Born To Kill, Born Into This

As Robert Wise wryly noted within the commentary track for his brilliant noir Born to Kill -- Lawrence Tierney wasn’t always acting. Particularly when a scene required a hot-blooded rage so intense that the bad mood bruiser resorts to beating a man and woman to death.  No Adler, no Stanislavski, no thoughts of the last time your girlfriend cheated on you, it was there without the asking -- Tierney was that frighteningly, fantastically natural. And in Born to Kill, he’s something of a thuggish genius.

One of the toughest actors on and off the screen (Ever, period.), the hard-boiled legend was a notorious character (with a record) who lived on the edge of danger and menace with such tremendous gusto, that you can’t get through Hollywood without hearing a classic, train-wreck Tierney story (my friend Eddie Muller -- who also graces Born To Kill with an excellent commentary track -- provides one of the best here).  But the man was more than his drunken myth, more than the bald, gravel voiced geezer bad-ass Joe Cabot in Reservoir Dogs, more than the guy who pulled a knife on Jerry Seinfeld (which is hilarious), he was a young, strikingly handsome actor with such a powerfully dangerous screen presence and such a messy personal life that he was just too much -- too much of a good/bad thing.  

Born to Kill (along with The Devil Thumbs a Ride) showcases Tierney at the peak of his punching powers. Nasty, mean, mysterious and disturbingly, intriguingly erotic -- his brutality offers the viewer a confusingly attractive blend of sadism and sex. Part of the picture’s kinkiness lies in his pairing with the fantastic Claire Trevor, the femme fatale to his L'homme fatal. He may beat and kill whomever inspires his ire, but Trevor easily, coolly discusses how painful it is for a victim to die: “A piece of metal sliding into your body, finding its way into your heart. Or a bullet tearing through your skin, crashing into a bone.” she purrs. Naturally, the black-hearted climber falls for the like-minded Lawrence -- nothing’s hotter than finding the one man or woman who’ll understand you, while swirling each other like sharks. Dysfunction this inspired can only lead to the bedroom.

And Wise (working from the novel by James Gunn) understands all this beautiful, hopped up horror.  Utilizing everything he learned from Val Lewton to stunning effect, from his gorgeous noir lighting (with cinematographer Robert De Grasse) to genuinely nightmarish, violent attack sequences, the movie sucks you into its toxic universe with such gritty gorgeousness, you can’t help but be mesmerized by such awful people. You, and especially in the case of Tierney, grow to admire them. 

This fatalistic fondness is doubly troubling when you again recall the moment Tierney kills his ex-girlfriend and her lover -- it’s still so shocking, you can’t believe your modern eyes haven’t become accustomed to such violence. But this is Tierney after all, a man who he keeps you thrillingly off kilter. Working alongside a stellar supporting cast (Walter Slezak, an inspired Esther Howard and a perfect, noir fixture Elisha Cook Jr.) Tierney is…good god…so wonderfully evil. Young Tierney is a man with immense sex appeal, the ultimate alpha male, the ultimate tough guy just dripping with ticking time bomb rushes of testosterone. When anger flashes across those eyes, he’s potently scary, mad-dog real.

A unique cross between smoothness (in Born to Kill his voice is more noir punctuated and level over gravely) and harsh moodiness ready to explode, we immediately recognize he’s no fake. But we are talking about a guy who, in real life was reportedly arrested more times than one of his more famous characters: John Dillinger. Though he grew grumpy of such typecasting, he had to know just how good he was at the level ten tough guy. No other actor tops this kind of specific anger -- an anger we can only wonder about. Where’s this fury coming from? He was troubled, certainly, but perhaps, as Bukowski would say, Tierney was truly born into this.

Comments

[Reno Sepulveda]

That Claire Trevor, God what a dame. I always imagine her coming back to Key Largo, doting on Lionel Barrymore and tending the bar.

[Steve-O]

Hey there Kim... great job on Born to Kill. One of my favorites. Tierney may have been a jerk in person but he was sure fun to watch. You can catch the Noir of the Week on it here: http://tinyurl.com/5aq7sv

Great job on this article.

[sunset gun]

Good stuff, what SG does best. Sure beats that Bond nonsense.