Born to Kill **** (1947, Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Walter Slezak) – Classic Movie Review 5253

Welcome to the tale of the SILKEN SAVAGE and the BULLET-MAN, ‘the coolest killer a woman ever loved’! Director Robert Wise’s 1947 film noir stars Lawrence Tierney as killer Sam Wilde, who in Reno weds the nervous (and no wonder!) Georgia Staples (Audrey Long) and involves her in his nefarious activities. But he is really attracted to her magnetic but calculating, divorced half-sister, Helen Brent (Claire Trevor).

Wise’s hard-bitten, cynical and exciting thriller is powerfully acted, especially by B-movie bad guy actor Tierney, who has a field day, and by Trevor, who inhabits her character and the lowlife world as expertly as if to the manner born.

It is chillingly and fragrantly handled by director Wise, who looks at home away from the sweetness of his biggest hit, The Sound of Music (1965).

Also in the cast are Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry, Elisha Cook Jnr, Isabel Jewell, Esther Howard, Kathryn Card, Tony Barrett, Grandon Rhodes, Demetrius Alexis, Symona Boniface, Ruth Brennan, Ellen Corby, Sayre Dearing, Joe Dixon, Neal Dodd, Jean Fenwick, Lee Frederick, Ben Frommer, Harry Harvey, Martha Hyer, Perc Launders, Sam Lufkin, Beatrice Maude, Al Murphy, Tommy Noonan, Netta Parker, Sammy Shack, Phil Warren and Napoleon Whiting.

It is written by Eve Greene and Richard Macauley, based on the Novel: Deadlier than the Male by James Gunn, and shot in black and white by Robert de Grasse.

It was re-titled Lady of Deceit in GB.

Jason Robards Sr’s scenes as the conductor were deleted.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5253

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