The Kill
Cast & Crew
Gary Graver
Antoinette Maynard
Walt Phillips
Sharon Wells
Natasha
Nancy Mcgavin
Film Details
Technical Specs
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Synopsis
Antoinette hires down-and-out Private Detective Charlie Apple to find her brother Mickey after some of Mickey's associates, heroin smugglers, rape her for trying to persuade him to quit the racket. Antoinette gives Charlie a $100 retainer and seduces him. Charlie goes to Mickey's apartment and finds a dead woman there. Mickey arrives, and the two fight until Charlie is knocked out. He regains consciousness in the gangsters' warehouse and, discovering himself tied up, telephones Antoinette for help. She comes to the warehouse and frees Charlie; the gang returns; and they chase Charlie and Antoinette into a gravel pit. Antoinette is carried off while Charlie fights it out with one of the mob. Kruger, the gang leader, telephones Mickey and instructs him to kill Charlie. Mickey arranges to meet Kruger at a deserted beach where there will be a $1 million heroin delivery; he also sends Candy, his new mistress, to search Charlie's office. Charlie walks in while she is rifling his desk. He wins her confidence by making love to her, and she tells him of the beach rendezvous. Charlie goes to the beach, and there a violent showdown occurs.
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Director
Gary Graver
Cast
Antoinette Maynard
Walt Phillips
Sharon Wells
Natasha
Nancy Mcgavin
Tod Badker
Tony Brooks
Pam English
John Lee
Harry Stone
Gail Lavon
Larry Vincente
April O'connor
Shari Stevens
Bonnie Walker
Crew
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Film Details
Technical Specs
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Articles
The Kill
While the role of Freda was a relatively minor one for Kelly, she makes the most of her brief scenes as a loving wife who is soon confronted by a rupture in the community that threatens to spin out of control, destroying her husband and their lives. At the time, Kelly was learning her craft in live television productions. Between 1950 and 1953 she appeared in more than sixty television shows, some of which included Kraft Television Theatre, Hallmark Hall of Fame, Lux Video Theatre, Robert Montgomery Presents, and Westinghouse Studio One (for which The Kill was produced).
Among the other virtues of The Kill is a terse, unpretentious screenplay by Reginald Rose and the lean, economic direction by Franklin J. Schaffner, who had to work with a large cast on a few cramped, minimally dressed sound stage sets. Rose would go on to garner an Oscar® nomination for Best Screenplay Adaptation of his original teleplay, Twelve Angry Men (1957), directed by Sidney Lumet. Although he continued to work in films off and on until the mid-eighties, he is best known for his contributions to such popular TV series as The Defenders [1961-1965] and mini-series like Studs Lonigan [1979].
Schaffner also got his start in live television like Rose and fellow contemporaries Sidney Lumet and John Frankenheimer. His filmography included both critical successes and box office hits such as The Best Man [1964], Planet of the Apes [1968] and Patton [1970], for which he won the Oscar® for Best Director.
Producer: Donald Davis, Dorothy Mathews
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
Screenplay: Reginald Rose; Owen Cameron (novel "The Mountains Have No Shadow")
Music: Robert Allen, Bernard Herrmann, Bernhard Kaun
Cast: Dick Foran (Jeff), Nina Foch (Carrie), Grace Kelly (Freda), Paul Langton (Marsh), Harry Townes (Dave), Don Hanmer (Al), Carl Frank (Link), George Mitchell (Abner), Joe Maross (Nebro), Alan Devitt (Cap Manny), Frank Marth (Bub), James Coots (Sheriff), Arthur Junaleska (Billy), Lynn Loring (Carol).
BW-59m.
by Jeff Stafford
SOURCES:
Grace by Robert Lacey (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
True Grace: The Life and Death of an American Princess by Wendy Leigh (Thomas Dunne Books)
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The Kill
Quotes
Trivia
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1971
Released in United States 1971