BORN TO KILL (1947)

A bleak and brutal film noir, directed by Robert Wise. Renowed B-movie tough guy Lawrence Tierney is an intense psychopath (who is not nearly as attractive as all the characters keep saying he is); the girl he's seeing in Reno (Isabel Jewell) intends to make him jealous by stepping out with another guy (Tony Barrett), but Tierney winds up killing them both, then going on the lam to San Francisco. The dead girl's landlady (Esther Howard) hires a detective (Walter Slezak, coming off a bit like M. Emmet Walsh in BLOOD SIMPLE) who picks up on Tierney's trail. Also involved is Claire Trevor, who was living in the same house with Jewell while her divorce went through, and who saw both the dead bodies before the cops did. In San Francisco, Tierney lusts after Trevor, but she has a rich fiance (Phillip Terry) so he goes after Trevor's sister (Audrey Long) instead. Trevor discovers the truth about Tierney but is attracted to him for his (in her words) "strength, depravity, and corruption." Meanwhile, Tierney's buddy (Elisha Cook Jr.) tracks down Howard and tries to kill her one night on a deserted beach, but Tierney, thinking Cook has been flirting with Trevor, follows and, in a truly nightmarish scene, goes after Cook. Things just get more twisted from there until the inevitable downbeat ending. The most perverse moment in the film (and maybe in all 40's noir) is when Tierney and Trevor get all hot and bothered by rubbing against each other while reminiscing in detail about the dead bodies of Jewell and Barrett. Tierney sounds like George Raft and sometimes looks like a harsh-edged Gene Kelly. The only truly caring relationship in the movie is Cook's genuine feelings of concern for Tierney, but that doesn't get Cook a happy ending. Also with Ellen Corby, and Tommy Noonan (see DING DONG WILLIAMS, 1/16) as a cute bellboy who flirts with Howard. A good solid noir film with virtually no redeeming characters. [TCM]