Born to Kill (1947)

Note Générale:

7,4/10   

Réalisateur:

Robert Wise

Scénaristes:

Eve Greene (screenplay) and
Richard Macaulay (screenplay) ...
(suite)

Date de sortie:

3 mai 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Film-Noir | Drame

Accroche:

The Story of a Woman Who Loved Unwisely...and too well!

Intrigue:

In Reno a man kills a girl he likes and her boyfriend out of jealousy; it may not be the first time...

Plot Keywords:

Killer | Foster Sister | Train | Murderer | Divorce

Avis des utilisateurs:

Feasible

Ensemble

Claire Trevor	...	Helen Brent
Lawrence Tierney	...	Sam Wild
Walter Slezak	...	Matthew Arnett
Phillip Terry	...	Fred Grover
Audrey Long	...	Georgia Staples
Elisha Cook Jr.	...	Marty
Isabel Jewell	...	Laury Palmer
Esther Howard	...	Mrs. Kraft
Kathryn Card	...	Grace
Tony Barrett	...	Danny
Grandon Rhodes	...	Police Inspector Wilson
reste de la distribution par ordre alphabétique:
Jason Robards Sr.	...	Conductor (scenes deleted)
Stanley Stone	...	Train Conductor (scenes deleted)
Demetrius Alexis	...	Maitre d'Hotel (uncredited)
Symona Boniface	...	Gambler at Roulette Table (uncredited)
Ruth Brennan	...	Sally (uncredited)
Ellen Corby	...	2nd Maid (uncredited)
Sayre Dearing	...	Crap Dealer (uncredited)
Joe Dixon	...	Crap Dealer (uncredited)
Neal Dodd	...	Clergyman (uncredited)
Jean Fenwick	...	Margaret Macy (uncredited)
Lee Frederick	...	Desk Clerk (uncredited)
Ben Frommer	...	Delivery Boy (uncredited)
Harry Harvey	...	Divorce Lawyer (uncredited)
Martha Hyer	...	Maid (uncredited)
Perc Launders	...	Detective Bryson (uncredited)
Sam Lufkin	...	Crap Dealer (uncredited)
Beatrice Maude	...	Cook (uncredited)
Al Murphy	...	Cab Driver (uncredited)
Tommy Noonan	...	Bellboy (uncredited)
Netta Packer	...	Mrs. Perth (uncredited)
Sammy Shack	...	Crap Dealer (uncredited)
Phil Warren	...	Chauffeur (uncredited)
Napoleon Whiting	...	Porter (uncredited)

Réalisé par
Robert Wise

Scénaristes
Eve Greene		(screenplay) and
Richard Macaulay		(screenplay)
James Gunn		(novel "Deadlier than the Male")

Produit par
Sid Rogell	....	executive producer
Herman Schlom	....	producer

Musique originale
Paul Sawtell

Image
Robert De Grasse		(director of photography) (as Robert de Grasse)

Montage
Les Millbrook

Direction artistique
Albert S. D'Agostino
Walter E. Keller

Décorateur de plateau
Darrell Silvera
John Sturtevant

Création des costumes
Edward Stevenson		(gowns)

Maquillage
Mel Berns	....	makeup artist (uncredited)

Assistant réalisateur
Robert Weiss	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Technicien du son
Roy Granville	....	sound
Robert H. Guhl	....	sound

Effets spéciaux
Russell A. Cully	....	special effects

Département Musique
C. Bakaleinikoff	....	musical director

Companies de production

• RKO Radio Pictures (presents)

Distributeurs

• RKO Radio Pictures (1947) (USA) (theatrical) (as An RKO Radio Picture)
• C&C Television Corporation (1955) (USA) (TV)
• King of Video (198?) (USA) (VHS)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Éditions Montparnasse (2005) (France) (DVD)

Autre(s) titre(s):

Deadlier Than the Male (USA) (working title)
Lady of Deceit (UK)

Durée:

92 min

Pays:

USA

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Noir et Blanc

Rapport de forme:

1,37 : 1

Son:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Classification:

Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review) | USA:Approved (PCA #11703, Adult Audience)

Lieux de tournage:

Virginia Street, Reno, Nevada, USA

Société:

RKO Radio Pictures

Guillemet:

Sam Wild: Oh, I see. You cross the tracks on May Day with a basket of goodies for the poor slum kid, but back you scoot - and fast - to your own neck o' the woods. Don't you?
Helen Brent: I wouldn't say that.
Sam Wild: No, you wouldn't *say* it... but that's the way it is.

Feasible

The character of that great actor Elisha Cook, Jr., uses this word over and he over. Not too bright, he seems to be trying to better himself through ten-dollar words. His choice in friends, though -- the Laurence Tierney character, specifically -- leaves a lot to be desired.

Cook's character is quite well drawn. Tierney's is sketchy. The marriage of an heiress to him is not believable, really: She's not so plain that she'd jump at the first man to court her.

Tierney was in some good noirs but he sure was a wooden actor.

The two casting coups here were Walter Slezak as the intellectual but down-and-out detective. His wry sense of humor is entirely plausible under these circumstances and more pungent than a more stereotypical wisecracker would have been.

Katherine Howard gives a performance that is also somewhat comic, though it's very poignant. Her boozy crusader for the facts is fascinating -- thought her agreeing to meet an obviously shady character like Cook in a deserted area of an unfamiliar city seems pretty implausible.

To me, the script is a little rough on the Claire Trevor character. Trevor is superb, truly superb. And the character indeed is greedy and manipulative. But we lovers of noir have seen worse: the Audrey Totter character in "Tension," for example, who has no redeeming value whatever. Trevor is a troubled woman here and, though she may have been born to assist killers, the other characters and the plot seem to gang up on her a bit too much toward the end.

The director, Robert Wise, has always been a mystery to me. He made so many fine movies in the 1940s and early fifties. And though I still dream of an uncut "Magnificent Ambersons," it doesn't look as if we'll ever get one. Cutting out the last reels was not his idea and he did mold it into what even though butchered is one of the greatest of all American movies.

Yet in the 1960s particularly, he turned to such bloated, commercial junk -- the absolute antithesis of cynical movies like this or "The Set-Up." Of course there was more money in them, but there seems no discernible connection between the director of his noirs and that of his musicals and abominations like "Two for the Seesaw" in terms of style.