5/5 a "B" masterpiece
  by Steven Sica (New York City)
One of my favorite movies of all times, I've probably seen it over 100 times since 1973 and I never tire of it. My dad introduced me to this film, and told me that I had to pay very careful attention to it [because of the overlapping flashbacks via which the robbery sequence is told]. I was puzzled at first, but caught on quickly enough, and even at the age of 16 I knew i was watching something special which would withstand the test of time.

It is amazing that 40 years later Quentin Tarantino would be praised, as if he was the second coming of Orson Welles, for employing a similar non-linear narrative in "Pulp Fiction." The latter is bigger, more contemporary, but compared to "The Killing" it's clear how shallow and how empty PF really is, just a triumph of glitzy style over substance.

"The Kiling" has it's faults, especially the penultimate scene when the robbers are in turn [almost] robbed by Vince Edwards and Joe Turkel, and Elisha Cooke Jr., the victim of cuckolding at the hands of Edwards, touchs off a shootout which ends ina bloodbath. The final scene at the airpiort with the stupid little dog is unforgettable, but likewise unconvincing. After executing an elaborate robbery [actually, it's a fairly simple robbery, it's the non-linear narrative which makes it seem much more complex than it really is], Sterling Hayden is caught because he stuffs the cash into an ultra-shoddy second-hand valise? Why not have bought a new one? Or left the cash in the duffel bag and just shoved that duffel bag into the valise? Or bought some electricians' tape or plumbers' tape and securely sealed the valise? Yeah, we know, than the film could not have ended as the downer that it did.

A must see for all fans of B movies, crime drama, film noir [thought it's not strictly speaking of that genre] and the works of Kubrick. An excellent investment of just under 90 minutes of your time.

The DVD release is a relative disappointment. A movie which cries out forextensive Special Features, in particular feature commentary by any noted film critic or film historian [in particular guys like Alain Silver or James Ursini or Eddie Meuller who have done so many commentary tracks for the Fox film noir release] has none. That's a real shame. Perhaps it will be rectified in future versions of this DVD reelase. I for one hope so.

5/5 That's what I'm talking about
  by The Queen of Noirs (Santa Clara, CA USA)
This is the real deal, a classic noir with all the elements: a nasty-assed femme fatale who sets up the denouement with her greedy scheming; a spineless feckless husband manipulated by his weakness, and a frozen, soulless anti-hero. Filmed in and around San Francisco the movie feels gritty and tense and claustrophobic. I have seen this movie many times, but the ending still causes me to jump and to exclaim profanities. Excellent! Love that!

Our story: a recently released con hatches a plan to knock over the local race track. He chats up his henchmen, one who spills the plan to his unhappy wife, who spills the details to her boyfriend. Wifey and boy toy decide they want the money for themselves, and their involvement causes it all to go wrong after the heist has been completed. Ex-con grabs mousy hunny and they try to run off with the money, but fate intervenes.

This is a top drawer noir that has stood the test of time. Highly recommended.

4/5 The master plan
  by Jay Dickson (Portland, OR)
Stanley's Kubrick's third feature film made such a big splash that it has often been mistaken for his first, and is a particularly well constructed heist film that shows the complex planning involved in a big racetrack robbery at many stages before and after the crime. Like his previous film, KILLER'S KISS, Kubrick (working here with the classic crime writer Jim Thompson), employs a very complex narrative time scheme that involves multiple flashbacks; unlike as with the previous film, however, the screenplay here is a miracle of efficiency, and has been imitated many times since. We see all the minor plays recruited for the big heist, and then have the pleasure of seeing all the parts come together for the payoff: clearly Kubrick's allegory here is for how films themselves are made, with his cool mastermind Johnny (Sterling Hayden) standing in for the director, marshaling the different smaller players together to pull off the big score. But the fun of the film is seeing the multiple loose ends left during the planning of the crime that cause everything to unravel afterwards: the great shot near the end that reveals the fate of the heist money seems also a potential metaphor for a film's costs should it prove unsuccessful.

Since the inhumanly clean scheme is undone by human messiness, much depends on the talents of the supporting cast in showing how the scheme could fall apart completely, and they pull it off quite well. The most memorable are the small-time Elisha Cook and Marie Windsor (looking like a cross between Dolores Gray and Ileana Douglas, and wearing nightgowns in almost all of her scenes) as his unloving wife, who of course prefers darkly handsome Vince Edwards to her loser of a spouse. The cinematography is superb, and there's a great traveling shot of the mammoth Kola Kwariani making his way behind spectators to the racetrack bar as part of the scheme; even so, it's not quite at the level of the unforgettable exterior shots from KILLER'S KISS, which, though undoubtedly a more flawed film than this one, may in the end be more memorable.

5/5 Early Kubrick Still Works
  by David Baldwin (Philadelphia,PA USA)
If Stanley Kubrick hadn't made another film "The Killing" would still stand the test of time. This is a pretty assured film considering Kubrick's age, 28 at the time, and the fact it was made for peanuts. Kubrick cleverly weaves noir, pulp fiction, and docu-drama elements that is unlike what was made before or since. Kubrick also gets a terrific assist in the screenplay with some choice dialogue by dime novel extraordinaire Jim Thompson ("The Grifters", "After Dark, My Sweet"). Kubrick's detractors always accused him for compromising substance for style but that's not the case here. "The Killing" contains taut storytelling and intricate characterization. The always good Sterling Hayden leads a terrific cast as the mastermind of the racetrack heist. The best performances here are probably delivered by Elisha Cook Jr. as the cuckolded track employee, Marie Windsor as his conniving wife, and the underrated Timothy Carey as a cold-blooded marksmen. Kubrick left an indelible imprint on the language of cinema and "The Killing" is an essential piece from the canon of work he left behind.

4/5 The Art of the Heist
  by Chad A. B. Wilson (Houston, TX)
I watched Kubrick's "The Killing," not just because I'm a big fan of the director's but also because I love heist films. I'm more familiar with the new ones, like Mamet's Heist, which is my favorite, so I was glad to discover some of the older ones, like this classic. Watching these older films is not just entertaining; it's also a lesson in the mantra of Ecclesiastes: "there is nothing new under the sun."

Watching "The Killing" was like putting together a mystery of its own, trying to figure out where new directors have borrowed from their predecessors. It's not quite like The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry, but we can definitely see where newer directors are building on what these older auteurs were doing. They use similar strategies (the non-linear narrative here), the impossible task (robbing a race track has never been done before), and the assembly of criminals who don't trust one another. There is even an element of fate in the ending.

It makes for an engaging movie, but it's also a study in influence and genre.

My only problem with "The Killing" may not have been a problem when the film first came out. The heist itself just didn't seem that complicated, and the problems that the criminals encountered were partially based on their own mistakes. In more recent heist flicks, we're used to flawless plans featuring masterminds who predict absolutely everything, from people's behavior to computer models.

The fact that things just mess up in "The Killing" may be a strength, for it is more realistic, but it also made it not quite as much fun.