★ 9 / 10
Turnip Man and Iceberg Woman. Lady of Deceit
John Chard
Turnip Man and Iceberg Woman. Lady of Deceit (AKA: Born to Kill) is directed by Robert Wise and adapted to screenplay by Eve Greene and Richard Macaulay from…
Turnip Man and Iceberg Woman.
Lady of Deceit (AKA: Born to Kill) is directed by Robert Wise and adapted to screenplay by Eve Greene and Richard Macaulay from the novel Deadlier than the Male written by James Gunn. It stars Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak, Elisha Cook Jr., Audrey Long, Isabel Jewell and Esther Howard. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by Robert De Grasse.
Trevor plays conniving divorcée Helen Brent, who risks her chances at the wealth and security she craves with the man she doesn't love by falling for hotheaded murderer Sam Wild (Tierney), who, with his own agenda, is soon to marry her foster sister.
I wouldn't trade places with you if they sliced me into little pieces.
Hard-bitten noir of some substance that pits two of noir's most unlikable characters against each other. Tierney's psychotic machismo and Trevor's calculating sex-bomb go head to head in a deliriously distorted romance that will only go one way once their inner pursuit of glory comes to the fore.
And he who falls beneath her spell has need of God's mercy.
The plot is a bit hard to take, but when in noirville it sometimes helps to stop off for a bite to eat at the fantastique café. It's a grim tale of pathological persons and it's superbly directed by Wise in what was his first foray into straight edged film noir. Slezak adds some seedy quality as a bible quoting P.I., Cook Junior does what he does best and Jewell inputs the naive sexy glamour.
Voluptuous violence and mad love in the shadows. Hooray! 8/10
★ 8 / 10
FILM NOIR OF THE WEEK Robert Wise's Born
Steve
FILM NOIR OF THE WEEK Robert Wise's Born to Kill has never been one of my favorite noirs. It regularly tops "best of" lists, and many film noir enthusiasts…
FILM NOIR OF THE WEEK
Robert Wise's Born to Kill has never been one of my favorite noirs. It regularly tops "best of" lists, and many film noir enthusiasts whom I respect love it, so I was hoping a fresh viewing would reveal something new to me.
Alas, for me it was still the same old flick. It's an enjoyable picture, but it's wildly melodramatic, there are subplots that never really go anywhere, and its over-the-top characters are mostly two-dimensional. The key to a great noir, like Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity (1944), is the sense that it could happen to you, or to someone you know. No matter how outlandish the schemes in a film are, if they're carried out by believable characters then I'm usually able to go along for the ride without asking too many questions.
Born to Kill tells the tale of a pair of sociopathic social climbers, the recently divorced Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) and the recently paroled Sam Wild (Lawrence Tierney). Their paths cross in Reno, the biggest little city in the world. Helen is there for a quickie divorce and Sam is there with his reedy little sidekick, Mart Waterman (Elisha Cook Jr.). Helen is staying at a boarding house run by the slovenly Mrs. Kraft (Esther Howard), who, when we first see her, is getting lit up on beer in the middle of the afternoon with the adenoidal tart Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell).
After Laury goes on a date with dapper Danny Jaden (Tony Barrett) just to make the big lug she's dating jealous, she invites Danny inside for a nightcap. When Danny goes to the kitchen, he finds Laury's big lug waiting for him. It's Sam Wild, of course, and his brutal killing of both Danny and Laury is the film's high point. (Or the lurid low point, if you're a prissy scold.) The sound of crickets in the background, the neatly manicured suburban lawns surrounding Mrs. Kraft's boarding house, the dog barking in the background, and the uptempo swing music playing on the radio in the kitchen all lend a sense of immediacy and familiarity to the murder.
The rest of the film, however, just doesn't hang together for me. Sam's little buddy Mart tells him, "You can't just go around killing people whenever the notion strikes you. It just ain't feasible." I feel the same way about the plot of Born to Kill. It just ain't feasible.
After the murder, Sam blows town. He and Helen meet again on the train to San Francisco. When they disembark, Sam suggests splitting a cab, but Helen tells him she's going in a different direction. He responds, "That's where you're wrong. We're going in the same direction, you and I."
Sam insinuates himself into Helen's life. They are clearly drawn to each other, but she tells him that nothing in the world will stop her from marrying her fiancé, Fred Grover (Phillip Terry). So Sam moves in on her sister, wealthy heiress Georgia Staples (Audrey Long), or, to be more precise, her foster sister, as Helen bitterly reveals to Sam. Not only is Georgia a beautiful blonde, but — as Sam tells Mart — "Marrying into this crowd will make it so's I can spit in anyone's eye."
Meanwhile, back in Reno, Mrs. Kraft retains the services of a sleazy, corpulent private investigator named Matthew Albert Arnett (Walter Slezak). Mrs. Kraft is played by Esther Howard, and her bizarre, bug-eyed performance in this film is nearly identical to the "Filthy Flora" character she played in Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946).
Helen and Sam pursue their doomed, twisted love affair.
"Fred is peace and security," Helen moans.
"You, you're strength, excitement, and depravity. You've a kind of corruption inside of you, Sam."
Arnett sniffs around. Sam and Georgia quarrel after she refuses to let him run her family's business. Mart Waterman shows up in San Francisco and starts living with the unhappy foursome. (Is he Sam's partner or his secret lover? The film is never completely clear.) Slowly but surely, the plot threads of the film intertwine, culminating in an orgy of murder and betrayal.
This is the second or third time I've seen Born to Kill. While I've griped about the ridiculously melodramatic plot, maybe I just want it to be something it's not. I could certainly see myself watching it again in the future and loving its over-the-top characters, unrealistic scenarios, grotesque supporting players, and generally high level of camp.
I think my biggest problem with Born to Kill is the relationship between Sam and Helen. Claire Trevor is a wonderful performer, but I was never able to accept that she'd love Sam enough to give up everything for him. Helen's histrionics in her scenes in tastefully appointed drawing rooms with Fred, Georgia, and Sam seem more scripted than natural, and Claire Trevor's performance as Helen seems too intelligent and composed for the debased character she's playing.
But maybe that's the point. Lawrence Tierney is a powerful presence, but he isn't a particularly gifted actor, especially when either subtlety or range is called for. Not only does Sam Wild commit murder whenever the notion strikes him, he can bend others to his will, getting his friend Mart to kill for him and getting Helen to provide him with an alibi for murder at the drop of a hat. He's a brutal alpha male, and loving him may go against all reason and sense, but that never stopped anybody before.
Born to Kill is directed by Robert Wise with vigor. The cinematography, by Robert de Grasse, is great, especially in the nighttime exteriors. Paul Sawtell's music is exciting. I found the plot ridiculous, but that shouldn't stop any noir fans who haven't seen Born to Kill from seeking it out.
Written by Adam Lounsbery
★ 8 / 10
"Neither of us looks like a scoundrel"
Steffi_P
Many of our finest pictures revolve around a single captivating performance, and this is especially true of B-pictures which can less afford to rely on…
Many of our finest pictures revolve around a single captivating performance, and this is especially true of B-pictures which can less afford to rely on pyrotechnics. In the case of Born to Kill, a dark little drama from RKO, all eyes are on Lawrence Tierney. You know Lawrence Tierney he is the bald, mountain-sized mob boss from Reservoir Dogs. Here, forty-five years earlier, he is thinner and has hair, but he is nevertheless just as menacing.The director of Born to Kill was Robert Wise. Wise cut his directorial teeth at Val Lewton's horror B-unit, and although his only full-length horror for Lewton, The Body Snatchers, was not brilliant, he still carried with him much of the atmospheric technique that characterised Lewton films. Simple things like an open doorway in the background of the shot, or placing the camera at waist height (often more effective than low angles) convey to us a sense of unease. And what is so great about Wise's formal style is that it is always subtle he never calls attention to any shot, but if you pay close attention his craftsmanship is on display. For this reason Wise is rarely remembered as a great director, although he did leave a legacy of many great films behind him.Among Wise's greatest assets was his ability to define character and bring out the best in performance through space and framing, and this brings us back to Mr Tierney. Tierney was not the best at vocal delivery, but he had amazing presence. I sometimes think Born to Kill would have been even better if they had stripped out all his dialogue and just told him to look mean for ninety minutes. Take his opening scene at the casino; there is no dialogue, and in fact he barely moves. Wise cleverly emphasises Tierney's stillness by having a lot of bustle going on behind him. This wordless scene establishes Tierney's character better than any expository dialogue could, and gives the brutality of his next appearance all the more impact.But Wise was not just a director who focused on looks and technique. He had previously been an editor and, conscious of his lack of first-hand experience with a cast, went to lengths to learn about acting and coaching. Apparently Wise often encouraged his actors to slow down their performances, allowing time to bring out character and emotional weight. Sometimes this leisurely pacing would be lost in the editing of the cheap quickies he was making around this time, but here and there you see it. Despite Tierney being at the centre of things, he is not the only member of the cast to shine. Claire Trevor manages something very tricky she convincingly plays a bad actress when her character unconvincingly acts nice. Walter Slezak a supporting player who could successfully tread that line between character actor exaggeration and naturalistic depth is perfect as a sleazy detective. Elisha Cook Jr., who is almost as much part of film noir furniture as Venetian blinds, gives one of his more believable performances. Philip Terry on the other hand is a little wooden, and Esther Howard is a little overstated, but you can't always have a full flush of aces.Another weak link is Paul Sawtell's backing score, which is at best mediocre and at worst inappropriate. He appears to have misunderstood the elements of the story, for example playing sad, romantic music when Claire Trevor's fiancé walks out on her. Anyone who has been paying attention should realise her character and their relationship don't merit that especially in a picture as cold and cynical as this.All in all though, Born to Kill is a treat. It's probably Robert Wise's first really accomplished film, and is actually better than many of his later A-pictures. The script, considering it's for a B-picture adapted from a pulp novel, is unusually intelligent and full of nifty dialogue. There are plenty of great little touches (which may be from the script, or ideas of Wise or the actors themselves), such as Slezak carefully placing his half-smoked cigarette between two bricks before entering a building. And you get to enjoy Lawrence Tierney when he was still handsome enough to be kissed (albeit with his eyes scarily open), and still lean enough to swing a blunt instrument. This picture is well worth discovering.
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@ Angelic_Observer For a second there, I thought it was him too...