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The Killing (1956) ft. Peterson W. Hill

  • Writer: Thomas Duncan
    Thomas Duncan
  • May 20
  • 4 min read

Guest:


Cast:

  • Stanley Kubrick, Writer/Director

  • Lucien Ballard, Cinematography

  • Betty Steinberg, Editing

  • Gerald Fried, Music

  • Sterling Hayden as Johnny Clay

  • Coleen Gray as Fay

  • Vince Edwards as Val Cannon

  • Jay C. Flippen as Marvin Unger

  • Elisha Cook Jr. as George Peatty

  • Marie Windsor as Sherry Peatty

  • Ted de Corsia as Policeman Randy Kennan

  • Joe Sawyer as Mike O'Reilly

  • James Edwards as Track Parking Attendant

  • Timothy Carey as Nikki Arcane

  • Tito Vuolo as Joe "Piano"

  • Joe Turkel as "Tiny"

  • Jay Adler as Leo, The Loanshark

  • Kola Kwariani as Maurice Oboukhoff

  • Dorothy Adams as Mrs. Ruthie O'Reilly

  • Art Gilmore as The Narrator


Background:

  • Based on Clean Break by Lionel White, The Killing was released on May 19, 1956.

  • On a budget of $320,000, the Killing is said to have collected a loss of $130,000.

  • Critics were effusive in their praise for Kubrick's vision and techniques both at the time and in the decades to follow. Some have even included the film among Kubrick's best.

  • The Killing currently holds a 96% among critics on RT, a 91 score on Metacritic, and a 4/5 on Letterboxd.


Plot Summary: The Killing is a tense crime thriller about a carefully planned racetrack robbery that slowly falls apart because of bad luck, greed, and human mistakes. Sterling Hayden plays Johnny Clay, a smart criminal who gathers a group of men to help him steal money from a horse racing track. Each member of the team has a specific job, and the plan seems nearly perfect. As the robbery moves forward, Kubrick shows the events from different points of view, building suspense as the audience sees how every detail connects. Problems begin when one man’s reckless actions and another man’s jealous wife threaten the entire operation.


Did You Know:

  • Sterling Hayden was paid $40,000 for his lead role (Jack Palance and Victor Mature were both considered for the part). Stanley Kubrick took no fee as director of the film.

  • The location where Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) proposes the deal to Maurice Oboukhoff (Kola Kwariani) is a mock-up of the 42nd Street Chess and Checker Parlor in New York City. Director Stanley Kubrick was a regular chess player there, as was Kola.

  • The narration was added at the studio's insistence. Stanley Kubrick hated the idea and thus makes much of the information that the narrator provides false or mistaken.

  • The total budget for the film was $320,000. United Artists put up $200,000 and the rest was raised by producer James B. Harris. This was a paltry budget for a feature even by 1950s "B" picture standards.

  • This was the first film on which Stanley Kubrick worked with a cinematographer. The eminent Lucien Ballard was hired (at rather less than his usual fee) because Kubrick was officially working on a film union production for the first time, which meant he could not be both director and cinematographer, as he had been in the past. The two often did not agree on camera and lighting matters. Relations between them became so strained that Ballard stopped going to the dailies.

  • Clay states that they might make off with $2 million in this 1956 heist movie. That would be equivalent to over $23 million in 2025.


Best Performance: Stanley Kubrick (Writer/Director)

Best Secondary Performance: Lucien Ballard (Cinematography)/Sterling Hayden (Johnny)

Most Charismatic Award: Sterling Hayden (Johnny)/Lucien Ballard (Cinematography)/Jay C. Flippen (Marvin)

Best Scene:

  • Outlining the Plan

  • Sherry

  • Shooting Red Lightning

  • Meetup After

  • Airport

Favorite Scene: Outlining the Plan/Shooting Red Lightning

Most Indelible Moment: Shooting Red Lightning/Airport


In Memorium:


Best Lines/Funniest Lines:

Johnny Clay: You'd be killing a horse - that's not first degree murder, in fact it's not murder at all, in fact I don't know what it is.


Sherry Peatty: It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you. Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke without a punch line.


Maurice: You have my sympathies, then. You have not yet learned that in this life you have to be like everyone else - the perfect mediocrity; no better, no worse. Individuality's a monster and it must be strangled in its cradle to make our friends feel confident. You know, I've often thought that the gangster and the artist are the same in the eyes of the masses. They are admired and hero-worshipped, but there is always a present underlying wish to see them destroyed at the peak of their glory.


Johnny Clay: You know Fay, the biggest mistake I made before was shooting for peanuts. Five years have taught me one thing, if nothing else: Anytime you take a chance, you better be sure the rewards are worth the risk. Because they could put you away just as fast for a $10 heist as they can for a million dollar job.


Johnny Clay: Like the man said, "Life is like a glass of tea." Huh?

Maurice: Oh, Johnny, my friend, you never were very bright; but, I love you anyway.


Johnny Clay: None of these men are criminals in the usual sense. They've all got jobs. They all live seemingly normal, decent lives. But, they've got their problems and they've all got a little larceny in 'em.


Fay: Johnny, you've got to run!

Johnny Clay: Eh, what's the difference?


The Stanley Rubric:

Legacy: 5.67

Impact/Significance: 4.67

Novelty: 9

Classic-ness: 8.33

Rewatchability: 6

Audience Score: 8.1 (70% Google, 92% RT)

Total: 41.77


Remaining Questions:

  • How many factors had to be just right for everything to go wrong?

  • What happened to Marvin?

  • Is Maurice the only one to get out ahead?

  • How did Johnny recruit this group?

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