Born to Kill (released in the U.K. as Lady of Deceit and in Australia as Deadlier Than the Male) is a 1947 RKO Pictures American film noir starring Lawrence Tierney, Claire Trevor and Walter Slezak with Esther Howard, Elisha Cook Jr., and Audrey Long in supporting roles. The film was director Robert Wise's first film noir production, preceding his later work on The Set-Up (1949) and The Captive City (1952). By April the studio had replaced Fisher and enlisted screenwriters Eve Greene and Richard Macaulay to compose the script as a team and to manage it through production.
Casting began in August 1945 and Lawrence Tierney was RKO's first choice following his powerful performance in Dillinger, released four months earlier. Although RKO wanted Tallulah Bankhead for the role of Helen Brent, she was unavailable. In January 1946, the part went to Claire Trevor, whose work in the previous year's Murder, My Sweet had impressed studio executives. The working title of the project was still Deadlier Than the Male, which appeared in a series of official release charts. RKO did not officially change the title to Born to Kill for domestic release until December 1946.
Filming began on May 6, 1946, with exterior scenes shot first on location at El Segundo Beach and later in San Francisco. As early as July, it was reported that the film was ready to be scheduled for release. These notices proved premature because the studio experienced delays in arriving at a satisfactory final cut. In October 1946, RKO announced that scheduled November 7 previews at a national trade show and at exchange centers were being postponed. A general release date of November 10, 1946 was postponed as well.
Postproduction problems persisted until the final weeks before the film's distribution to theaters.
Themes
Born to Kill is a rare film noir in that it is shown through a woman's eyes. This female subjectivity enables a more nuanced view of the femme fatale, a central motif in film noir, rather than that which is typical of the genre. Although the archetypical film noir femme fatale's sexuality is often merely a tool to manipulate men for material gain, Helen is a more complicated figure. She is drawn to Sam's brutality although she is also interested in Fred's money. Instead of leading the male protagonist into darkness and ruin, she is compromised by Sam.
Release
thumb|right|News item in the [[Showmen's Trade Review, April 12, 1947]]On the day before the film's official release, Tierney made headlines for his involvement in a drunken brawl and for violating probation related to an earlier conviction for public drunkenness. Tierney's frequent off-screen troubles also attracted greater scrutiny of his films by state review boards and local censors, some of which sought to ban Born to Kill in their communities.
Censors in places such as Ohio, Chicago and Memphis rejected the film. The National Legion of Decency considered the film objectionable for its acceptance of divorce but did not condemn the film outright.
Although some industry publications predicted box-office success for the film, RKO production head Dore Schary publicly distanced the studio from the film just days after its release. Schary vowed to lessen the "arbitrary use of violence" in RKO films and pledged that the studio would no longer produce "gangster pictures" such as Born to Kill. RKO reported a net loss of $243,000 after the film's initial run. At a meeting of its board of directors on December 3, 1947, the MPAA voted to bar 14 "'objectionable and unsuitable'" films released between 1928 and 1947 from theatrical reissue, including Born to Kill. The MPAA also approved the immediate deletion from its official title registry of more than two dozen films with titles deemed "salacious or indecent." Lang's lawyers argued that he had watched Born to Kill less than three weeks prior to the homicide and that the film's violence triggered a form of temporary insanity. The Illinois Supreme Court overturned Lang's conviction, finding that he was too young to understand his actions. He was then acquitted following a retrial, but the judge recommended laws to censor violent films and hold theater managers liable for exhibiting them.
Reception
right|thumb|225px|Sam ([[Lawrence Tierney) attacking Marty (Elisha Cook, Jr.) in a jealous rage]]
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther called the film "a smeary tabloid fable" and "an hour and a half of ostentatious vice," concluding: "Surely, discriminating people are not likely to be attracted to this film. But it is precisely because it is designed to pander to the lower levels of taste that it is reprehensible."
Cecelia Ager of PM wrote:
Irving Kaplan of Motion Picture Daily found "weaknesses in several departments" of "the heavy-handed melodrama" although he focused his attention on the performances of the "tough and ruthless" Tierney and the "captivating and calculating" Trevor:
Writing for Film Monthly in 2009, Robert Weston also praised Wise's direction:
Director Guillermo del Toro has credited Born to Kill as a primary influence on his 2021 film Nightmare Alley, noting that "a couple of the murders in the movie are shocking, even in 2022."