Stanley Kubrick Collection – The Killing/Paths Of Glory/Killer’s Kiss DVD – Adolphe Menjou, George Macready

Box set containing three classic movies from acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick. In ‘The Killing’ (1956), Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) gets out of prison after a five-year stint and begins to put together plans for a million dollar race track heist. As he gathers his crew together, it seems that Johnny’s plan is fool-proof and is sure to go off without a hitch. However, when gang member George Peatty (Elisha Cook Jr) tells his wife (Marie Windsor) about the plans, and she in turn tells her boyfriend (Vince Edwards), the seeds are sown for the whole operation’s undoing. In ‘Killer’s Kiss’ (1955), boxer Davy Gordon (Jamie Smith) finds himself in a world of trouble when he intervenes and saves dancer Gloria Price (Irene Kane) from her seedy and violent boss Vincent Raphello. Davy and Gloria fall in love and plan to leave the city and make a fresh start, but Vincent is angry and jealous and sends his men to kill the young lovers. Finally, in ‘Paths of Glory’ (1957), during the First World War, the French Army attempts to break the military stalemate by attacking a German position known as Ant Hill. The orders are received by Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), who is aware that the task is virtually impossible and will result in many deaths. The mission takes place and is an inevitable failure, with many French casualties. Seeking a scapegoat for the humiliating defeat, the French decide to court-martial three innocent footsoldiers. Dax – a lawyer during his civilian life – decides to defend the men, but realises his only hope of success is in attacking his superiors.

The Killing: When ex-con Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) says he has a plan to make a killing everybody want to be in on the action. Especially when the plan is to steal $2 million in a racetrack robbery scheme in which “”no one will get hurt.”” But despite all their careful plotting Clay and his men have overlooked on thing: Sherry Peatty (Marie Windsor) a money-hungry double-crossing dame who’s planning to make a financial killing of her own…even if she has to wipe out Clay’s entire gang to do it! Paths Of Glory: Safe in their picturesque chateau behind the front lines the French General Staff passes down a direct order to Colonel Dax: take the Ant Hill at any cost. A blatant suicide mission the attack is doomed to failure. Covering up their fatal blunder the Generals order the arrest of three innocent soldiers charging them with cowardice and mutiny. Dax a lawyer in civilian life rises to the men’s defense but soon realizes that unless he can prove that the Generals were to blame nothing less than a miracle will save his clients from the firing squad. The Killer’s Kiss: Stanley Kubrick’s second film Killer’s Kiss made the world take notice. The young moviemaker won acclaim for this dazzling film noir about a struggling New York boxer (Jamie Smith) whose life is imperiled when he protects a nightclub dancer (Irene Kane) from her gangster boss (Frank Silvera). “”Using his camera as a sandpaper block Kubrick has stripped away the veneer from the prizefight and dancehall worlds “” the New York Mirror proclaimed. Killer’s Kiss not only lends considerable insight into future Kubrick classics – such as The Killing and Full Metal Jacket – but is also a remarkable film in its own right: the boxing match may be the most vicious this side of Raging Bull and the famed final battle remains an action tour-de-force.