Born to Kill (1947)

Born to Kill
Directed by Robert Wise
Written by Eva Greene and Richard Macaulay based on the novel by James Gunn
1947/USA
RKO Radio Pictures
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Marty Waterman: You can’t just go around killing people when the notion strikes you. It’s just not feasible.[/box]

Born to Kill is a real noir lovers noir. Everyone in it is either bad to the bone or a complete chump. A ton of fun.

The movie begins on the day Helen’s (Claire Trevor) Reno divorce comes through.  She has been living in a Reno boarding house run by boozy ex-glamor girl Mrs. Kraft (the fantastic Esther Howard).  The other tenant is Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell).  The three ladies sit around and bitch about men.  That night Laury plans to step out on her new boyfriend, Sam, with her ex-boyfriend in order to make Sam jealous.  It turns out that Sam is Lawrence Tierney and this is a bad, bad move.

Helen is the one that discovers the bodies.  She thinks better of calling the police and immediately takes off for San Francisco by train.  Sam is leaving on the same train and it is lust at first sight.  In San Francisco, they talk about getting together later.

Helen is coming home  to the mansion in which she lives with her wealthy foster sister Georgia (Audrey Long).  She reunites with wealthy but square fiance Fred.  Before long, Sam comes calling and hears the wedding plans.  He sets about wooing Georgia in revenge.  The gullible heiress is swept off her feet.

In the meantime, Mrs. Kraft hires sleazy private detective Arnett (Walter Slezak) to track down Laury’s killer.  This is a bible-quoting cynic who runs his office from the borrowed phone of a diner and will do anything to make a buck.  He gets his lead by observing Sam’s best, possibly only, friend Marty (Elisha Cook, Jr.) hanging around key locations to make sure there is nothing to tie Sam to the crime.  Arnett sets off for San Francisco and starts asking questions while working as a dishwasher during Georgia’s wedding.

The wedding vows are still warming the lips of the happy couple when Sam walks in on Helen drowning her sorrows in champagne and after some snappy sparring they are kissing.  I will not spoil the trail of delicious double crosses, vengeance, and dirty fighting that make up the rest of the film

When one of the most sympathetic characters in the film is somebody that goes after an old lady with a knife, you know you are watching film noir.  I don’t know which is better, the dialogue or the acting.  Most of these folks are giving career best performances.  A real treat and recommended.

I watched both this and Kiss of Death with my husband.  He liked Kiss of Death better, saying it was more human.  He’s right, but I’d probably go with this one.  I don’t know what that says about me!

The DVD has a commentary by Eddie Muller and Robert Wise. Noir guru Muller ended up kind of baby sitting Tierney at screenings when the latter was in his 80’s. He had many priceless anecdotes.  My favorite was when he was at a screening where Wise was doing a Q&A and answering a bunch of auteur type questions about why he decided to this and that. Tierney kept muttering “It was all in the script.” Finally, he stands up and says “Who wrote the f%*#! script Bob?”  The actor was a piece of work and not too far from the tough guys he played, even at an advanced age.

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