[go: up one dir, main page]

    Release calendarTop 250 moviesMost popular moviesBrowse movies by genreTop box officeShowtimes & ticketsMovie newsIndia movie spotlight
    What's on TV & streamingTop 250 TV showsMost popular TV showsBrowse TV shows by genreTV news
    What to watchLatest trailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb SpotlightFamily entertainment guideIMDb Podcasts
    EmmysSuperheroes GuideSan Diego Comic-ConSummer Watch GuideBest Of 2025 So FarDisability Pride MonthSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll events
    Born todayMost popular celebsCelebrity news
    Help centerContributor zonePolls
For industry professionals
  • Language
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Watchlist
Sign in
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
Use app
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • FAQ
IMDbPro

Né pour tuer

Original title: Born to Kill
  • 1947
  • 16
  • 1h 32m
IMDb RATING
7.2/10
6.5K
YOUR RATING
Walter Slezak, Lawrence Tierney, and Claire Trevor in Né pour tuer (1947)
Film NoirCrimeDramaThriller

A calculating divorcée risks her chances at wealth and security with a man she doesn't love by getting involved with the hotheaded murderer romancing her foster sister.A calculating divorcée risks her chances at wealth and security with a man she doesn't love by getting involved with the hotheaded murderer romancing her foster sister.A calculating divorcée risks her chances at wealth and security with a man she doesn't love by getting involved with the hotheaded murderer romancing her foster sister.

  • Director
    • Robert Wise
  • Writers
    • Eve Greene
    • Richard Macaulay
    • James Gunn
  • Stars
    • Claire Trevor
    • Lawrence Tierney
    • Walter Slezak
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.2/10
    6.5K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writers
      • Eve Greene
      • Richard Macaulay
      • James Gunn
    • Stars
      • Claire Trevor
      • Lawrence Tierney
      • Walter Slezak
    • 125User reviews
    • 48Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos65

    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    View Poster
    + 59
    View Poster

    Top cast42

    Edit
    Claire Trevor
    Claire Trevor
    • Helen Brent
    Lawrence Tierney
    Lawrence Tierney
    • Sam Wild
    Walter Slezak
    Walter Slezak
    • Albert Arnett
    Phillip Terry
    Phillip Terry
    • Fred Grover
    Audrey Long
    Audrey Long
    • Georgia
    Elisha Cook Jr.
    Elisha Cook Jr.
    • Marty Waterman
    Isabel Jewell
    Isabel Jewell
    • Laury Palmer
    Esther Howard
    Esther Howard
    • Mrs. Kraft
    Kathryn Card
    Kathryn Card
    • Grace
    Tony Barrett
    Tony Barrett
    • Danny
    Grandon Rhodes
    Grandon Rhodes
    • Police Inspector Wilson
    Demetrius Alexis
    • Maitre d'Hotel
    • (uncredited)
    Symona Boniface
    Symona Boniface
    • Gambler at Roulette Table
    • (uncredited)
    Ruth Brennan
    • Sally
    • (uncredited)
    George Bruggeman
    George Bruggeman
    • Club Patron
    • (uncredited)
    James Carlisle
    • Wedding Guest
    • (uncredited)
    Ellen Corby
    Ellen Corby
    • Second Maid
    • (uncredited)
    Sayre Dearing
    Sayre Dearing
    • Gambler
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Robert Wise
    • Writers
      • Eve Greene
      • Richard Macaulay
      • James Gunn
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews125

    7.26.4K
    1
    2
    3
    4
    5
    6
    7
    8
    9
    10

    Featured reviews

    7alice liddell

    Can the same man have directed THE SOUND OF MUSIC?!

    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.
    6Ham_and_Egger

    The femme fatal meets her match.

    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.
    GManfred

    Tierney Never Did Musical Comedy ....

    .... 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.
    8BaronBl00d

    Why Wasn't Lawrence Tierney a Bigger Star?

    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.
    9secondtake

    "You're the coldest iceberg of a woman..." and she's a thrill to watch

    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.

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This film did poorly at the box office, resulting in a loss of $243,000 (over $3.45M in 2024) for RKO according to studio records.
    • Goofs
      They took a train from Reno, Nevada to San Francisco, California, but the shot of the train coming at the camera head-on is a Pennsylvania Railroad streamlined K4 locomotive on their four-track mainline in Pennsylvania.
    • Quotes

      Delivery Boy: My, that coffee smells good. Ain't it funny how coffee never tastes as good as it smells?

      Albert Arnett: As you grow older, you'll discover that life is very much like coffee: the aroma is always better than the actuality. May that be your thought for the day.

    • Alternate versions
      There is an Italian edition of this film on DVD, distributed by DNA Srl: "MARLOWE: MURDER, MY SWEET (L'ombra del passato, 1944) + PERFIDO INGANNO (1947)" (2 Films on a single DVD), re-edited with the contribution of film historian Riccardo Cusin. This version is also available for streaming on some platforms.
    • Connections
      Edited into The Green Fog (2017)
    • Soundtracks
      I Haven't a Thing to Wear
      (uncredited)

      Music by Harry Revel

      Tune on the radio when Helen discovers the bodies

    Top picks

    Sign in to rate and Watchlist for personalized recommendations
    Sign in

    FAQ15

    • How long is Born to Kill?Powered by Alexa

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • August 11, 1948 (France)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Languages
      • English
      • Latin
      • French
    • Also known as
      • Born to Kill
    • Filming locations
      • Washoe County Courthouse - 117 South Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada, USA(Helen says "goodbye" to her divorce lawyer on courthouse steps at start of film)
    • Production company
      • RKO Radio Pictures
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 32 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    Walter Slezak, Lawrence Tierney, and Claire Trevor in Né pour tuer (1947)
    Top Gap
    By what name was Né pour tuer (1947) officially released in India in English?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    Sign in for more accessSign in for more access
    Follow IMDb on social
    Get the IMDb App
    For Android and iOS
    Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • License IMDb Data
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Your Ads Privacy Choices
    IMDb, an Amazon company

    © 1990-2025 by IMDb.com, Inc.