THE KILLING (1956)

In film noir, the best laid plans of rats and cons oft goes awry, as in Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING. Fresh out of prison, Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) masterminds a brilliant and complex scheme to heist $2 million from a local racetrace. He and his cohorts make off with a duffle of bag of money, but Fate intervenes in some nasty guises including one shrewish wife (Marie Windsor) and her ruthless boyfriend (a pre-Dr. Ben Casey Vince Edwards); an immutable airport regulation, and one small dog. Result: a hotel room littered with bodies and a runway littered with fives, tens and twenties. This is a really interesting plot, complex but thoroughly engaging. Watch for some familiar noir faces, including Elisha Cook (Sydney Greenstreet's wormy gunsel in THE MALTESE FALCON).