The Killing (1956) is the second feature length film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Kubrick and Jim Thompson, based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White. The drama features Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, and others.
After getting out of prison, Johnny Clay masterminds a complex race-track heist, but his scheme is complicated by the intervention of the wife of a teller (George Peatty) in on the scheme, the boyfriend of the wife, airport regulations, and a small dog. Written by Andrew Hyatt
Johnny Clay has a plan. After spending 5 years in Alcatraz, he decides that if he's going to commit crimes, the risk had better be worth the punishment. He then proceeds to mastermind a brilliant criminal scheme to steal $2,000,000 from a local racetrack in which "no one will get hurt." The only flaw in his plan is that he does not consider one of his co-horts' greedy, shrewish wife and her ruthless boyfriend. That's when something goes wrong... Written by Marc-David Jacobs
Ex-convict Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) tells his girl friend, Fay (Coleen Gray), he has plans for making money, and indeed he has. He rounds up a gang and brings them in on a seemingly fool-proof scheme to rob a race track of $200,000. The first thread unravels when Sherry Peatty (Marie Windsor), wife of gang-member George Peatty (Elisha Cook, Jr.), tells her boyfriend Val Cannon (Vince Edwards) about the plan, and he cuts himself in on that action also. The robbery is completed and the gang goes to the hideout where Johnny will join them later. Val sticks up the robbers, a shot is fired, and all hands are soon dispatched. Johnny, with the money in a suitcase, joins Fay at the airport. And the fat lady still hasn't sung. Written by Les Adams
