Stars: Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Jay C. Flippen, Elisha Cook Jr., Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards

Director: Stanley Kubrick

• The Killing was the first of Kubrick’s three collaborations with producer James B. Harris.

• The film is based on the novel Clean Break, which had been the first novel by veteran pulp crime writer Lionel White. Harris and Kubrick bought the rights to the book for $10,000.

• Kubrick had long been an admirer of the work of hard-boiled crime novelist Jim Thompson (The Grifters,), and persuaded Thompson to collaborate with him on the screenplay, working primarily on the dialogue.

• Sterling Hayden, who played a similar role in John Huston’s classic The Asphalt Jungle, was always Kubrick’s first choice for the role of Johnny, although Jack Palance was also considered.

• The film was budgeted at around $330,000, and was shot on schedule in only 24 days.

• United Artists released the film in 1956, but it was not a success upon its initial release, despite some good reviews, although it eventually made a profit.

When ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) says he has a plan to make a killing, everybody wants to be in on the action. Especially when the plan is to steal $2 million in a racetrack robbery scheme in which "no one will get hurt." But despite all their careful plotting, Clay and his men have overlooked one thing: Sherry Peatty (Marie Windsor), a money-hungry, double-crossing dame who’s planning to make a financial killing of her own…even if she has to wipe out Clay’s entire gang to do it!

Directed in a revolutionary story-telling technique by the legendary Stanley Kubrick, The Killing is tough, taut, tense, and one of the greatest crime thrillers ever made!

FAQ's

*****

Copyright © 2000 Warner Bros. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Academy Award^® and Oscar^® are the registered trademarks and service
marks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.