Stanley Kubrick

 Deservedly considered among the ten greatest directors, though, like Welles, he  dominated thinking about contemporary film for decades while producing little work. The influence of Kubrick and Hitchcock combined is about 90% responsible for everything good in subsequent big budget film-making. First and foremost a photographer, Kubrick's films have a unique look: strikingly colored sets with high walls (and ceilings) shot with wide-angle lenses from  low perspectives, creating a look that was both expansive and claustrophobic. Like Vermeer his dazzling genius was singular, so he can be imitated but not incorporated. In that sense his influence will be shallow. Aside from the general defense of individuality that most artists manifest, it's hard to generalize about his films' content. About the only director who could rely on zooms without appearing ridiculous.

View: Career Overview and Opinionated Commentary

Listed Chronologically

Killing, The (DVD)    1956
MGM DVD / Region 1 (USA)
$13.89  Sale: $11.39 Add to Cart
 
Kubrick's first major movie, and among his best. A lower budget derivative of John Houston's THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (a fine film itself) that's actually somewhat better. Hardboiled author/genius Jim Thompson provided the riveting dialogue delivered by this dynamite character heavy cast headed by Sterling Hayden (in a variation of his Asphalt Jungle role) as career criminal Johnny Clay. He wants one last big score so he can settle down with Colleen Gray, who delivers a small but touching performance as a girl sold on her man all the way: "I'm not pretty, and I'm not very smart, so please don't ever leave me."

Johnny concocts a genuinely brilliant plan to take-down a race-track during the biggest race of the year, but assembles a freakish gang of hoods and inside men who are each pathetic in their own way, which is what makes this the greatest of all caper films. Never before or since has the cosmic futility of crime had such weight - the only men desperate enough to attempt such a thing are chronic failures.

The most pathetic conspirator is George Peatty (cult character actor Elisha Cook Jr.; Wilmer from MALTESE FALCON) who believes the money will make despicable tramp wife Marie Windsor love him. As if! She's a really bad wife.

Though early, Kubrick fans cannot miss the mature style already in evidence including a shot of Hayden under a bare bulb at a table that is a direct prefiguration of a shot of Hayden in DR. STRANGELOVE. The gang is the show, including a bizarre performance from professional wrestler Kola Kwariani and Kubrick's fist collaboration with cult nut/actor Tim Carey as a wooden-faced sharp-shooter. (His key scene is as raw as anything in a 1956 film.)

I'm a great fan of B&W crime movies in genral and 1950s crime movies in particular. I think the greatest B&W crime films were made between WHITE HEAT and TOUCH OF EVIL, not during the late 1940s heyday of the classic film noir. Yes, films noir were the best movies of the 1940s, but the 1940s was, across the board, EASILY the worst Hollywood decade. The 1950s was arguably Hollywood's greatest decade and had crime dramas to match. The difference is sentimentality. after fighting our two bloodiest foreign wars back to back post-Korea America was maxed out on propaganda. 1950s movies are really harsh.

English mono; Includes Four-page booklet highlighting the making of the film; Theatrical trailer; 89 Minutes

 
Browse Directors