BORN TO KILL (1947) ¢ ¢ ¢
D: Robert Wise
Claire Trevor, Lawrence Tierney, Elisha Cook Jr.,
Walter Slezak, Phillip Terry, Audrey Long,
Esther Howard, Isabel Jewell, Kathryn Card
Lawrence Tierney plays a psycho who murders a couple of people, and Claire Trevor plays the newly divorced dame who finds the bodies on the floor. They cross paths at a casino and then on a train on the way out of town, and this being film noir, nothing good happens for them or anybody else. A vicious, low-life thriller with a scary performance by Tierney as a hair-trigger head case women somehow find irresistible. Trevor's role is trickier, a gold-digger angling to marry her way to an elusive sense of self-worth, and her performance is a study in moral disintegration as her facade slips away. Walter Slezak as a verse-loving detective and Elisha Cook Jr., in one of his better roles as Tierney's watchful pal and guardian, provide scene-stealing support.
