The Killing
By Kit Macdonald
While playing chess in Washington Square, New York City, the young Stanley Kubrick met the film producer James B. Harris, who considered Kubrick "the most intelligent, most creative person I have ever come in contact with". The two formed the Harris-Kubrick Pictures Corporation in 1955 and The Killing, which came out the following year, was the first fruit of their collaboration. Hardboiled fiction writer Jim Thompson was hired to write the script, and the result was an engrossing film noir based on Lionel White's novel Clean Break.
The story of a high-stakes heist at a racecourse gone wrong, The Killing's urgent camera style and nonlinear narrative structure has influenced generations of crime film makers, including Quentin Tarantino. Though it didn't make any money at the time, it established Kubrick's reputation among critics and studio executives as one of the best young directors in Hollywood.