The Killing

The Killing centers on Johnny Clay's plan to rob a racetrack during a horse race. Sterling Hayden plays Johnny in Stanley Kubrick's 1956 heist noir.

The film uses fractured chronology, replaying parts of the racetrack robbery from different angles. That structure was unusual in 1956 and later influenced crime films such as Reservoir Dogs.

The Killing is based on Lionel White's novel Clean Break. Kubrick and producer James B. Harris adapted it into a lean noir about planning, greed, and failure.

It is one of Kubrick's early features, released before Paths of Glory in 1957 and Spartacus in 1960. The film already shows his interest in precise visual planning and doomed systems.