Watched: 02/07/2026
Format: DVD
Viewing: Unknown
Director: Robert Wise
In the world of film noir, there's movies that are a bit gritty, and then there's movies like Born to Kill (1947) that look around at the shadier movies and say "hold my beer".
First - we don't talk enough about Claire Trevor. Stunningly good actor who has been largely forgotten by non-classic film buffs, but who won an Academy Award the year after this movie for her remarkable role in Key Largo. Trevor didn't just work in noir, but in noir - she's one of the most active women of the genre, and is who you give a role to when you know the character is going to get extreme and you need for them to still feel like someone you might know in real life. She's also fantastic in Murder, My Sweet, Raw Deal, Dead End, and you might know her from Stagecoach.
Here, she plays a woman seeking a divorce in classic 1940's fashion - by going to Reno for six weeks and then being granted her divorce. As she's planning her return home, her neighbor is murdered by a jealous boyfriend, played by Lawrence Tierney.* She doesn't know it was him, but she stumbles on the bodies but doesn't call the cops - wanting to stay out of whatever happened and just get home.
