Lady of Deceit - aka Born to Kill - 1947 film review

Lady of Deceit, also known as Born to Kill was directed by Robert Wise, who much later was responsible for The Sound of Music. Two films more different in tone as well as storyline would be hard to imagine. Lady of Deceit, based on James Gunn's novel Deadlier Than the Male, is a dark story about amoral people, and this may account for the fact that it didn't do particularly well on first release. Uplifting it is not.

Claire Trevor plays Helen Trent, who has gone to Reno to get a divorce. Whilst she's there, she gets to know a breezy young woman who goes out with a new man, much to displeasure of Sam Wild (played by Lawrence Tierney), who is obsessed with her. Wild kills both his ex and her admirer. Helen discovers the bodies, but decides not to get involved, and goes back to San Francisco. At the station, she bumps into Wild, and they fall for each other.

However, Helen is engaged to a rich young chap, much to Wild's displeasure. Helen  is the foster sister of wealthy Georgia, played by Audrey Long (who was married at one time to Leslie Charteris, creator of the Saint). Wild seduces nice but naive Georgia, and they marry, but Wild and Helen remain besotted with each other. Wild's admiring chum Marty (Elisha Cook Jr) joins the not very happy household, and when a friend of Wild's victim hires a lazy and unreliable private eye, Marty tries to protect Wild, before events spin out of control.

Esther Howard, who hires the P.I., is perhaps the most appealing character in the film, not that the competition is strong. She's an alcoholic, but she is trying to do the right thing by her friend. Claire Trevor does a good job as the "iceberg" Helen, but I felt that Lawrence Tierney, who late in life became more famous than ever thanks to appearing in Reservoir Dogs, was wooden in the extreme. He tries to be a tough guy in the Humphrey Bogart style, and apparently was a tough guy in real life. But his lack of charisma is a big drawback. Robert Mitchum would have done a much better job, I feel. All the same, this downbeat movie is watchable from start to finish.