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Born to Kill

Play trailer Poster for Born to Kill 1947 1h 32m Crime Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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86% Tomatometer 7 Reviews 75% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
Drifter Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney) murders a Reno, Nev., boardinghouse owner and her boyfriend in a fit of jealousy. Tenant Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) discovers the bodies, but instead of reporting the crime, she leaves for San Francisco as planned to return to her wealthy fiancé. On the same train, Sam flirts with Helen, then tracks her to her half-sister's house, where he continues to pursue her. Although Helen suspects Sam is a murderer, she inexplicably protects him from an investigator.
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Born to Kill

Critics Reviews

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Nick Schager Lessons of Darkness 05/16/2006
B
Competent if slightly too tame for a supposedly sleazy story. Go to Full Review Fernando F. Croce Slant Magazine 05/01/2006
The usually meek Robert Wise trades his chameleonic tastefulness for full-on, jazzy misanthropy in this nasty melodrama. Go to Full Review Noah Berlatsky Splice Today 1d
Born To Kill mercilessly shows that the beguiling masculinity of good-looking, man’s man Sam is a thin façade above a toxic pit of entitlement, jealousy, paranoia and violence. Go to Full Review Mike Massie Gone With The Twins 08/05/2020
10/10
One of the most acerbic of all films noir, boasting essentially no redeemable characters (or a wealth of deliciously evil villains) while also being utterly enthralling. Go to Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews 07/15/2016
3/4
...a fairly typical film-noir premise that's employed to watchable yet entirely unmemorable effect by Robert Wise... Go to Full Review Jeffrey M. Anderson Combustible Celluloid 09/09/2005
3/4
Hard to watch, but effective and alluring nonetheless. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Blobbo X @Blobbo 6d Nicely done little noir, directed by the great Robert Wise. (Gene Tierney was guy played Elaine's father on Seinfeld.) Not major but kept the clocks at bay. See more tucker s @tucker83014 Oct 29 Brilliant film noir. Lawrence Tierney does a magnificent job as a filthy rotten scoundrel, primarily because that's what he actually was in real life. See more David K @RT61474040 06/19/2025 I'm a sucker for Claire Trevor and do love the work of Elijah Wood. This film works for me. It takes back to a time when the actual violence so decried upon its release is always off camera. That can still be a brutal thing but points out the degree to which things have changed. See more acsdoug D @acsdoug 03/13/2025 It's a decent noir. I liked the fact few of the characters are clearcut good or bad. The moral gray area makes the film more interesting. See more Steve D @RT35616104 03/31/2024 Trevor knocks this out of the park but everything else is also good See more Kurt F @KurtFranke 03/18/2024 One of my favorite Film Noirs. See more Read all reviews
Born to Kill

My Rating

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Cast & Crew

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Robert Wise

Director

Lawrence Tierney

Sam Wild

Claire Trevor

Helen Brent

Walter Slezak

Matthew Albert Arnett

Phillip Terry

Fred Grover

Audrey Long

Georgia Staples

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Born to Kill

Born to Kill (1947) Born to Kill (1947) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis Drifter Sam Wilde (Lawrence Tierney) murders a Reno, Nev., boardinghouse owner and her boyfriend in a fit of jealousy. Tenant Helen Brent (Claire Trevor) discovers the bodies, but instead of reporting the crime, she leaves for San Francisco as planned to return to her wealthy fiancé. On the same train, Sam flirts with Helen, then tracks her to her half-sister's house, where he continues to pursue her. Although Helen suspects Sam is a murderer, she inexplicably protects him from an investigator.
Director
Robert Wise
Producer
Herman Schlom
Screenwriter
Eve Greene, Richard Macaulay
Production Co
RKO Radio Pictures Inc.
Genre
Crime, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Apr 30, 1947, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
May 23, 2016
Runtime
1h 32m
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