“The Killing”
Noir City: the 22nd Annual Film Noir Festival
3200 Grand Avenue, Oakland
January 25, 2025
Never could I have imagined that my love of Stanley Kubrick’s 1956 film “The Killing” would lead to a discussion about Moroccan Gnawa music. Somehow this unlikely confluence occurred at Oakland’s beautiful 1926 Grand Lake Theatre. I was there to see one of my favorite movies on the big screen for the first time, in my opinion one of the best heist movies ever made. As Kubrick so deftly demonstrated in his third feature film, written and directed by the great filmmaker when he was only 28, unanticipated events can alter even the most well-planned designs, upending expectations. The evening was filled with unforeseen surprises.
I showed up early enough that the first film of the evening’s double feature, Jacques Tourneur’s 1947 “Out of the Past,” hadn’t yet let out. I’d spent too much time dallying in the theatre’s upper and lower lobbies, taking in the many noir fans dressed in '40s and '50s attire; and browsing the booths set up to sell noir-themed merchandise (books courtesy of Walden Pond Books), so I missed the organ performance on the Grand Lake’s Mighty Wurlitzer that rises up from the floor in front of the main screen’s luminescent movie palace curtains.
The Grand Lake's Mighty Wurlitzer. | Video Amine Mouline
Amine Mouline, a friendly film buff from the South Bay in the row in front of me, told me that the tune "Smile," from Charlie Chaplain’s 1936 film “Modern Times,” had been played on the Wurlitzer. He shared with me a video he’d taken of the performance, and we struck up a conversation. When I expressed curiosity about his Arabic name, Amine told me he was Moroccan and Andalusian. He was surprised to learn that I’m a fan of Gnawa, the complex and hypnotic religious songs of Morocco. Who knew a racetrack heist would intersect with a 16th century indigenous West African musical form?
A jazz combo led by Nick Rossi before the show.
After a jazz combo performance led by Nick Rossi, Kubrick’s dark masterpiece was introduced by Film Noir Foundation founder and president Eddie Muller, and his fellow Turner Classic Movies host Alicia Malone. It was a treat to see in person two TCM personalities I’ve watched on the small screen. And another happy surprise: the film we were about to watch wasn’t to be digital, as originally scheduled, but instead was a restored original 35 millimeter print from the private collection of Peter Conheim, a member of the legendary Bay Area audio collage band Negativland.
At the end of the intro, Muller brought out his 20-year-old cat, Tizzy, to the packed audience’s affectionate oohs and ahhs. I couldn’t believe how calm Tizzy was—that was one chill cat.
On screen, Johnny Clay (played by Sterling Hayden) was the leader of a plot to burgle Landsdown Racetrack in a highly organized scheme. The take promised to be a cool $2 million, and nearly everyone involved in the conspiracy has a motive for desiring a cut of the dough: crooked cop Randy Kennan (Ted de Corsia) is in debt to the mob; racetrack cashier George Peatty (Elisha Cook, Jr.), in a loveless marriage to his greedy and cheating wife Sherry (played with wicked deliciousness by Marie Windsor), wants money to win his duplicitous spouse’s affection; racetrack bartender Mike O'Reilly (Joe Sawyer) needs funds to care for his wife who’s deathly ill. Ringleader and recently-released-from-prison Johnny just wants enough money to get out of a life of crime and marry his sweetheart Fay (Coleen Gray). The gang’s kindly financial backer, Marvin Unger (Jay C. Flippen), and Maurice Oboukhoff, a wrestler and chess genius (Kola Kwariani), also appear.
And then there's rifle expert Nikki Arcane, played creepily and wonderfully by Timothy Carey, who speaks through clenched teeth. He is hired to shoot the horse "Red Lightning" during a race as a distraction in order for the heist to go down. There are several more secondary and tertiary characters as well, each one of them essential pieces of the robbery puzzle.
Sherry wasn’t supposed to be involved in the criminal endeavor at all; but, she seduces information out of her simp husband and later gets caught eavesdropping on the planning of the heist. Not before letting her lover, Val Cannon (Vince Edwards), know about the nascent plans, though! The first chink in the armor of an otherwise ironclad connivance. More mishaps follow, including a drunken appearance by Marvin at the racetrack, an unlucky horseshoe that punctures Nikki’s tire, and, of course, Val’s interference in an attempt to steal the stolen loot.
The structure of the film, based on the novel “Clean Break” by Lionel White, is non-linear, with scenes overlapping one another, taking place at different times on the same day. Apparently, this was too confusing for screen-test audiences, and for United Artists who demanded that the film be re-cut to place all sequences in chronological order.
Thank God the re-cut never happened, or this classic film noir gem wouldn’t be the masterwork it is.
After the final misfortune at the film’s dolorous ending, the crowded theater burst into rousing applause. Amine and I lingered to chat about the movie and some of Kubrick’s other films. It was nearing midnight, so we parted ways beneath the colored lights of the Grand Lake’s marquee, the air crisp and cold. But I felt warm by the experience I’d just had at Noir City 22. And on the drive home I Spotifyed some Gnawa music.
Noir City 22 programming runs daily now through February 2nd, 2025 at the Grand Lake Theater. Showtimes and tickets can be found here.
