Born to Kill (1947)
Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor and Walter Slezak.
83 Minutes
“I can get anything I want if I put my mind to it” is how the main character, Sam Wild (Lawrence Tierney), thinks. He’s a complete psychopath and killing seems second nature to him.
At the beginning of the film Wild senselessly murders a young couple because the man was “cutting in”. Wild goes to San Francisco at the suggestion of his friend (Elisha Cook Jr.). Before Wild gets on the train, he flirts with a recently divorced woman. She thinks of most men as turnips but not Wild... he’s a different kind of “man”. Coincidently, this woman, Helen Brent (Claire Trevor), had gone to the house where the two people were murdered but she didn’t want to get involved and didn’t report the dead bodies.
Wild with his “I can get anything I want if I put my mind to it” attitude is very attracted to Brent but Brent is engaged to a very wealthy man. Brent has a wealthy sister that owns a newspaper company. Mister “I can get anything I want if I put my mind to it” decides to marry her and climb that social ladder. Wild and Brent get involved more and more and share one thing in common... they are both gold diggers.
At the same time, a friend of the lady that was murdered has paid a detective to find out who is responsible.
You can probably guess how this movie will end (it's a violent movie..).
Lawrence Tierney plays a great emotionless and jealous psychopath. He doubts everyone and when a psychopath doubts somehow, the best way to deal with things is to... murder that person. If you enjoy monotone actors, Tierney, is brilliant. It’s entertaining to see how not a muscle flinches in his face throughout the entire movie.
Claire Trevor sure has her hair fixed up in all sorts of ways in this movie. I suppose by being a divorced woman at the beginning made her a woman without “morals”.
The detective in this film played by Walter Slezak adds a touch of humor to things. He’s fairly chubby and acts cool as a cucumber when dealing with Helen Brent.
Sam Wild is a tough and handsome man and the sisters both fall in love with him. Most film noir movies have a female that seduces so this movie reverses that idea.
Born to Kill is entertaining enough if you get pleasure from movies about murder. I’d give this movie 3.5 stars out of 5.
