Born to Kill (1947)

Film: Born to Kill (1947)

Stars: Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry, Audrey Long, Elisha Cook, Jr., Esther Howard

Director: Robert Wise

Oscar History: No nominations

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

Throughout the month of June we will be doing a Film Noir Movie Marathon, featuring fifteen film noir classics that I'll be seeing for the first time.  Reviews of other film noir classics are at the bottom of this article.

Throughout the many years of this series, we have encountered a lot of actors who were huge names in Hollywood, both then-and-now.  Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, Harry Belafonte, Kirk Douglas...big glossy names that are synonymous with the Classical Hollywood period.  But not all leading players survive into modern consciousness, and that isn't because they don't have great stories behind them.  The name that you're probably noticing from that call sheet above is Oscar Winner Claire Trevor, and surely Trevor is one of the great femme fatales of the 1940's.  But the name you should be noticing is Lawrence Tierney.  Tierney became a star after the 1945 surprise hit Dillinger, and for a brief time in the following years was a leading man, mostly in crime or noir pictures.  But Tierney was also a menace off-screen, getting arrested 12 times during the time that he was a headliner, frequently for violent assaults that almost certainly destroyed any chance he had at getting into the true A-list or getting the kinds of opportunities (like Oscar-winning films) that his costar Trevor would get.  One of Tierney's most famous films at the time was Born to Kill, our picture today.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie looks at Helen Brant (Trevor), who is fresh off of a divorce and staying out the waiting period in Reno until it's official.  Unbeknownst to her, one of the women that live at her flat has been killed by her jealous boyfriend Sam (Tierney), and he is on the run on the same train that Helen is on.  Both Helen & Sam are broke, but her foster sister Georgia (Long) is not, and has a large fortune that Sam (and, for anyone paying attention, Helen) both have their eyes on, with Sam pursuing Georgia romantically, but clearly still intent on ending up with Helen.  All of this is happening while the police are looking into the death of the first woman, which Helen has realized must have been Sam.  The film culminates in a shootout, with Helen confessing all of the plan to Georgia, but in the process getting herself killed by Sam, who is then shot by the police.

The film is quite interesting, and I get why this is a respected deep cut (that 3-star rating up top is a 3.5 on Letterboxd, so I like it better than I'm letting on).  Trevor is such a good actress that it's a bummer her part isn't written with a bit more malice; she does a really good job of being abjectly horny for Tierney's Sam, basically squandering everything she's worked for just to get into bed with him.  But there's not enough background to her-I think a bit more writing would've made this a more classic femme fatale part, and maybe a better movie.  As it is, she's strong, but not as strong as someone like Esther Howard as her bawdy landlady, who steals the picture wholesale.

Tierney's also solid, though given his offscreen persona it's hard not to wonder if part of the menace of his role is knowing that he was like this in real-life (were it not for Tom Neal, Tierney would be the most appropriately true-to-life actor in classic film noir).  Tierney, it's worth noting, would get dozens of chances in Hollywood before his death in 2002 at the age of 82, including in a key role in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs.  In proof that people don't actually change, Tarantino cast him as an homage to an Old Hollywood long dead...but before the end of filming, had gotten into a fistfight with Tierney and the two never worked together again.

1940's: Act of Violence, The Big Sleep, The Blue Dahlia, Blues in the Night, Brighton Rock, Criss Cross, Crossfire, Daisy Kenyon, Dead Reckoning, Detour, Fallen Angel, The Fallen Idol, Force of Evil, Gilda, High Sierra, I Walk Alone, I Wake Up Screaming, The Killers, The Lady from Shanghai, Leave Her to Heaven, Ministry of Fear, Moonrise, Murder My Sweet, Nightmare Alley, Out of the Past, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Raw Deal, The Reckless Moment, Ride the Pink Horse, Scarlet Street, Sorry, Wrong Number, The Strange Love of Martha Ivers, Stranger on the Third Floor, They Drive By Night, They Won't Believe Me, Too Late for Tears, The Woman in the Window, The Woman on the Beach

1950's: Ace in the Hole, Affair in Trinidad, The Asphalt Jungle, Beat the Devil, The Big Combo, The Big Heat, The Blue Gardenia, The Breaking Point, The Burglar, Cast a Dark Shadow, The Crimson Kimono, Elevator to the Gallows, Gun Crazy, The Hitch-Hiker, House of Bamboo, In a Lonely Place, Julie, The Killing, Kiss Me Deadly, Lightning Strikes Twice, Murder by Contract, Night and the City, Odds Against Tomorrow, On Dangerous Ground, Pickup on South Street, The Prowler, Slightly Scarlet, Sudden Fear, Sweet Smell of Success, They Live By Night, While the City Sleeps

Neo-Noir: Blade Runner, Body Heat, Farewell My Lovely, Fargo, From Afar, The Late Show, The Long Goodbye, Lost Highway, Night Moves, Nightcrawler, Le Samourai