The Killing

Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING: 70^th Anniversary! (1956, 80 min)

One of the most influential heist films ever made, this taut crime thriller marked Kubrick’s breakthrough after two smaller independent features. Veteran crook Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) assembles a meticulous racetrack robbery, only to see the plan unravel thanks to betrayal and bad luck. Though it received no Oscar recognition and struggled at the box office, its razor-sharp structure and fatalistic tone made it a critics’ favorite. Marie Windsor steals scenes as the scheming Sherry, injecting the story with venomous wit. Long celebrated as a noir essential, it directly inspired later classics, most famously Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs.”