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Born to Kill [1947] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
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Our Price: £8.29 (subject to change)
Darker and more perverse than you can possibly imagine!
Review date: 2006-11-07 Rating: 10 out of 10
The oft-wasted (in both senses of the word) Lawrence Tierney is seen to much better effect than usual in Born to Kill, truly one of the most perverse noir romances of all time. The two leads aren't ill-starred lovers or victims of fate, they're born bad and they know it - indeed, nothing gets them hotter than talking about dead bodies. There is a rather worrying subtext that this is down to their lower-class birth, but you get the impression even if they had been born in high society that these two would have shown up the Borgias for the amateurs they were. At times it's hard to tell who is the more ruthless, Tierney's calculating but none-too-bright bull-headed murderous thug or Claire Trevor's magpie in the nest, who may not actually kill but probably does far worse - as Esther Howard says, she carries her own curse inside of her. There's great support from Elisha Cook ("I'm a baaad boy!") and, especially, Walter Slezak, superb as the wistfully philosophical private detective on their trail, open to the best offer going from either side but still not the stereotyped corrupt P.I. you expect from the genre, and refreshingly he isn't given the fate you expect either thanks to a constantly unexpected script by Eve Greene and Richard Macaulay. The tarnished, slightly grubby conscience of a film noir like no other, he's the closest thing Robert Wise's superb movie has to a hero.
Warners Region 1 NTSC DVD boasts a fine transfer and an excellent audio commentary by Eddie Muller that includes some outrageous Tierney stories for good measure. Highly recommended, and how!
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Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Lawrence Tierney
Phillip Terry
Walter Slezak
Audrey Long
Claire Trevor
Creators:
Claire Trevor (Primary Contributor)
Lawrence Tierney (Primary Contributor)
Robert De Grasse (Cinematographer)
Les Millbrook (Editor)
Herman Schlom (Producer)
Sid Rogell (Producer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 9780780650657
Binding: DVD
ISBN: 0780650654
Number of items: 1
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC,
Release date: 2005-07-05
Universal product code (UPC): 053939724622
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Region code: 1
Running time: 92 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1947-05-03
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)