Atraco perfecto

There is a plan that just can't fail no matter what, take the racetrack's banked cash roll, take all it's got, everybody knows their place, where to be for the big race, then where to gather, to take their share, of the big pot.

A piece of cinema magic that to this day leaves you astounded at the brilliance of the writer/director, amazed at the sensational performances by some truly great actors, and as engaged as you could ever hope to be with a story that nestles nicely in the age and the era from which it was born, an accomplishment that so many films of that time fail to achieve when revisited.

Although Jack Palance and Victor Mature would have been perfectly good in the lead role I was surprised that Sterling Hayden was a third choice after them to play the lead in The Killing. Given his performance in The Asphalt Jungle I would have thought Hayden would have been a first choice for fledgling director Stanley Kubrick.

Hayden was in the muscle end in The Asphalt Jungle, but in The Killing he's doing some planning as well. What he's got planned is an intricate robbery of a racetrack with crooked cop Ted DeCorsia, track bartender Joe Sawyer, Jay C. Flippen, and parimutuel clerk Elisha Cook, Jr. Each has a most specific job that is timed to the split second. In addition Timothy Carey and Kola Kwariani have some jobs to perform that are unknown to the others and are getting a flat fee off the top for what they do.

Cook hasn't got his head in the game though. Who would with two timing high maintenance dame Marie Windsor as a wife. She learns enough to tip her boyfriend Vincent Edwards off to the scheme. Coleen Gray has the Jean Hagen role as Hayden's loyal girl friend.

The robbery comes off pretty good, the scenes are done in the same manner as The Asphalt Jungle. Of course the usual problems involving the split and the getaway occur. A lot of that is taken from The Asphalt Jungle as well.

The film was shot in and around Bay Meadows racetrack so it looks very real. Stanley Kubrick got such good reviews for this and deservedly so that Kirk Douglas hired him to direct the much bigger budgeted Paths of Glory. A career was born.

The Killing is a finely edited and finely crafted piece of movie making. It's both a noir and a caper film and succeeds at both. The characters are realistic in a realistic setting. Everybody here can be proud of their participation.

There's little to fault in Stanley Kubrick's classic robbery tale. The acting is first-rate with Marie Windsor, as Mrs. Peaty, a sarcastic stand-out. The story just pops off the screen - and at less than 90 minutes, there's literally no filler. I love the winding time line ("earlier that day" etc.), which has been liberally utilized by Quentin Tarantino (Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs). This film was made right before Kubrick's WWI marvel, Paths of Glory, and his genius is apparent in both. No wasted words or actions. Love that last line!

The Killing is a film whose legacy can still be seen in many films today. This film is not only Stanley Kubrick's first acclaimed film, but it is also credited with inventing the concept of non-linear story telling for the film industry. Some recent films that have used this technique are Reservior Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Go, Wonderland and The Usual Suspects.

The story deals with a motley crew of assorted criminals, inside men, and average joes just looking to get their hands on a large sum of money by stealing it from a racetrack. Sterling Hayden plays Johnny Clay, a hardened criminal who just finished serving a five-year prison sentence. He is the ringleader of the bunch who is determined to only go for the big heists from now on. He figures they can put you away for stealing ten dollars as easily as ten million, so what have you got to lose? The rest of the crew are mostly average people with average problems, as Clay explains early on. Some of them work at the track. One is a crooked cop. Two are hardened criminals added at the last minute to cause diversions. Everything has been timed and planned out to the letter. Of course in a film like this, things never go as planned. It wouldn't be entertaining if they did.

The killing was made on a budget of well below half a million dollars, and it shows. The film looks cheap at times, but the story is more than enough to make you forgive its financial shortcomings. The acting is nothing too special. Hayden is strong and resourceful as Johnny Clay, but he's pretty wooden. Elisha Cook Jr. is pretty good as a hen-pecked husband who is taking part in the scheme to impress his high-maintenance wife. If this film were re-cast today, you'd have to think of William H. Macy to play this character. Timothy Carey is always memorable, even with such a small part like the one he has here. Such a strange-looking guy! He gets the most interesting assignment of all the people in on the heist.

You can really tell this was made fifty years ago. Even though there are hardened criminals and low-lifes in nearly every scene, nobody ever says the F-word! There is, however, a fairly gory shootout in one scene which you normally didn't find in films back then. The killing was ahead of its time in more ways than one, I guess. Please be sure to check this one out! 8 of 10 stars.

The Hound.

The non-linear storytelling, overused nowadays even when it does not make any sense, is key to this taught thriller, narrated almost as a documentary.

Besides, despite the non-linear structure, the plot is very easy to follow, thanks to the narrator who tells the audience everything from the time of the day to the details about the gang involved in the audacious heist at the races.

It does't hurt that main character Johnny Clay is played by one of my favourite actors, Sterling Hayden, in a role that reminds me of his doomed character in The Asphalt Jungle. Clay is a coincise, world-wary character who planned the heist to the last detail, unfortunately missing the "human factor".

As it's customary in stories about failed heists, there's always one detail that is either unknown or unpredictable, but important enough to wreak havoc even in the most perfect plan.

Perhaps my favourite Kubrick's movie, with a tight script, excellent cast and no-nonsense approach.