Born to Kill (1947)

May 3, 1947, release date

Directed by Robert Wise

Screenplay by Eve Greene, Richard Macaulay

Based on the novel Deadlier Than the Male by James Gunn

Music by Paul Sawtell

Edited by Les Millbrook

Cinematography by Robert De Grasse

Claire Trevor as Helen Brent

Lawrence Tierney as Sam Wilde

Walter Slezak as Albert Arnett

Phillip Terry as Fred Grover

Audrey Long as Georgia Staples

Elisha Cook, Jr. as Mart Waterman

Isabel Jewell as Laury Palmer

Esther Howard as Mrs. Kraft

Kathryn Card as Grace

Tony Barrett as Danny Jaden

Grandon Rhodes as Inspector Wilson

Distributed by RKO Pictures

Born to Kill is a great film, but it is an unusually dark story about murder and obsession. Most films noir are about these topics exactly; Born to Kill examines the reasoning and obsessive impulses of its main characters more closely, and in more detail, than most films noir. The story is quite unsettling, even for viewers today—and almost seventy years after its release.

(This blog post about Born to Kill contains spoilers.)

Helen Brent is in Reno, Nevada, for a quick divorce. Viewers are dropped into the middle of her story. No explanation is offered about her reasons for seeking a divorce, and the little that viewers learn of Helen’s back story occurs only as the current plot unfolds. While in Reno, she has a chance encounter in a gambling house with Sam Wilde. There seems to be some attraction between them, but Sam has other things on his mind that night. His girlfriend, Laury Palmer, is in the casino with another date in a misguided attempt to make Sam jealous. Her plan is effective, but she never anticipated Sam’s response: He follows her and her date to her house when they leave the casino and kills them both. He is efficient and methodical for someone who didn’t plan very far ahead, and that’s because he has had a lot of practice.

Helen is staying in the rooming house next door to the murder scene. She finds Laury’s dog, who escaped when Sam left Laury’s house. She brings the dog to the back door, enters the house, and discovers the bodies. Helen is calm about her discovery of the murder scene. She leaves the dog and returns to her boarding house. She contemplates calling the police but decides against it. She decides instead to leave Reno as quickly as possible.

Sam leaves Reno too, mostly at his roommate’s urging, that same night. Mart Waterman seems like the voice of reason in their friendship. Here is part of their conversation after Sam’s return following the murders:

• Sam: “The Palmer dame’s dead.”

• Mart: “Why’d you do it, Sam?”

• Sam: “I had to. She caught me with him.”

• Mart: “Him?”

• Sam: “That kid. They were making a monkey out of me. Oh, I wouldn’t have killed her too, I guess, but she walked in and saw the kid lying there.”

• Mart: “I’ve been scared something like this’d happen. The way you go off your head. And it’s been worse lately. Ever since the nervous crack-up last summer. Honest, Sam. You go nuts about nothin’. Nothin’ at all. You gotta watch that. You can’t just go around killing people whenever the notion strikes you. It’s not feasible.”

• Sam: “Why isn’t it?”

• Mart: “All right, Sam. All right, it is.”

Mart knows Sam well and assumes right away that Sam killed Laury—and Sam doesn’t deny it. Their comfort level with each other indicates that they have had similar conversations before. Sam offers his rationale for killing both Danny and Laury: “It’s just that I never let anybody cut in on me on anything.” Viewers are not very far into the film, but they know almost from the start that the world in this film is off-kilter and unpredictable.

Helen Brent and Sam Wilde flee Reno for San Francisco and meet on the train when they leave town. The attraction between them is evident, but Helen neglects to mention her fiancé Fred Grover. When Sam discovers Helen’s engagement in San Francisco, a dangerous game of cat and mouse erupts between Sam and Helen. Helen wants both Sam and Fred; Sam decides to marry Helen’s sister Georgia (Helen and Georgia are foster sisters) and invites Mart Waterman to San Francisco. It’s a game both Sam and Helen enjoy and play to the death.

The following conversation between Helen and Sam occurs rather late in the film and explains much of what the two see in each other:

• Helen: “Fred is peace and security.”

• Sam: “It’s his money then.”

• Helen: “Yes, partly. All my life I’ve lived on other people’s money. Now I want some of my own. But there’s another kind of security that Fred can give me. Without him, I’m afraid of the things I’ll do. Afraid of what I might become. Fred is goodness and safety.”

• Sam: “And what am I?”

• Helen: “You? You’re strength, excitement, and depravity. There’s a kind of corruptness inside of you, Sam.”

• Sam: “That would drive most women off if they understood like you do.”

• Helen: “Yes.”

• Sam: “But not you. You have guts. Georgia [Helen’s sister] told me how you found those two in Reno. You had guts then. You didn’t yell or faint.”

• Helen: “No.”

• Sam: “And it wasn’t only finding them dead. It was the way they were dead. The kid jammed in the doorway, the Palmer dame lying there under the sink.”

• Helen: ”Blood on her hair.”

• Sam: “Blood all over the place, and you didn’t yell.”

• Helen: “No, I didn’t.”

Sam and Helen see each other clearly. And Sam is right: Most women—most people—would be repulsed by these character traits and the events that Helen has witnessed. But in the world of film noir, these characters and events are the norm. And Born to Kill portrays its noir world well.

I very much enjoyed the DVD commentary provided by Eddie Muller. He describes the noir moment in Born to Kill, the moment when Helen Brent makes a conscious decision that leads her further into the dark side. This noir moment occurs when Helen decides not to call the police about the murder scene she has found in Laury Palmer’s house. Muller states, “If you are the kind of person who would ask yourself, ‘Why didn’t Helen just call the police?’ chances are that you may not get film noir.” And that may very well be true. But film noir also shows viewers what not to do if they want to sleep well at night. And Born to Kill does that very well, too.