Killing

UPC: 715515085717

Studio: Criterion

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Violence, Not For Children]

Summary: The Killing was director Stanley Kubrick's first major film effort -- though, like Kubrick's earlier films, it was economically produced with an inexpensive cast. In a variation of his Asphalt Jungle role, Sterling Hayden plays veteran criminal Johnny Clay, planning one last big heist before settling down to a respectable marriage with Fay (Colleen Gray). Teaming with several cohorts, Johnny masterminds a racetrack robbery. The basic flaw is that all the crooks involved are losers and small-timers who find themselves in way over their heads despite their supposed cleverness. None of the participants is more pathetic than George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr.), who is goaded into the robbery by his covetous and far-from-faithful wife (Marie Windsor). As in a Greek tragedy, Johnny's best-laid schemes go awry. Prominently featured in the cast of The Killing are offbeat character actors Tim Carey and Joe Turkel, who'd show up with equally showy roles in future Kubrick productions. The Killing is based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Crime

Awards: Best British Film – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Film Presented – Telluride Film Festival

Features: Disc 1 - New Video Interview with Producer James B. Harris
Excerpted Interviews with actor Sterling Hayden from the French television series Cin?ma cin?mas
New Video Interview with Poet and Author Robert Polito about Writer Jim Thompson
Trailer

Disc 2 - Restored high-definition digital transfer of Stanley Kubrick's 1955 noir feature Killer's Kiss
New video appreciation of Killer's Kiss featuring film critic Geoffrey O'Brien
Trailer

Plus: a Booklet featuring an essay by film historian Haden Guest and a reprinted interview with actress Marie Windsor

Killing

Format: DVD

Release Date: 08/16/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Vistavision

Audio: DD1 Dolby Digital Mono

Runtime: 84 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Subtitles: English

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- The Killing
1. Puzzle Pieces [4:57]
2. Personal Business [2:04]
3. Most Important Thread [3:32]
4. Pains [5:04]
5. A Break [3:39]
6. 504 West Olive [2:49]
7. No Good And Nosy [4:06]
8. "I'm Dropping Out" [3:06]
9. Hired Muscle [3:27]
10. Triggerman [2:35]
11. Hideaway [1:53]
12. "Stop Butting In" [3:41]
13. A Stand-Up Guy [2:26]
14. Scheduled Drops [2:03]
15. A Husband's Promise [5:27]
16. The Officer's Duties [2:10]
17. Some Luck [3:51]
18. Red Lightning [5:36]
19. Heist [7:38]
20. Waiting for Johnny [3:32]
21. Fifteen Minutes Late [2:38]
22. "A Bad Joke" [1:40]
23. Baggage Problems [6:07]
Disc #2 -- The Killing: Killer's Kiss
1. In a Mess [2:17]
2. Has-been [5:46]
3. Getting Ready [2:45]
4. A Weak Chin [5:57]
5. "You Need a Vacation" [3:35]
6. The Scream [6:20]
7. Iris's Story [5:50]
8. Over His Head [4:11]
9. Pleasureland Snafu [7:29]
10. Bad Trouble [5:51]
11. To the Rescue [5:15]
12. Alleys and Rooftops [3:53]
13. Mannequin Mayhem [5:16]
14. At The Station [2:41]

Lucia Bozzola

Stanley Kubrick's third feature showed that he was no ordinary director, as he dispensed with traditional time structure to detail the planning and execution of a racetrack heist gone wrong. Combining a non-linear story with a unifying, matter-of-fact voice-over narration, Kubrick constructed an intricate yet lucid cinematic puzzle that shifted back and forth both in time and among the central characters, revealing the personal stakes for each participant by following their individual actions leading up to the fateful seventh race. Johnny the leader thinks he has it all under control, but, in true Kubrick fashion, his plan is not immune to human failure. While the fractured time frame and use of long takes and tracking shots signaled Kubrick's stylistic break from classical form, the sharp black-and-white photography, Marie Windsor's insidious femme fatale, and Sterling Hayden's doomed Johnny place The Killing in the mode of 1940s/1950s film noir. His first film made on a reasonable budget and with an established cast of pros, The Killing caught critics' attention and established Kubrick as a director to watch, especially for such future cinematic time-tricksters as Quentin Tarantino. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: James Edwards  Actor 
Robert B. Williams  Actor 
Dorothy Adams  Actor 
Tito Vuolo  Actor 
William Benedict  Actor 
James Griffith  Actor 
Steve Mitchell  Actor 
Mary Carroll  Actor 
Kola Kwarian  Actor 
Gerald Fried  Composer (Music Score) 
James B. Harris  Producer 
Stanley Kubrick  Director 
Stanley Kubrick  Screenwriter 
Jim Thompson  Screenwriter 
Sterling Hayden  Actor 
Coleen Gray  Actor 
Marie Windsor  Actor 
Elisha Cook, Jr.  Actor 
Vince Edwards  Actor 
Jay C. Flippen  Actor 
Ted de Corsia  Actor 
Joe Sawyer  Actor 
Timothy Carey  Actor 
Jay Adler  Actor 
Joe Turkel  Actor 

Country: USA