The Killing

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The Killing

1956

1h 23m

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

96%

Tomatometer

75 Reviews

92%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey), a crooked police officer (Ted de Corsia), a bartender (Joe Sawyer) and a betting teller named George (Elisha Cook Jr.), among others, for one last job before he goes straight and marries his fiancée, Fay (Coleen Gray). But when George tells his restless wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

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Critics Consensus

An expertly crafted noir with more on its mind than stylishly staged violence, The Killing establishes Stanley Kubrick as a filmmaker of uncommon vision and control.

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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

1 day ago

Stanley Kubrick had made two pictures before this one, but they were juvenilia; this shrewdly worked out suspense film, which he made at the age of 27, is the real beginning of his career.

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Alan Brien

London Evening Standard

1 day ago

Written and directed by Hollywood's newest miracle boy, 27-year-old Stanley Kubrick, The Killing is a fascinating exercise in criminal craftsmanship.

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Gavin Lambert

Sight & Sound

1 day ago

This shrewd, engrossing, complete-in-itself melodrama is the kind of film one had begun to think was no longer possible to make in Hollywood.

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Tracy M

@RT47763928 Sep 17, 2026

This movie is so interesting to watch as it weaves through each character's part in the story. It's dialogue is well written and the film carries a nice wit!

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James B

@JamesBass Sep 4, 2026

I am not an unconditional Stanley Kubrick devotee. While 2001: A Space Odyssey is an undeniable masterpiece, works like A Clockwork Orange and Eyes Wide Shut leave me cold, leaving Spartacus and Paths of Glory as my long-standing favorites. Going into The Killing, I expected a minor early curiosity but was instead thoroughly and pleasantly surprised.This is lean, razor-sharp film noir stripped of vanity. Kubrick constructs his racetrack heist with mathematical precision, using fragmented timelines to build genuine tension. Crucially, the film refuses to romanticize its criminals. It hammers home the harsh axiom that crime never pays by withholding any comforting catharsis. Instead, these desperate antiheroes face an inevitable demise, watching their grand ambitions quite literally scatter to the wind in the final moments. It is gritty, fatalistic classic cinema at its sharpest.

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bruce F

@bruce999 Aug 4, 2026

nice storyline. believable. worth watching.

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Andr Ferreira F

@andre_f Jul 16, 2026

É uma pena que um filme tão bem feito dê um tombo de qualidade nos últimos 5 minutos. (avaliação: 6/10)

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Ben W

@Username618 Jul 4, 2026

Team work!!! Have seen 'The Killing' (1956), 'Dr Strangelove' (1964), 2001 (1968), A clockwork orange (1971), The Shining (1980), Full Metal Jacket (1987). I think Stanley Kubrick was happiest as a stills photographer- evidence. His camera v. often does not movIe. Tone... strays more to the side of comedy, than it does tragedy; almost always viewing characters with a form of contempt, possibly. A slow pace, punctuated by violence. Meh.

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Max M.

@Househuntermax May 2, 2026

The grandfather of all heist movies. Absolutely brilliant with a jaw dropping ending. If you love crime and heist movies and you haven’t seen this one, stop what you’re doing and watch it right now!

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Stanley Kubrick

Director

Sterling Hayden

Johnny Clay

Coleen Gray

Fay

Vince Edwards

Val Cannon

Jay C. Flippen

Marvin Unger

Marie Windsor

Sherry Peatty

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Synopsis

Career criminal Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) recruits a sharpshooter (Timothy Carey), a crooked police officer (Ted de Corsia), a bartender (Joe Sawyer) and a betting teller named George (Elisha Cook Jr.), among others, for one last job before he goes straight and marries his fiancée, Fay (Coleen Gray). But when George tells his restless wife, Sherry (Marie Windsor), about the scheme to steal millions from the racetrack where he works, she hatches a plot of her own.

Director: Stanley Kubrick
Producer: James B. Harris
Screenwriter: Stanley Kubrick, Jim Thompson, Lionel White
Distributor: United Artists, Criterion Collection
Production Co: Harris-Kubrick Productions
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): May 20, 1956, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 5, 2016
Runtime: 1h 23m

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