Born to Kill (1947)
(Robert Wise, US 1947, 92 min., 35mm)
Deviant miscreants collide in this dark two-hander starring film noir veterans Claire Trevor and Lawrence Tierney. Violent drifter Sam Wilde (Tierney) discovers that Reno boarding house owner Laury Palmer (Isabel Jewell) was just romancing him to make her boyfriend Danny (Tony Barrett) jealous. So he kills them both in a fit of rage. Helen Brent (Trevor), who has been living at the boarding house while she waits for her divorce, finds the bodies, but instead of contacting the police, hops a train to San Francisco, wary of the extra time she’ll have to spend in Reno. Sam and Helen meet on the train and begin a dangerous partnership that will involve an inheritance, deception, and murder.
Post-screening discussion with Curator of Film Exhibitions Jared Case.