Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Odelecol Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Gary The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

bkoganbing This noir film directed by Robert Wise is bereft of characters you can sympathize with save for Audrey Long and Phillip Terry. It does however rivet your attention to the leads of Lawrence Tierney and Claire Trevor, a pair of amorals if I ever saw one.Back in Reno where Trevor was getting shed of a husband she happens to discover the murders of Isabelle Jewell and Tony Barrett done by a very jealous man played by Lawrence Tierney whom she meets on the train to San Francisco. They like each other, but he focuses on Audrey Long, Trevor's half sister who was lucky enough to have a father worth a fortune.But Tierney's past is ever so slowly creeping up on him. And Trevor while now engaged to Terry, still she can't resist Tierney. Pity these two just didn't hitch, they truly deserve each other and not the people they were going with.What I love about Born To Kill is the great care that Robert Wise took in both assembling his supporting cast and fleshing them out. Rarely do you see that in a B film. Those already mentioned plus Elisha Cook, Jr. as Tierney's luckless pal, Walter Slezak as a private detective open to a little blackmail, and Esther Howard as the landlady in Reno who hires Slezak to investigate the murder of her friend Jewell.Born To Kill will keep you glued to the television or the big screen as it did in 1946 I'm sure. A truly fascinating bunch.

ReasonablePiper This movie was pretty violent for coming out during the Hays Code. I guess they let some things slide because it was released by RKO. In particular, the first murder scene is very violent, and realistic, for a 1947 film. The movie is very cold-hearted. Sam (Lawrence Tierney) is essentially a male version of a femme fatale. He is greedy and without a conscious. Murder doesn't bother him, and he plays with women's emotions to get what he wants. He is also child-like in that he lets his emotions (angry, violent, and self-centered) control him. The only person who can influence him is Marty, a "friend" from prison who also happens to share a room and a bed with Sam. Although it's possible that there was no implied gay relationship between them, it was the 40s and filmmakers had to be subtle. The reason I think this interpretation is valid is because Marty is the only who can calm Sam down, and in addition to their living situation, seems too important to ignore. The women are cold-hearted too, but not as evil as Sam.Overall, the movie is a very enjoyable noir, and it deserves to be more widely known. I for one think it is better than the Big Sleep. The ending was perhaps a bit too neat, but it worked nonetheless.8/10

atlasmb "Born to Kill" tells the story of a man and a woman, but mostly the man. Played by Lawrence Tierney, Sam is a simple man--as simple as the shark from Jaws. He is a predator and a sociopath. He may not be constantly moving, but when he does stand still, his brain is calculating his next move toward conquest. He trusts no one. He has a persecution complex and believes everyone is out to put him down. His life strategy is to put the other guy down first.Tierney is the perfect person to portray Sam. Robert Osborne, host of TCM, said he thinks Tierney looks like he has a jaw of granite. He fills the screen with menace. Even when he attempts to behave sociably, a cloud inevitably passes over his face--resulting from some perceived slight--and he is back to a squint and a snarl."Born to Kill" is adapted from the novel "Deadlier Than the Male", but Sam is the definition of deadly. He runs into a woman who has the perception to see him at his core (because she sees herself similarly), but is Helen (Claire Trevor) really any match for a predator?The story is filled with supporting actors who somehow hold their own with the two powerful leads. Elisha Cook, Jr. plays Marty, Sam's cohort who is a cold calculator. Esther Howard plays Mrs. Kraft--a landlady who is rough around the edges and to her core. She loves only two things: her neighbor, Laury, and a bottle of beer. Howard plays the part with gusto. It feels like she takes this role from the script and makes it her own. When Laury is murdered, Mrs. Kraft hires a private detective, a Mr. Arnett (played by Walter Slezak). Slezak holds your attention when he is on screen. He is an "operative" who just gets by, a man who would probably take any job that pays the bills. He is literate, willing to take risks, and overtly intelligent. They could have built a few more films around his character.When Helen realizes she cannot afford to keep a man as volatile as Sam around forever, she steers Arnett in his direction. Proving that she is as sinister as Sam, she gives him a kiss to keep him close. She is as ruthless as Sam, but Sam has no conscience. At one point, she compares Sam with her fiancé Fred. She says, "Fred is goodness" and "you're depravity". It's a depravity she can identify with, and she knows she can never trust Sam, but she flies to close to his flame for too long.Sam stupidly lets slip details of the murder scene, which Helen notices. What remains is the inevitable resolution of the conflict between Sam's evilness and Helen's revenge. It's a dark story dominated by an iconic character who exudes villainy.It has been suggested that Tierney did little acting in this film, that he was--in real life--as tough and coarse as the character he portrayed. If so, there is no wonder he is so convincing.This film did not do well at the box office, and critics savaged the film for its lack of morality. Imagine how audiences viewed this film in 1947. Now we know it was ahead of its time.

AaronCapenBanner Robert Wise directed this film noir that stars Lawrence Tierney as Sam Wild, a cold and ruthless killer who meets up with equally ruthless Helen Brent(played by Claire Trevor) on a train leaving San Francisco. They fall in love, but decide to marry other people in an effort to social climb and get rich, which includes Sam marrying Helen's wealthy foster sister! Helen doesn't know at first that Sam murdered a woman that she had known, but never told the police about because she didn't want to get involved, and that will come back to haunt her as suspicions and jealousies spiral out-of-control... Well-acted and directed thriller overcomes its contrived story by being quite interesting.