The Killing (1957/Criterion Blu-ray w/Killer’s
Kiss (1955))
Picture:
B+ Sound: B- Extras: B+ Film: B+
All great
filmmakers start somewhere and for Stanley Kubrick, it was actually as a still
photographer for Look Magazine, Life Magazine’s top competitor at the peak of
grand magazine production. After making
a film he later distanced himself from (Fear
& Desire), Kubrick became a formidable filmmaker by making two of the
best late Film Noirs in the classic Noir period 1941 – 1958. Criterion has issued his brilliant heist film
The Killing (1957) and added Killer’s Kiss (1955) as a bonus film,
making this release a double feature by default.
Based on
Lionel White’ book Clean Break and co-written by Kubrick and the great crime
novelist Jim Thompson, Sterling Hayden leads the cast in a tale of a complex
attempt to rob a horse race track of a small fortune in cash. A group of men plan the robbery to the last
detail, time it, work it out, plan it well in advance, observe the site, find
out as much about it as possible and then execute the plan, wearing the same
bizarre masks so they cannot be seen and hide their identity.
Though
they have been smart and clever, furthering their determination and confidence
in the plan, things still do not quite run as expected. However, this is also a character study, a
bleak look at the underbelly of the world they inhabit and one of the best,
most honest such portrayals in all of crime film history. Acting is exceptional, the world dense and
with this film, Kubrick beings his reign as one of the all time masters of
filmmaking.
The film
has been constantly imitated and ripped-off (like all of Kubrick’s films at
this point) yet it offers many surprises and holds up extremely well after over
half a century. If Kubrick had not moved
on to make a series of masterworks, this would have been enough to show his
superior talent, but the more successful later films (2001: A Space Odyssey, A
Clockwork Orange, Dr. Strangelove,
Full Metal Jacket, et al) have
unfortunately held this gem back a bit, but this remarkable new Blu-ray of the
film should finally help to rectify that situation.
Coleen
Gray, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen, Ted DeCorsia, Marie Windsor, Timothy
Carey, Elisha Cook and Joseph Turkel (Blade
Runner) also star.
The 1080p
1.66 X 1 digital black and white High Definition image transfer is from a
recently restored 35mm camera negative in 2K progressive scan HD from a Scanity
film scanner resulting in stunning playback that began the distinct look that
would mark and identify a Kubrick film as one of his films with exceptional
lighting and depth of field. Director of
Photography Lucien Ballard, A.S.C., delivers some of the best work of his great
career with amazing, unforgettable, clear depth, stark shots that make this one
of the last great Film Noirs and many of the shots are still imitated to this
day. The PCM 1.0 Mono comes from the
original 35mm magnetic soundmaster and is the best the film has eve sounded
down to the underrated Gerald Fried’s great, ironic music score.
Extras
includes the usual nicely illustrated booklet on the film including informative
text and two essays on the film, while the Blu-ray adds Original Theatrical
Trailers, new video interview with Producer James B. Harris, excerpt from a French
TV interview with star Sterling Hayden from the series Cinéma Cinémas, new video
interview with Poet Robert Polito on author Jim Thompson, a (as noted) new HD
transfer (at 1080p 1.33 X 1, looking terrific) of Kubrick’s remarkable 1955
Film Noir Killer’s Kiss (about a
boxer dealing with a doomed life) and a new video appreciation of Kiss by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien.
That
makes this one of the must-have Blu-rays for all serious film fans and
collectors.
- Nicholas Sheffo
