Here’s another of Stanley Kubrick’s early films and though it’s said to be the best on his early career, I don’t believe it’s all that great. It’s a relatively short heist film that’s more about the plot than the directing. Apparently Kubrick cast Sterling Hayden as the male lead after seeing his performance in The Asphalt Jungle. Unfortunately for Kubrick this one is inferior to that other heist film in just about every way.

A group of men gather to plan an elaborate heist from a racetrack. Led by veteran Johnny Clay, his plan ropes in workers at the track to gain access, a policeman and even outside contractors to provide distractions. One of them for example is a marksman tasked with shooting a champion horse in a key race. Each of them has different reasons for participating but one of them, a teller at the track, is having relationship issues with his increasingly dissatisfied wife. To assuage her, he lets slip the plan to his wife who in turn betrays him to the lover she is having an affair with. This introduces complications as they carry out the heist.

The plan here is solid and it’s interesting that Kubrick tried to flesh out each character, even if only briefly. The film itself however is strangely average and seems mostly obsessed with ensuring that the audience understands every single aspect of the plan and appreciates its cleverness. A third person narration walks the viewer through the job that each of conspirator is responsible for and numerous shots are repeatedly reused to keep track of events that are happening simultaneously. It feels uncharacteristically pedantic for a director that is known for layer upon layer of subtle meaning in his films.

The ending sequence is particularly awful, being clearly mandated by the need to show that the robbers aren’t getting away with it due to the mores of the time. Overall The Killing isn’t bad but neither is it particularly good. It looks especially bad for Kubrick to use
Hayden due to The Asphalt Jungle and end up making a worse film. It doesn’t look like the other early Kubrick films that we’ve watched are any better as well, so take that as a lesson that even great directors need to learn from experience.