Born To Kill follows the attributes of Film Noir very closely. It opens with the double murder of a couple by a jealous lover, Sam. A friend of the murdered couple and femme fatale, Helen, tracks Sam down as he's leaving for San Francisco, and becomes quite smitten by his controlling and brutal demeanor. What follows is a typical twisty narrative as both Sam and Helen enter into seperate sham relationships to gain money and power as a detective, Arnett, tracks Sam down. Arnett, despite being a side character is one of the highlights of the film. Unlike most noir detectives he is exceedingly well spoken in a very literary way, friendly, and non-violent. He often has some of the wittiest and most poetic lines. Such as this little pithy piece of wisdom: "As you grow older, you'll discover that life is very much like coffee: the aroma is always better than the actuality. May that be your thought for the day." But in keeping with Noir tradition Arnett is not as virtuous as he may seem being more than willing to sell his sense of justice for the right price or to scam his client out of a little extra for "incidental expenses". The client in question Mrs. Kraft, a friend of both the victims and Helen, I imagine would be a favorite for a lot of people. A no-nonsense, day drinking, obnoxious, old single woman is always a fun character, and especially rare to see in such an old film. However, she did begin to grate a little bit. Not so with the other comedic character, Sam's henchman, Marty. Marty is the typical wormy type, and has some fun lines when playing off Sam including this memorable exchange:
Marty: Honest, Sam, you go nuts about nothin'. Nothin' at all. You gotta' watch that. You can't just go around killin' people whenever the notion strikes you. It's not feasible.
Sam: [angrily] Why isn't it!
Marty: All right, Sam. All right. It is.
However, its notable that more often then not Marty is the butt of the jokes. His attachment and loyalty to Sam, as well as his manner of speech strike me as gay coding (it's not atypical of the genre to have a coded gay henchman follow the villain around), and that certainly lends his character an uncomfortable feeling for modern sensibilities. However, even when he's not being the butt of the joke his pleasant affect and generally lighter tone do help the Born to Kill maintain a more even tone without getting bogged down in the doldrums of generally terrible people doing terrible things for an hour and a half. Terrible people doing terrible things certainly describes our two leads Helen and Sam. Sam is the typical brutish, and abusive Noir villain. His motivations only extend so far as gaining power to control other people, and his only means are violence. He's also portrayed as stupid and gullible. He is effortlessly manipulated by Helen, especially near the end where he is thrown into a murderous rage against his wife because Helen suggested, with no evidence, that she wants to drive them apart. This not only leads directly to his arrest, but kills any chance he would have at gaining the money and power that was the sole motivation for the marriage. Helen isn't much better of a character, while Sam uses violence, Helen uses threat and sexuality (god forbid we show a woman being violent in the 40's of course). She pretends to be interested in a man only for his money, and threatens Mrs. Kraft to get her to call off the police. The threat in question genuinely frightening and one of the more memorable lines in the film: "Perhaps you don't realize. It's painful being killed. A piece of metal sliding into your body...finding its way into your heart. Or a bullet tearing your skin, crashing into a bone. It takes a while to die, too. Sometimes a long while."
Watching Helen and Sam, two absolutely despicable individuals, interact highlights a subtle difference between the turbulent, dramatic, and admittedly fun to watch "romances" between awful people in Noir films such as Born to Kill and the annoying, unpleasant, and terrible "romance" in Gone with the Wind (1939). It's all a matter of context. Noir films aren't trying to disguise the horrific traits of their leads under a gross layer of romanticizing Hollywood schmaltz, rather they are letting us in on the grimy grossness that we all secretly want to see and engage with (if only for the novelty). Furthermore, Noir films show terrible things happening to the terrible people who do terrible things providing a sense of moral catharsis that Gone with the Wind actively avoids. Granted they also tend show terrible things happening to the good people who try to do good things, but that succeeds in satisfying the cynicism of the audience. This also highlights the point that romanticism and nostalgia can age into obsolescence, due to what is perceived as acceptable changing, but cynicism surrounding the unambiguously evil lasts forever.
All in all Born to Kill isn't necessarily the apex of Film Noir, in fact I think its probably one of the least entertaining out of the ones I've seen, but its still got all the trappings that make the genre enjoyable and a fun watch. Next Tuseday is another movie I haven't heard of but judging by the title it's another Film Noir: Raw Deal (1948)
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