MOVIE · 1956

The Killing

CrimeDramaThriller85 min

Career criminal Johnny Clay is assembling a small crew for one last racetrack robbery before he leaves crime behind and gets married. Sterling Hayden is Johnny, lining up a sharpshooter, a crooked cop, a bartender, and betting teller George for a carefully timed theft. Elisha Cook Jr.'s George becomes a problem when he confides in his dissatisfied wife, played by Marie Windsor, who begins plotting for herself. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, the film tracks the mechanics of the job and the shifting loyalties around it, building its tension from planning, timing, and the ways a scheme starts to come apart before it even begins.