Review: Born to Kill

Recent divorcee Claire Trevor finds two dead bodies, and decides not to stick around, catching the next train to San Francisco. She’s got plans, and isn’t about to let two dead bodies screw that up. On the train she gets to chatting with Lawrence Tierney, not realising that he is in fact the murderer of the two people whose bodies she found. He’s skipping town too, and quickly takes a liking to Trevor, though the feeling doesn’t appear mutual. Or is it? At any rate, Trevor is already engaged to rich dullard Philip Terry, with a lot of money awaiting her once the marriage occurs. But Tierney keeps finding ways to stay in her life, including marrying Trevor’s adopted sister (Audrey Long), despite continuing in his pursuit of Trevor. Meanwhile, Tierney’s old buddy Elisha Cook Jr. turns up, he being the one who suggested he leave for San Francisco in the first place. Also skulking about is an insinuating, if cheerful private detective (Walter Slezak), hired by one of the murder victims’ landlord (a frequently drunk woman played by Esther Howard).

 

Also known as “Deadlier Than the Male”, this 1947 B-grade crime/noir from director Robert Wise (“The Body Snatcher”, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”, “The Haunting”) kinda sneaks up on you. The performances are mostly terrific, but the characters and the film itself get increasingly dark and twisted the longer the film goes on, giving it a little extra something. The relationship between Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor, in addition to some rather noticeable subtext to the Tierney/Elisha Cook Jr. relationship, is rather mature for the time I must say.

 

It’s so strange for me to see Tierney as a young (ish) man here, having grown up on his later roles like “Reservoir Dogs” and Elaine’s intimidating father on “Seinfeld”. Even here, he’s a tough sonofabitch with a really intimidating stare and a predisposition for violence. ‘Glowering stare’ might just be this guy’s default setting. He has a way about him in this that suggests he’s always on the verge of smacking someone in the face repeatedly with a scolding hot iron. He also, on a more subtle level, has a bluntness with dialogue that’s just unsettling enough. This guy is just a little too direct and a little too pushy. It’s a nice creepy performance without going over-the-top. Jack Palance is the only other actor I could’ve seen in this part, and he didn’t make his debut for a few more years (Besides, Tierney may not have been entirely acting. Dude’s real-life intimidating behaviour is legendary). Claire Trevor is good too, as a character who frankly isn’t all that much more admirable than Tierney’s. In fact, the film makes it pretty clear that they are very much two peas in a sociopathic pod (Not to mention two ‘white trash’ trying to marry into higher society). Veteran character actor Elisha Cook Jr. doesn’t play a wimp (The naïve husband in “The Killing”, the scared little guy in “House on Haunted Hill”), or ‘chicken hawk’ (The gunsel who gets outmatched by Bogey in “The Maltese Falcon”, the little homesteader getting outgunned by Jack Palance in “Shane”), for a change here. Instead he plays Tierney’s loyal buddy (and very possibly his prison ‘cellmate’ to put it rather euphemistically) who has perhaps chosen the wrong guy to stay loyal to. You know his character is gonna end up in a sorry state, for starters he’s played by Elisha Cook Jr., but also because Tierney has such a volcanic hair-trigger temper. Cook is rock-solid as always in the role, though I was even more impressed by Walter Slezak, who despite playing a private detective investigating a murder, is also rather sleazy and blackmailing. He’s terrifically sly and clearly enjoying himself. I also have to single out a bizarro supporting turn by Esther Howard, who I swear seems legit drunk in every scene, but might just be a really convincing on-screen drunk. Whichever it is, she certainly fascinates on a slightly sleazy, pathetic level (yet she’s the most sympathetic character in the entire film!). Meanwhile, the character played by Philip Terry, gets my vote for Weakest Secondary Male Lead of All-Time. He’s so hilariously weak that he makes Ashley Wilkes from “Gone With the Wind” seem like a John Wayne character. That’s not necessarily a flaw, mind you, just a very amusing observation whenever he and brutally macho Tierney share the screen. Although it’s clearly not an A-grade film, Wise’s films always tended to look pretty good (He’s an extremely underrated director when you look at his filmography). That’s the case here as cinematographer Robert de Grasse (“The Body Snatcher”, “Vigil in the Night”) gives us some nice use of shadows throughout.

 

This is no world beater, but it’s a tough, unpleasant, and darker than usual noir that certainly makes it stand out. A bunch of good performances help too. Based on a James Gunn novel (screenwriter of “The Young Philadelphians”, co-screenwriter of “Harriet Craig” starring Joan Crawford), the screenplay is by Eve Greene (“Tugboat Annie”) and Richard Macaulay (who wrote the novel that turned into the minor crime flick “The Good Die Young”).

 

Rating: B-