the leads and the supporting cast are first-rate. I am so surprised that Tierney, a man I immediately remembered from a Seinfeld episode and from Reservoir Dogs, was so good so long ago. He seemed to have dropped out of the public eye for so long, but his acting definitely shows great potential. I believe I read that alcoholism was behind this. At any rate, Tierney is very good, Trevor plays one of the coldest performances on screen(her lines to Howard were absolutely chilling), Slezak is vintage Slezak - an oily, good-humoured man looking out for himself, Elisha Cook Jr. gives another good turn as Tierney's buddy, and Howards excels as the drunken woman. The scenes with her and Cook were well-paced and effectively frightening. Born to Kill is nothing great in terms of plot or story - we have seen much of the same before - but under the adroit eyes of Wise and aided by big performances by talented actors and actresses - it rises above the mundane to be a vintage film noir classic. Tieney and Trevor really personified cold wickedness as well as anyone I have seen on screen.

.... and there's a very good reason. He was a one-trick actor, a limited guy who could only look stern or cruel. I can't remember him ever showing any heart or any desirable quality in any of his pictures. And yet you can't take your eyes off him when he's on screen, hoping for a flash of human feeling, which never comes.

Fortunately, in this picture he is surrounded by good actors giving great performances, and they pick up the slack for him. Claire Trevor carries the load here as a woman attracted to evil personified, in Tierney. Audrey Long, Walter Slezak and Elisha Cook,Jr. all shine in support.

Starting a new paragraph for Esther Howard whom I can't recall seeing before but who gives a soulful, heartbreaking performance as a drunken landlady, a performance which should have gotten at least an Oscar nomination. She wasn't just good - she was perfect.

"Born To Kill" is one of the best of the Film Noir genre and is shamefully neglected in noir seminars and festivals. I would put it right behind "Out Of The Past", which is at the top of my list.

Truly one of the most sinister of RKO's hardcore noirs, Born to Kill is as close to real nihilism as a Hollywood studio picture was likely to come. The only remotely sympathetic characters are a pair of dupes and an old drunk, everyone who's got anything on the ball is corrupt and ruthless.

Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney) is a homme fatal, as attractive yet deadly to women as any of a dozen femmes fatal in other films are to men. Unable to resist his glowering masculine wiles is Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) who is nearly as black-hearted as he is. All the other characters circle around them like moths around a flame. As is to be expected money, murder, and lust all have their parts to play.

To be honest Lawrence Tierney's performance is fairly one dimensional, but it is a hell of a dimension. He menaces, scowls, and swaggers through the picture, always ready to attack, like an alley cat that's found it's way inside. His character's bluntness is played for maximum effect, wisely since Tierney is no Bogart. He does manage some good, direct, lines, in response to Trevor's, "Oh, I wouldn't say that...," he tightens his lips and spits out, "No. You wouldn't say it, but that's how it is." With Tierney turning up the heat, it's up to Claire Trevor to sweat. She rides the moral see-saw much like Fred MacMurray reacting to Barbara Stanwyck in Double Indemnity. Even without the benefit of a voice-over she pulls it off quite well, convincingly playing a woman caught between her safe, malleable (and rich) fiancée and the exciting but untamed Wilde.

There are three strong supporting performances. Elisha Cook, Jr. is Marty Waterman, Sam's "friend" who does his best to keep the lid on the pot (and to deliver most of the lines in their shared scenes). Esther Howard is Mrs. Kraft, a boardinghouse owner who is important to the plot. Especially good is Walter Slezak as the genteel detective Arnett.

Born to Kill does have a few flaws, the pacing is somewhat questionable and several of the important characters are either missing or blindingly stupid throughout most of the picture. But on the whole Tierney, Trevor, and the others deliver and there's enough tension to keep things interesting. The film is based on a novel 'Deadlier Than the Male' but given Tierney's looks and personality that title doesn't truly seem to fit the movie, it's a rare case of the man luring the woman to her doom.

Born to Kill (1947)

"Has it occurred to you, neither of us looks like a scoundrel, do we?"

The smart, cutting lead female in this crime noir, Helen, played by Claire Trevor, is enough alone to make Born to Kill rise above. She's educated and calculating, far from the gutter but not at home with mere elegance and wealth, the things she's been trying to corner. The story is hers, luckily, because she's ultimately admirable, whatever her moral milkiness.

The whole thing starts with a shock, and then with a disturbing calm where all the pieces refuse to fit together. The lead male, Sam, played by Lawrence Tierney, is a ruthless, violent man with all the elegance and brains of a half-track. He's a perfect problem for Helen, and the movie only compounds and coils around a plot that never falters, whatever its complications. The detective (Walter Slezak) is too perfect in his delicate selfishness, and good old Elisha Cook Jr. is a surprising, and also perfect, good guy with too much tolerance due to his large heart.

It isn't a surprise that a good script and some talented actors are put together with such smart, fast panache by a young Robert Wise, more famous for little tidbits like West Side Story and Sound of Music. It ends up taking some astonishing twists, and some liberties with location shooting that are fabulous for 1947.

After all is said in done we are back with Claire Trevor's performance, which is large and nuanced, and very convincing. It's a good thing she has a lot to work with. A great film. Even the third time.

A repellent film noir, and I mean that as a compliment. It's remarkable for a number of things. The fact that it was directed by Robert Wise, a man who would go on to direct bland big-budget spectaculars (he'd already butchered THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS). The fact that it is so unpleasant and misanthropic - the good characters are pallid dupes; the bad ones have a vivid animalistic sexuality that drives the film; the moral force is a blowsy ineffectual drunk; the detective, figure of law and restoration of order, is cheerfully corrupt. The violence is quite sickening, even today; the misogyny is blatant, not narrative; Lawrence Tierney's masculinity is troubling, thrilling, sexually disruptive, and unclassifiable in Hollywood's history in its unredeemed nastiness and amorality. All this, and a rare Hollywood movie to deal with class.

Robert Wise does not come to mind as a master director of film noir, but he came through with flying colors (all black) in this gem, starting out in Reno, Nevada, and ending up in San Francisco. Claire Trevor, the dark spider of so much noir, outdoes herself in cold malevolence here (she should have copped the Oscar for this film, not Key Largo). Her evenly matched partner is the frightening Lawrence Tierney (who last showed up as Elaine Benes' author dad on Seinfeld, not to mention in Prizzi's Honor and Reservoir Dogs). The supporting cast, for once, earns its keep (though Walter Slezak, as a corrupt detective, is oddly irrelevant to the story). If you're a fan of these dark post-war films, Born to Kill is central to the canon.

In Reno, the cold-hearted Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) has just divorced from her husband and returns to the boarding house owned by Mrs. Kraft (Esther Howard) to pay her expenses and say goodbye to her and to Mrs. Kraft neighbor and best friend Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell) since she intends to return to San Francisco early in the morning. Helen goes to a casino to celebrate her divorce and glances at the gambler Sam Wild (Lawrence Tierney) and Laury also goes to the casino with her boyfriend Danny Jaden (Tony Barrett). When Laury sees Sam, she sneaks with Danny since she had dated the gambler. Late night, Danny and Laury go to her house and Sam is waiting for them and kills the couple in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Helen sees Laury's dog on the street and brings it to the house. When she sees the bodies in the kitchen, she does not report to the police and heads to the train station, where she meets Sam. They travel together and Sam lodges in the Terrace Hotel. When Sam visits Helen, he leans that she lives in the mansion of her foster sister, the millionaire Georgia Staples (Audrey Long) and is the fiancée of the wealthy Fred Grover (Phillip Terry). The gold-digger Sam seduces Georgia and sooner they get married, but the calculating Helen feels horny for Sam. Meanwhile Mrs. Kraft hires the smart and sleazy private eyes Matthew Albert Arnett (Walter Slezak) to investigate the murder of her friend Laury.

"Born to Kill" is a film-noir that tells the story of a cold, greedy and calculating woman that feels desire for a ruthless killer. Claire Trevor performs an ambitious woman that is an iceberg and plans to marry for money with a good man that controls her bad instincts and sees her world collapsing when she meets the amoral killer Sam Wild. Marty 'Mart' Waterman (Elisha Cook Jr.) has a strange friendship with Sam and the fact that they share a double bad in the low-budget hotel may give a hint that they have a homosexual relationship. Walter Slezak has also a great performance in the role of a sleazy character. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Nascido para Matar" ("Born to Kill")

Odd things are happening in this picture, and at the Hays Office obviously all were sound asleep: A stinking rich Miss Supersweet is marrying a brick-faced lowlife hunk who preferably shares his bed with an old buddy from jail, while the millionaire girl's foster sister gets soaking wet when it comes to gory murder. Here, in 1947, RKO finally delves headlong into the abyss of Krafft-Ebings Psychopathia sexualis, and though the fatal-attraction plot may not be entirely plausible, Robert Wise's direction is taut and trim, the timing pure excellence, while angel-faced and downright ravishing Claire Trevor - marvelously dressed in one stunning ensemble after another by costume designer Edward Stevenson (Out of the Past) - gives the probably best performance of her career opposite to Lawrence Tierney, the Most Vicious Mutha ever to roam Hollywood Boulevard. Despite its icy brutality a melodrama at heart, Born to Kill moves along the slickest ground amour fou terrain has to offer, chock-full of malevolence, aggression, sexual deviance and a stranglehold feel of utter depravity. The NYT called Wise's first noir "not only morally disgusting, but an offense to a normal intellect" back then. So much about the high art of pushing the envelope.

As the saying goes - "They sure don't make 'em like this one anymore."

And, when it comes to that old, familiar saying - It couldn't possibly be any more true than it does when discussing 1947's "Born To Kill".

This vintage Hollywood crime-drama is an absolute hoot of pure old-school soap opera where the implausible situations and the unintentionally laughable dialog is so off-the-wall at times that it couldn't be anything but a riot to watch.

So - If you're in the mood to completely suspend disbelief, then, you are certain to get a kick of pure pleasure out of watching "Born To Kill".

Claire Trevor (Helen) returns home after a night out celebrating her divorce. When she arrives at her boarding house, she discovers that her fellow lodger Isabel Jewell (Laury) has been murdered along with boyfriend Tony Barrett (Danny). There is another boyfriend on the scene – psychotic Lawrence Tierney (Sam) – and you had better not make a monkey of him. He WILL kill you. The whole beginning sequence is well acted by all and throws you straight into the story. On discovering the bodies, Claire goes to call the police, picks up the phone but then stalls, puts the receiver down and walks away from the scene. She thinks and then returns to pick up the phone again……..and she calls the train station! Ha ha – fooled us all. It's at the train station where she meets the killer Tierney and a relationship is formed. There are complications to this relationship alongside the added pressure of boozy floozy landlady Esther Howard (Mrs Kraft) hiring PI Walter Slezak (Arnett) to find out who killed her lodger.

All the cast are excellent, especially Claire Trevor and Esther Howard. They all have screen presence. The relationship between Tierney and fellow criminal Elisha Cook Jr (Marty) is given a very obvious gay subtext. Cook Jr is his bitch – no doubt about it. Tierney is scary and each member of the cast is given at least one powerful, emotional scene and delivers it as required. At the end of the film I think it's a bottle of beer for Ms Howard please!

Born to Kill has the dubious distinction of being both ahead of its time and behind it. On the one hand, it's shockingly brutal and sinister for its time - more so than any other American film released in the film noir genre. Not only is it very violent; more importantly, none of the characters are sympathetic, and some of them have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. There's never any hope for redemption or repentance throughout, and there's no hero or likable protagonist. In its severe nihilism, Born to Kill foreshadows the violent filmmaking of directors like Quentin Tarantino, Oliver Stone and Brian De Palma.

But while the film tries hard to be edgy and dark, it's just not good enough to back that up. Director Robert Wise would do much better in latter years with more idealistic, optimistic projects (The Sound of Music, The Day the Earth Stood Still) but the subtleties of film noir seem to be lost on him, and he just couldn't make the cliché-ridden script work. Some scenes work and work well - especially the ones featuring Elisha Cook Jr. or Walter Slezak, whose characters are complex, morally ambiguous and quite fascinating; but the two leads are so despicable that they come off as cartoon characters. Especially bad is Lawrence Tierney as Sam Wild - Tierney was very good at being tough and quietly intimidating, and often made an excellent villain, but his Sam Wild character demands some psychological complexity, and Tierney's performance is too wooden to get that across. What more, there viewer is completely mystified at why this dumb, dull thug would be so irresistibly attractive to not one, but three beautiful women throughout the film.

Born to Kill is an interesting footnote in film history, which may have had some impact later on, but it's simply not a good movie. Worth a watch only for film-noir fanatics and film history majors.

This noir film directed by Robert Wise is bereft of characters you can sympathize with save for Audrey Long and Phillip Terry. It does however rivet your attention to the leads of Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor, a pair of amorals if I ever saw one.

Back in Reno where Trevor was getting shed of a husband she happens to discover the murders of Isabelle Jewell and Tony Barrett done by a very jealous man played by Lawrence Tierney whom she meets on the train to San Francisco. They like each other, but he focuses on Audrey Long, Trevor's half sister who was lucky enough to have a father worth a fortune.

But Tierney's past is ever so slowly creeping up on him. And Trevor while now engaged to Terry, still she can't resist Tierney. Pity these two just didn't hitch, they truly deserve each other and not the people they were going with.

What I love about Born To Kill is the great care that Robert Wise took in both assembling his supporting cast and fleshing them out. Rarely do you see that in a B film. Those already mentioned plus Elisha Cook, Jr. as Tierney's luckless pal, Walter Slezak as a private detective open to a little blackmail, and Esther Howard as the landlady in Reno who hires Slezak to investigate the murder of her friend Jewell.

Born To Kill will keep you glued to the television or the big screen as it did in 1946 I'm sure. A truly fascinating bunch.

Many of our finest pictures revolve around a single captivating performance, and this is especially true of B-pictures which can less afford to rely on pyrotechnics. In the case of Born to Kill, a dark little drama from RKO, all eyes are on Lawrence Tierney. You know Lawrence Tierney – he is the bald, mountain-sized mob boss from Reservoir Dogs. Here, forty-five years earlier, he is thinner and has hair, but he is nevertheless just as menacing.

The director of Born to Kill was Robert Wise. Wise cut his directorial teeth at Val Lewton's horror B-unit, and although his only full-length horror for Lewton, The Body Snatchers, was not brilliant, he still carried with him much of the atmospheric technique that characterised Lewton films. Simple things like an open doorway in the background of the shot, or placing the camera at waist height (often more effective than low angles) convey to us a sense of unease. And what is so great about Wise's formal style is that it is always subtle – he never calls attention to any shot, but if you pay close attention his craftsmanship is on display. For this reason Wise is rarely remembered as a great director, although he did leave a legacy of many great films behind him.

Among Wise's greatest assets was his ability to define character and bring out the best in performance through space and framing, and this brings us back to Mr Tierney. Tierney was not the best at vocal delivery, but he had amazing presence. I sometimes think Born to Kill would have been even better if they had stripped out all his dialogue and just told him to look mean for ninety minutes. Take his opening scene at the casino; there is no dialogue, and in fact he barely moves. Wise cleverly emphasises Tierney's stillness by having a lot of bustle going on behind him. This wordless scene establishes Tierney's character better than any expository dialogue could, and gives the brutality of his next appearance all the more impact.

But Wise was not just a director who focused on looks and technique. He had previously been an editor and, conscious of his lack of first-hand experience with a cast, went to lengths to learn about acting and coaching. Apparently Wise often encouraged his actors to slow down their performances, allowing time to bring out character and emotional weight. Sometimes this leisurely pacing would be lost in the editing of the cheap quickies he was making around this time, but here and there you see it. Despite Tierney being at the centre of things, he is not the only member of the cast to shine. Claire Trevor manages something very tricky – she convincingly plays a bad actress when her character unconvincingly acts nice. Walter Slezak – a supporting player who could successfully tread that line between character actor exaggeration and naturalistic depth – is perfect as a sleazy detective. Elisha Cook Jr., who is almost as much part of film noir furniture as Venetian blinds, gives one of his more believable performances. Philip Terry on the other hand is a little wooden, and Esther Howard is a little overstated, but you can't always have a full flush of aces.

Another weak link is Paul Sawtell's backing score, which is at best mediocre and at worst inappropriate. He appears to have misunderstood the elements of the story, for example playing sad, romantic music when Claire Trevor's fiancé walks out on her. Anyone who has been paying attention should realise her character and their relationship don't merit that – especially in a picture as cold and cynical as this.

All in all though, Born to Kill is a treat. It's probably Robert Wise's first really accomplished film, and is actually better than many of his later A-pictures. The script, considering it's for a B-picture adapted from a pulp novel, is unusually intelligent and full of nifty dialogue. There are plenty of great little touches (which may be from the script, or ideas of Wise or the actors themselves), such as Slezak carefully placing his half-smoked cigarette between two bricks before entering a building. And you get to enjoy Lawrence Tierney when he was still handsome enough to be kissed (albeit with his eyes scarily open), and still lean enough to swing a blunt instrument. This picture is well worth discovering.

This is a disturbing film, but is a classic film-noir and shows Claire Trevor off better than I have ever seen her. The wardrobe is stunning! The tailored suits and dresses are among the best I've ever seen. This film never achieved the popularity it deserves, probably because it is so "dark." I thought Walter Slezak was under-used in his small role as the private investigator, but, as always, he gave a terrific performance. The smaller roles were beautifully realized by wonderful character actors. The cinematography is gorgeous black-and-white, reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock black-and-white. Watch it just for the wardrobe and Clair Trevor's beauty.

It's amazing the gigantic variation between movies made at the same time, when it comes to quality. I saw "Only Two Can Play"-1962, with Peter Sellers, and next to this crisp, sensational "Born to Kill" movie, made in 1947, Sellers film seems to be the oldest of them both, when it was made 15 years later! I found Claire Trevor an excellent actress with a superb range of gradations in her interpretation of this multifaceted character of Helen Brent; Ms. Trevor is the main carrier of the whole movie.

Walter Sleazak (Albert Arnett, the private detective) was a natural actor and he seems to be a real detective, fitting the character as a glove in his professional hand.

Lawrence Tierney (Sam Wilde, the "Born to Kill" of the Title) was very good in his rol, although, reading his biography, it seems that he didn't interpret at all, he was just like that in real life, a very troublesome kind of personality.

Elisha Cook Jr. just walks through the picture, being such an experienced actor, for him this was no challenge at all.

But a special mention must be done for Esther Howard (Mrs. Kraft) who stole the picture every time she appeared on screen.

It must be said that although this kind of movie, when so very well done as is the case of "Born to Kill", with such excellency in the director's chair as Robert Wise in command, can be so immensely entertaining, one has to suspend belief because many, many of the situations are so improbable that they were there because otherwise there was no story to tell.

Lawrence Tierney is "Born to Kill" in this 1947 noir starring Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, Isobel Jewell, Elisha Cook, Jr., and Audrey Long.

Trevor is Helen Brent, a recent divorcée doing her time in Reno when she stumbles upon a woman's (Isabel Jewell) body while trying to return the woman's dog to her house. The victim was a friend of Mrs. Kraft (Esther Howard), the owner of the rooming house where Trevor was staying. Helen leaves the body - and town - without a word to anyone. The murderer is a jealous boyfriend, Sam Wild, (Tierney) who saw Jewell out with another man.

On the train out of town, Wild meets Helen, whom he's already spotted the night before. When he pays her a visit at her home, however, he realizes she's already engaged (to Philip Terry) and goes after her beautiful, wealthy sister (Long) and marries her. But the attraction to Trevor is still there on both sides.

When a detective comes to town (Slezak), hired by Mrs. Kraft, and starts nosing around, Wild knows it's time to take action.

This is a good noir, but unlike some others, the casting of Tierney was troublesome to me. Every woman in the film ooh-ed and ah-ed over him. Now, had it been Robert Mitchum, for me it would have been believable.

Tierney did not have the requisite charm to dazzle an heiress and a staff of servants or the handsome looks to this writer to pull off this character. On top of which, it seemed rather obvious to me that he was wearing a rug.

Well, to each his own, I guess. Trevor does a terrific job as a woman who loves her sister but who desires her husband in spite of herself. Cook turns in his usual good performance as a sycophant friend of Tierney's, and Esther Howard is a Marie Dressler type and very good as the drunken Mrs. Kraft.

Recommended, but you have to buy Tierney as a charming and devilishly handsome killer - I didn't. I kept wanting to pull his rug off and wipe the smirk off his face.

I was delighted when I saw that Quentin Tarantino had given a starring role in his debut film, Reservoir Dogs, to Lawrence Tierney. I had read somewhere a year or two prior to its release that he had been finding it hard to get roles; that invariably he was involved in barroom brawls and , well, that he was difficult. Of course, the role didn't require any great acting ability and it couldn't be said that the big lug had grown old gracefully, but I got the impression that it was in recognition of his services to cult filmdom that he was being rewarded by the new kid on the block.

I first saw Born To Kill in the late 80's on one of those TV channels dedicated to old black and white movies and I was immediately wowed. It was my first sight of Lawrence Tierney and both in his presence and the enthusiasm he brought to his role he certainly made a huge impression. You could never accuse him of being a great actor but he had the perfect bad guy presence: he had the physique and tough look about him that neither Bogart nor the diminutive Raft could touch and, while his features were certainly handsome enough for Hollywood, his smile was too disarming to make him a romantic lead (it reminded me nothing so much as a shark at feeding time). And this role was perfect for him: ruthless, amoral, his character, Sam Wild, was like a steamroller who mowed down anybody, girlfriends, men friends, wives, that stood in his way or upset him. It may well have been the closest to the big leagues that he got and, for me, its the best thing he's ever done (and, under Wise's economic direction, the film could certainly compare favourably with Reservoir Dogs).

The film sits well with all those minor noir classics the late 40's and early 50's with apparent ease: Wise's own The Set-Up; Anthony Mann's Raw Deal and the T-Men, Kiss Of Death, and Ray's masterly debut, They Live By Night.

It's not specified just who the title refers to but it could apply equally and aptly to both Tierney's and his peerless co-star's Claire Trevor (for me the Queen of the noir femme fatales)characters.(In the UK it is titled Lady OF Deceit but in my opinion it does Tierney a disservice by apparently ignoring his contribution to the mayhem).

The story is basically a simple one: Tierney is an ex-boxer who is prone to violent fits of jealousy which erupts with fatal consequences when he spots a girl friend out with another man. Claire Trevor's character discovers the bodies but finds herself attracted to the excitement and danger which she sees Tierney providing for her while recognising his flaws.

He uses Trevor to marry into family money while at the same time needing the thrill of an adulterous affair with her. Of course, that could never work!.

Perversely, I found myself cheering for Tierney and Trevor and hoping that they would find true love (maybe it's because the other loves are such drips), but that could never be in noir. In addition to the stars, it boasts wonderful performances by notorious scene-stealers, Elisha Cook Jr., and Walter Slezak, while Esther Howard is a delight as a boarding house owner who realises that a beach is not always the safest place at night.

Although Robert Wise acquitted himself well in his later big budget films, its in films such as this, the aforementioned Set-Up, and his Val Lewton horror classics that he showed himself to be an economic, effective and underrated director. Not in the Howard Hawks league for versatlity,for sure, but he always told a good story well which more highly-touted directors often found beyond them. While not quite major league noir, its one I turn to regularly and it never disappoints

There are a number of surprises in BORN TO KILL, but the biggest one for me was seeing that the director of this film noir masterpiece was Robert Wise, who gave the world THE SOUND OF MUSIC. I never suspected he was this versatile, although he did do several other "creepy" stories earlier in his career.

Most of the other surprises relate to the twisted elements in the plot. Thanks to a superb cast, the script never lets anyone down and is played to the hilt by the leads, LAWRENCE TIERNEY (even though he only has two expressions) and CLAIRE TREVOR, in full Barbara Stanwyck mode.

PHILIP TERRY is Trevor's stable fiancé who finally realizes that she's a bit too complex for him to handle, in a role much like the one he had in THE LOST WEEKEND where he's Ray Milland's steady and sincere brother.

AUDREY LONG is Trevor's wealthy sister who is attracted immediately to Tierney, who is attracted immediately to her wealth. It's the perfect set-up for a story of corruption, greed and murder among an upper crust society invaded by the likes of Tierney and his friend, ELISHA COOK, JR., who has a more substantial role than usual as Tierney's loyal henchman.

Among other surprises: ESTHER HOWARD as a boozing old lady who knows too much about the murder of a young woman, in a fine performance that almost steals the show. Amusing to see young TOMMY NOONAN as a bellhop playing cards with her, unbilled in a brief scene.

WALTER SLEZAK fails to do much with the role of a corrupt detective with his eye on making a few bucks, surprisingly colorless in what might have been an interesting role.

CLAIRE TREVOR walks off with the acting honors and it's easy to do since she has most of the footage for the length of the film. She's every inch the perfect woman for a femme fatale role, the kind that Barbara Stanwyck could play in her sleep. But Trevor adds a lot more dimension to the role with a very complex portrayal of a woman whose conscience is not yet dead but finds the lure of crime and passion too much to resist. She's perfect.

Summing up: Well worth your time if you're in the mood for a good, tough film noir.

"Born To Kill" is a very unpleasant film.

Its premise is unpleasant, its narrative is unpleasant, its denouement is unpleasant.

Unfortunately it is very well done.

The cast was great, with superlative performances from actors who mostly didn't become household names.

Claire Trevor, who did, was outstanding, looking her best, giving one of her best portrayals.

Elisha Cook, Jr., gives an excellent performance, perhaps the best chance he ever had in movies to shine, to portray a sympathetic character.

Too often he was just someone slimy, unlikable. If his character got bumped off, mostly it was good riddance.

In "Born To Kill" he showed he should have been given more respect in Hollywood, given more and better roles. Elisha Cook's performance is enough reason to watch.

Esther Howard, who made scores of movies, steals nearly every scene she is in. That her character gets so many chances to do so is a tribute to the writers and producers who didn't shortchange the script or its audiences.

Kathryn Card, who later played the mother of Lucy Ricardo on "I Love Lucy," is a maid in "Born To Kill," yet she is such a dominant personality she stands out.

Again it is a tribute to the writers and producers that the character is allowed to do so, to speak lines, to be a visible part of the story.

Other "minor" characters are played by names -- Ellen Corby, for instance, often uncredited except here at IMDb -- who went on to some fame and fortune, and they got a chance, with this script and under the direction of Robert Wise (surely proved a genius over the years), to be more than atmosphere or background.

"Born To Kill" is not fun, but it is something film historians will want to see.

Will agree with those that say that 'Born to Kill' (also called 'Lady of Deceit' in my country, but to me 'Born to Kill' is the much better and more appropriate and less misleading title) is not really film noir, but more a melodrama with mystery and thriller in the mix with some noir-ish elements in the visual atmosphere and the bold approach to the material. As well as the interesting cast, a big interest point was seeing how Robert Wise, best known to me as director of 'West Side Story' and 'The Sound of Music', would fare in a completely different genre.

He fares very well, showing that he was a gifted and versatile director, and while there was room for improvement 'Born to Kill' has a lot to recommend it. Namely an interesting cast giving fine performances (Claire Trevor and Esther Howard particularly), though am aware that opinions on lead actor Lawrence Tierney are more divisive, its boldness and its atmosphere. Can totally see its appeal, while seeing why not everybody will find it their cup of tea.

Trevor is terrific, she is the one that carries the film and does so with riveting intensity. Of the divisive reception for Tierney's performance, most of me leans towards finding him chillingly effective as his truly amoral character, despite some wooden moments when he was warming into the role. There is some great support acting, notably from Howard, giving her character a lot of nuance. Not many people at that time played weaselly characters as well as Elisha Cook Jr, while Audrey Long does well in a standard role.

Moreover, 'Born to Kill' has wonderfully atmospheric photography and lighting, while Wise's direction is accomplished and keeps things tight. Once again, as said, showing his versatility as a director. It is hauntingly scored and leanly scripted. Complete with a mostly wonderfully dark and tense story that is often chillingly uncompromising. The first couple of scenes are especially suspenseful.

On the other hand, 'Born to Kill' can be very melodramatic and contrived, especially towards the end.

Character motivations tended to come over as vague, extreme, introduced abruptly and don't always make sense. Tierney does have wooden moments early on.

In summary, solid. 7/10

I was expecting "Born to Kill" to be an exciting, high-tension film noir. Instead, it's got two good action set-pieces (one at the beginning and one at the end) and some marvelously atmospheric cinematography by Robert de Grasse (usually a "glamor" cameraman and a surprising credit for a noir), but the rest of the film is pretty boring. Lawrence Tierney goes through his psycho kick but it's a strictly by-the-numbers performance, mechanically churning out what the audience expected from him after "Dillinger" (an overrated movie but at least better than this). Claire Trevor's character is too stupid and unmotivated to have any audience appeal, and the action (such as it is) stays so resolutely inside that damned house in San Francisco the film becomes claustrophobic instead of genuinely thrilling. It's one of those movies in which the supporting players -- notably Elisha Cook, Jr. (whose character's homoerotic itch for Tierney's is one of the few subtleties in an otherwise pretty obvious script) and Isabel Jewell -- out-act the leads. It also doesn't help that, nearly half a century after Alfred Hitchcock and Anthony Perkins revolutionized the depiction of psycho killers on the screen in "Psycho," Tierney's is so gross and obvious he might as well have "PSYCHO" tattooed on his forehead. Also, there's no indication in the film as it stands as to why the source novel was called "Deadlier than the Male" -- but perhaps James Gunn made the female characters stronger and more interesting than they are in the film. "Born to Kill" is a real disappointment from Robert Wise, who already had some quality movies under his belt and would go on to a stellar career.