Born to Kill

"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.

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.

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.

.... 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.

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.