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What did you rate ''Born to Kill'' (1947)?

posted 14 years ago by J. Spurlin
6 replies | jump to latest

I loved every minute of this violent, well-plotted, gorgeously photographed crime film. Claire Trevor is terrific as the cold, calculating woman desperate to keep alive the spark of humanity that's fading; and Lawrence Tierney is just as good as the hotheaded, homicidal social climber. Walter Slezak, Elisha Cook and Esther Howard provide marvelous supporting characters. Robert Wise has provided me with so many pleasurable hours of movie-watching, and now he's just given me a couple of more.

imdb.com/title/tt0039211/ratings

I rated Born to Kill 9/10. What did you rate it? What did you think of it?

...Justin

[–] timmy_501 12 years ago

I thought it was terrible, 3/10. I was really looking forward to this too as I've really enjoyed everything else I've seen from Robert Wise. The photography was merely adequate, not comparable to other Wise films. It was definitely the highlight, though, at least compared to the bad script with the stupid characters and their nonexistent motivation. Ex: In the Sam character I saw an unlikable sociopath and every character in the film who encounters falls in love with him. I'm not sure how you could think any part of this was "marvelous," to each his own I suppose.

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[–] chicago85 10 years ago

I gave it an 8 although it had flaws. So many old movies have cop out endings due to the Hay's Code.

Actually I think "Out of The Past" with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas is a better movie. It came out the same year and had a woman (Jane Greer) deadlier than any of the men.

I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else

[–] timmy_501 10 years ago

Out of the Past was very good indeed.

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[–] sleepybone 10 years ago

Funny that Out of the Past got mentioned here--I was just thinking how very much the second female lead in Past (Virginia Huston) looks like the second female lead in Born to Kill (Audrey Long). And the second female lead in another mid-forties noir, Detour, looks just like the other two (Claudia Drake). Check it out!

btw, I rated Born to Kill 8/10.

[–] imdb6-548-565158 10 years ago

It had flaws?? Seldom have I seen so many characters in a film who were doing things either that were unlikely or without motivation: Claire Trevor's sister gets married to a man she doesn't even know -- they are never in a single frame alone together; a woman goes out to a deserted beach at midnight to meet a guy she'd only seen once for perhaps 5 minutes; a guy knifes his best (and only) friend to death because he merely comes out the bedroom of a woman the killer loves? I even had a problem with Trevor blithely deciding not to call the cops after discovering the body of a friend. Count me in with the 3 out of 10 crowd. I mean, there was absolutely nobody to root for here. Walter Slezak was as good as it got.

[–] joystar5879 10 years ago

I gave it a 10. Lawrence Tierney was the male equivalent of Greer's "Kathie Moffat" in OUT OF THE PAST...beautiful and LETHAL.

Claire Trevor came very close, and was very good...but Lawrence Tierney was MAGIC. You couldn't take your eyes off him, and he turned a grade C film into an A- .

BORN TO KILL scared the CR@P out of me,

"I do hope he won't upset Henry.."