Killing

Pros: Script, Direction, Ensemble Cast, Cinematography, Score
Cons: One of the finest films noir, hard to find fault with this one

The Killing (1956) "You like money. You've got a great big dollar sign there where most women have a heart." Johnny Clay What would you do if you could take a chance on a big score, make a killing, and never have to worry about money again? ...

Pros: the best noir dialogue in any flick
Cons: bleak and without any hope

Any frequent flyer will wince at the decision made by Sterling Hayden playing the criminal Johnny Clay in The Killing when he decides to check his suitcase that he has stuffed to capacity with ill-gotten dollars from a race track heist.  At the ...

Pros: A good example of Stanley Kubrick in his nascent stage
Cons: A slow moving first half, some hammy acting

Stanley Kubrick's first unqualified success, "The Killing", follows a group of ordinary men intent on robbing a racetrack. It plays like an engrossing crime-doc, complete with a clinical, newsman-style voice-over narration, an endless amount of footage...

Pros: Good enough story, good character actors.
Cons: The movie's focus is odd. . .

The heist movie was invented in the fifties, with Jules Dassin's Rififi (1954) and Jean-Pierre Melville's Bob Le Flambeur (1955). Both movies focused on a central character who was middle-aged, rough around the edges, and the most honorable of thieves. ...

Pros: Hayden and Windsor
Cons: It just never grabbed me

After suffering through Eyes Wide Shut, with only one eye on the screen most the time, I decided to investigate the legend that is Stanley Kubrick. Unable to get a copy of his first movie Fear and Desire, I settled for 1956’s The...

Pros: Darn near perfect film
Cons: Overuse of one piece of stock footage - barely a problem

Did you like The Usual Suspects? Did you like Pulp Fiction? Did you like Reservoir Dogs? Sensing a pattern here? If you liked any of those movies, (especially Dogs) then you need to see the early Stanley Kubrick (The Shining, Clockwork Orange, 2001, and...

Pros: script, direction, editing, suspense
Cons: characters not always well developed

"The Killing" was the breakthrough film for
director/screenwriter Stanley Kubrick. His
first few films were obscure and low budget,
but for "The Killing" he was given more to
work with: a better cast and a...

Pros: Good noir film, interesting plot
Cons: Not genre-transcending like many other Kubrick films

This early film from Stanley Kubrick is one that any of the director's fans, or any fan of mysteries, should not miss. Sterling Hayden, who would later star in "Dr. Strangelove", plays Johnny Clay, a con-man just released from prison with a...