It stars Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, and Vince Edwards, and features Marie Windsor, Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen and Timothy Carey.

[1] Johnny Clay, a career criminal recently released from prison, plans the heist of a horse racetrack, with an estimated take of two million dollars.

Johnny discloses that two other men will be involved, and paid low, flat fees for their roles: a sharpshooter will kill the favored horse in the race to sow confusion, and a wrestler will make a scene at the bar to create a diversion.

When a baggage cart driver swerves in order to avoid hitting a dog, the suitcase bursts open, and the money is scattered in the wind by a propeller.

The two are not incompatible.While playing chess in Washington Square, Kubrick met producer James B. Harris, who had sold his film distribution company and was looking for a new young talent.

[6] Harris purchased the rights to Lionel White's novel Clean Break for $10,000, beating United Artists, which was interested in the film as a vehicle for Frank Sinatra.

United Artists told the pair that it would help finance the picture if Harris and Kubrick could find a high-profile actor to star.

But Hayden wasn't a big enough star for UA, which wound up providing only $200,000 for the film; Harris financed the rest using $80,000 of his own money and a $50,000 loan from his father.

In addition to Hayden, Kubrick cast actors from films noirs he liked, such as Carey, de Corsia, Elisha Cook Jr. and Marie Windsor.

Time wrongly predicted that it would "make a killing at the cash booths"—asserting that Kubrick "has shown more audacity with dialogue and camera than Hollywood has seen since the obstreperous Orson Welles went riding out of town on an exhibitors' poll"—as the film recorded a loss of $130,000.

The website's consensus reads: "An expertly crafted noir with more on its mind than stylishly staged violence, The Killing establishes Stanley Kubrick as a filmmaker of uncommon vision and control.

[11] New York Times film critic A. H. Weiler wrote, "Though The Killing is composed of familiar ingredients and it calls for fuller explanations, it evolves as a fairly diverting melodrama. ...

"[12] Variety liked the acting and wrote, "This story of a $2 million race track holdup and steps leading up to the robbery, occasionally told in a documentary style which at first tends to be somewhat confusing, soon settles into a tense and suspenseful vein which carries through to an unexpected and ironic windup ... Hayden socks over a restrained characterization, and Cook is a particular standout.

"[13] Kubrick and Harris thought the positive critical reception had made their presence known in Hollywood, but Max Youngstein of United Artists still considered them "not far from the bottom" of the pool of new talent at the time.

"[17] The same year, director Peter Bogdanovich wrote in The New York Times that while The Killing did not make money, it, along with Paths of Glory, established "Kubrick's reputation as a budding genius among critics and studio executives.

"[20] A digitally restored version of The Killing was released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection, which also included Killer's Kiss as a bonus feature.