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The Killing, the classic 1956 Stanley Kubrick New York City horse racing sports crime film noir ("In all its fury and violence... Like no other picture Since 'Scarface' and 'Little Ceasar'!"; "$2,000,000 Pay-Off? Blood splattered apartment and four dead bodies greeted the police of the 47th Precinct last night. Mass murder took place at 21 Walker Drive and is believed to be tied in with 'The Killing'!"; "Suspense! Terror! Violence!...will grip you as no other picture since 'Scarface' and 'Little Caesar'!"; "Daring Hold-Up Nets $2,000,000! Police Baffled by Fantastic Crime! Masked Bandit Escapes with Fabulous Race Track Loot!"; "The Brain. The ex-con whose fertile mind conceived and executed the most perfect crime!"; "Ex-Wrestler. Loved nothing better than a brawl and a way of making a dishonest dollar!"; "Love Interest. Five men had to die because she couldn't keep a secret!"; "The Mob. They figured it was there to be taken... Any way they could get it... Even the hard way!"; "Based on the novel 'Clean Break' by Lionel White"; about a criminal newly released from prison who plans a "perfect" robbery of a racetrack, with intricate planning of every step, but of course, it does not succeed, because of the tiniest slip-ups) starring Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Vince Edwards, Elisha Cook Jr., Jay C. Flippen, Marie Windsor, Ted de Corsia, Timothy Carey, James Edwards, and Kola Kwariani. Note that director Stanley Kubrick had previously been a professional photographer who made a few short films, plus two features, "Fear and Desire" in 1953 and "Killer's Kiss" in 1955, and while both were admired for their great cinematography, they were both short on a tight plot and good dialog. So for this movie, Kubrick found an excellent book, "Clean Break" by Lionel White, and he hired pulp writer Jim Thompson to adapt the book's scenes into film segments (the movie is broken up into segments, following each participant in the robbery, and their movements over the hours prior to it). There is much controversy over what happened next! Kubrick released the movie with the credit "Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick" and "Additional Dialogue by Jim Thompson", and there are many who believe that Thompson essentially wrote the entire script, and that Kubrick solely assembled the scenes and decided the order in which they would be placed in the final movie. Kubrick mended his fences with Thompson after the film was released and he hired Thompson to write the screenplay of his next movie, "Paths of Glory", two years later, but producer Kirk Douglas was unhappy with Thompson's screenplay, and Kubrick hired Calder Willingham to rewrite Thompson's screenplay, and when that movie was released, the screenwriting credit read "Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Jim Thompson, and Calder Willingham", and this time, Willingham was furious because he claimed it was entirely his screenplay, and he sued Kubrick over the credits, but Thompson was able to show that large portions of his original screenplay remained in the final shooting script, and Kubrick ultimately settled on the credits reading "Screenplay by Stanley Kubrick, Calder Willingham, and Jim Thompson". Kubrick definitely felt badly about how he had treated Thompson, because he kept Thompson on his payroll for quite a while after this, even though Thompson did no writing for him (perhaps he was trying to repay how Thompson had been slighted on both screenplays)!
NOTE: Click on linked names to see a biography.

Artist: Renato Casaro

Important Added Info: Note that this poster was folded at one time but has been laying flat for a long time and will be sent rolled in a tube.

Note that it is difficult to accurately date Italian posters, and some unmarked re-release posters can be extremely difficult to distinguish from first releases, so please bear that in mind before you place a bid. We used our best information to date this poster, but we can't always guarantee that the Italian posters we sell are not from an unmarked re-release, but this will only prove to be true in a very tiny number of cases.

Note that this item (and others we are auctioning in this set of auctions) come to us from the estate of Lee Sanders. Mr. Sanders was a nationally recognized projectionist, film poster collector, and union activist who passed away last year, and the net proceeds from the sale of his varied and eclectic collection will be donated to promote film studies at the Besant School of Happy Valley in Ojai, Ca.

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