Born to Kill (1947)

Born to Kill (1947)

starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor, Walter Slezak

directed by Robert Wise

screenplay based on the novel Deadlier than the Male by James Gunn

Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) is getting ready to leave Reno, after getting divorced, when an acquaintance gets murdered. She finds the body but decides against notifying the police and heads to the train station where she crosses paths with Sam (Lawrence Tierney), the killer, for the second time. She met him earlier that night in a casino. He was throwing dice. She first bet on him and then she bet against him.

Helen and Sam are both headed to San Francisco. They spend the train trip together. Sam is interested in staying in touch but Helen doesn't seem to feel the same. Helen returns to the home where she lives with Georgia, her foster sister. It isn't long before Sam shows up. He takes an interest in Georgia when he finds out that Helen is engaged and that her sister is single and rich.

Helen tells Georgia about the bodies she found and why she didn't tell the police.

Sam and Georgia get married. Marty (Elisha Cook, Jr.), a friend of Sam from Reno, moves to San Francisco. He tries to help Sam when Arnett (Walter Slezak), a private investigator, starts poking around, looking into the murder that happened in Reno.

Sam gets jealous of Marty when he learns that he spoke to Helen, in private, and kills him. Marty was trying to kill Mrs. Kraft, who hired Arnett. Mrs. Kraft gets away but Helen goes after her and finishes the job that Marty started but not by killing her.

Mrs. Kraft doesn't go to the police but Arnett does when Helen can't come up with the money to pay him off. Helen, knowing that the police are coming for Sam, warns Georgia about it. Georgia wants to help Sam even though the charge is murder. Helen tricks Sam, in front of Georgia, into revealing that they have engaged in a romantic relationship. Sam gets angry and shoots at Helen as she runs away. The police show up in time to shoot and kill Sam but not before he kills Helen.

Notes

This is the third movie that Claire Trevor is in that I watched in 2022. The other two are Stagecoach (1939) and Borderline (1950). She was also in Key Largo which I saw in the 1980s. She won an Academy Award for her performance in that movie. I should probably see it again, along with the other Bogart and Bacall movies.

I think Reservoir Dogs (1992) is the first thing in which I saw Lawrence Tierney. He also played Elaine's father in an episode of Seinfeld. I'm not sure that there is anything else in his filmography that I have seen.

I'm pretty sure that I have seen a few movies that featured or starred Walter Slezak. I think I saw The Princess and the Pirate (1944) and The Inspector General (1949). He also played Clock King on two episodes of the Batman TV show of the 1960s. I might have seen them at some point in the past.

Elisha Cook, Jr. plays the part of Marty. I've seen him in a number of things including I Wake Up Screaming (1941), The Maltese Falcon (1941), The Big Sleep (1946), One-Eyed Jacks (1961). He was also in a couple episodes of the Batman TV show of the 1960s and an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. 

This is the third of four movies from this year’s Noir City DC Film Festival at the AFI that I watched. The theme of the 2022 festival is “They Tried to Warn Us”.

Thoughts

Wow! What a twisted story. He's crazy for her and she's crazy for him but they are also both very possessive. It seems to me that this is what does them in. Their desires for control prevent them from seeing the damage they are causing themselves and one another.  They are poor. They need what Fred and Georgia can provide them monetarily. They are incapable of striking a balance. Their egos or their hearts won't allow them to try and find the balance point.

I watched this movie twice, once at the theater and then I rented it and watched it online. There's a lot of little moments in this movie. Some of them slipped past me during the first viewing. I had trouble seeing where it was all going the first time around. She’s in love with him but he marries her sister. She protects him but in the end she turns on him and her sister.

This movie is less than perfect but there's a lot here to like. I'm not sure that it all adds up in the end but I could see myself giving it another try, someday down the road.

I like the central performances by Claire Trevor and Lawrence Tierney. I found the mood music to be distracting during the first viewing.

Lawrence Tierney gets top billing but Claire Trevor is the central character. She is the one that the story revolves around. She is the one who seems to have some agency to decide but in the end, like him, she seems to be driven by her passions, whatever form they take, and is unable to find a path that gets her what she wants out of life.