Born to Kill

In Robert Wise’s Born to Kill, Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney) and Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) get so turned on in each other’s arms as they recount in gruesome detail the two corpses of his victims that it’s a wonder this perverse film made it past the Production Code. Wilde embodies the unspeakable connection between lust and violence (“You get the sense if you step out of line, he’d kick you in the teeth,” says an infatuated Laury Palmer); when Helen learns about Sam’s murder of Laury (Isbael Jewell) and her date, it only amps up her desire (“You’re strength and excitement and depravity,” Helen says). While a roll in the hay may be fun, Helen’s determined to marry the wealthy but boring Fred Grover (Philip Terry); her feelings become much more complicated, however, when Sam decides to seduce her kindhearted sister Georgia (Audrey Long), sole heir to the family fortune. Wise, one of Hollywood’s most reliable craftsmen, creates plenty of gorgeous compositions, most notably the now iconic overhead slow zoom toward Wilde having a telephone conversation on his bed. Note the performances of Elisha Cook, Jr. as Sam’s devoted and almost certainly gay best friend (and occasional bed mate?) and Esther Howard as the frumpy landlady who loves beer and hires a private detective to investigate the murders.