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The Killing

1956 1h 25m
Crime Thriller Drama
MOVIEVIBE Rating
7.6/10
1,763 reviews
Your Rating
The Killing

Career criminal Johnny Clay recruits a sharpshooter, a crooked police officer, a bartender and a betting teller named George, among others, for one last job before he goes straight and gets married. But when George tells his restless wife about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

"In all its fury and violence..."

Top Billed Cast

Sterling Hayden
Sterling Hayden
Johnny Clay
Coleen Gray
Coleen Gray
Fay
Vince Edwards
Vince Edwards
Val Cannon
Jay C. Flippen
Jay C. Flippen
Marvin Unger
Ted de Corsia
Ted de Corsia
Patrolman Randy Kennan
Marie Windsor
Marie Windsor
Sherry Peatty
Elisha Cook Jr.
Elisha Cook Jr.
George Peatty
Joe Sawyer
Joe Sawyer
Mike O'Reilly

Detailed Critic & Audience Reviews

J John Chard Verified TMDB Critic
2019-03-14

This is a bad joke without a punch line.

The Killing is directed by Stanley Kubrick who co-adapts to screenplay with Jim Thompson from the novel Clean Break written by Lionel White. It stars Sterling Hayden, Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr, Vince Edwards, Jay C. Flippen and Coleen Gray. Music is by Gerald Fried and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.

Ex-con Johnny Clay (Hayden) has a plan to make a killing at the racetrack, with some special inside help he plots to nab $2 million in an intricate robbery. It looks a good thing, the right people are in place, but there's a potential spanner i...

C CinemaSerf Verified TMDB Critic
2023-06-20

Though it's Sterling Hayden who takes top billing here, it's actually Marie Windsor who steals the show as "Sherry". She is the rather money-grabbing, bullying, wife of "George" (Elisha Cook Jr). Now he works in the cashier's office at the local racetrack where "Mike" (Joe Sawyer) works behind the bar. These two are to be lynch pins in a daring plan to rob the place of two million dollars as it's feature race brings in the punters. Ex-con "Johnny" (Hayden) is the brains behind the scheme that also includes a bent cop "Randy" (Ted de Corsia), marksman "Nikki" (Timothy Carey) and financier "Unge...