From the Vaults

THE KILLING (1956) (B) - Stanley Kubrick's first film as writer and director is a classic film noir centered around a racetrack heist. What might have been cutting edge 60 years ago now feels dated and a bit formulaic.

The venerable Sterling Hayden stars as Johnny Clay, the leader of a ring of criminals and insiders hoping for a big payday. Johnny's fresh from prison and itching to get back in the game.

Kubrick's mix of noir and cinema verite and his smooth camera techniques surely seemed ground-breaking at the time. Sixty years on, it can come across as chatty and hokey. The racetrack scenes are intimate and exciting. And the dialogue, credited to Kubrick's co-writer, the novelist Jim Thompson ("The Grifters"), snaps with wisecracks.

Marie Windsor (whose resume includes such titles as "The Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend" and "Cat-Women of the Moon") sizzles as sassy Sherry, the bored wife of bit player George (character actor Elisha Cook Jr.). Sherry is two-timing the feckless George with hunky rival Val Cannon (Vince Edwards), who hopes to intercept the big haul. Windsor just tears up the screen as she tears down George and tears into Val, and she knows how to curl up on a bed.

Kubrick has the tools here, but his story is rather run-of-the-mill. The 85 minutes zip by, but it's not the best noir or the best heist film you'll see.

LA NOTTE (1961) (B+) - Sharp and stylish, this gem from Michelangelo Antonioni follows a novelist and his wife as they meander, together and apart, around Milan's social scene.

What must have seemed revolutionary in 1961 -- documentary-like street scenes, a shambling narrative -- doesn't seem so insightful more than half a century later. Marcello Mastroianni is Giovanni Pontano, a hot young novelist who is already jaded by the literary circles he circulates in. Jeanne Moreau is his bored wife, Lidia. Monica Vitti -- Antonioni's muse from his masterpiece of the year before, "L'Avventura" -- pops up in the second half as a melancholy temptress, too subdued to succumb to a fling.

Giovanni and Lidia wander around Milan over the course of 24 hours, beginning in the hotel room of a dying fellow writer and randomly passing through a nightclub featuring a limber dancer who can balance a wine glass like no one you know. The second half lingers at a lush formal garden party, where an industrialist lures Giovanni to a cushy job and the guests struggle with existential angst amid the delicacies and riches.

It's all hip and provocative. These days, though, it's almost a bit quaint.

BONUS TRACKS
Marie Windsor with Elisha Cook Jr. in "The Killing":



Here Hayden catches her snooping: