** spoilers **
This is like a bad episode of Highway Patrol that was chopped up and reassembled. Instead of a straightforward narrative, Kubrick keeps throwing in this corny narration-- "forty minutes before that...", "Two weeks earlier..."-- to cover up inexplicable jumps in the time line. The story's been scrambled for no apparent reason, and it just seems like inept storytelling, like listening to someone who keeps forgetting key details.
Kubrick also used the narration to cover up holes in the exposition, like he didn't want to go back and re-do scenes for clarity-- for example, that bit about how they were supposed to split up was mentioned just in time by the narrator, like it was an afterthought. "Oh yeah, they split up because it was part of the plan. Sorry we didn't mention it earlier."
And there's some major plot elements that aren't explained either. Why did they have to kill the horse? None of the race fans who were "distracted" by it would have seen the robbery anyway. And why was Timothy Carey's character shot when he tried to drive out of the parking lot? How did Sterling Hayden's character get away with slugging a cop in the middle of a crowd? How did a shotgun blast kill everyone except the person it was aimed at? Why didn't Johnny and his girlfriend take the train when the airline wouldn't let them carry on the suitcase? And that bit with having it fly open in the middle of the runway-- I could see that coming a mile off. (I thought all the money was bundled up when he put it in the duffel bag-- what happened there?)
Overall it was sloppy, contrived and poorly executed. This is a first effort in every sense of the word, and belongs more properly to the canon of second rate cop shows of the fifties. Fortunately, Kubrick seemed to have learned from the experience, but that's about all you can say for it.
This is like a bad episode of Highway Patrol that was chopped up and reassembled. Instead of a straightforward narrative, Kubrick keeps throwing in this corny narration-- "forty minutes before that...", "Two weeks earlier..."-- to cover up inexplicable jumps in the time line. The story's been scrambled for no apparent reason, and it just seems like inept storytelling, like listening to someone who keeps forgetting key details.
Kubrick also used the narration to cover up holes in the exposition, like he didn't want to go back and re-do scenes for clarity-- for example, that bit about how they were supposed to split up was mentioned just in time by the narrator, like it was an afterthought. "Oh yeah, they split up because it was part of the plan. Sorry we didn't mention it earlier."
And there's some major plot elements that aren't explained either. Why did they have to kill the horse? None of the race fans who were "distracted" by it would have seen the robbery anyway. And why was Timothy Carey's character shot when he tried to drive out of the parking lot? How did Sterling Hayden's character get away with slugging a cop in the middle of a crowd? How did a shotgun blast kill everyone except the person it was aimed at? Why didn't Johnny and his girlfriend take the train when the airline wouldn't let them carry on the suitcase? And that bit with having it fly open in the middle of the runway-- I could see that coming a mile off. (I thought all the money was bundled up when he put it in the duffel bag-- what happened there?)
Overall it was sloppy, contrived and poorly executed. This is a first effort in every sense of the word, and belongs more properly to the canon of second rate cop shows of the fifties. Fortunately, Kubrick seemed to have learned from the experience, but that's about all you can say for it.