The Killing (1956) is the first feature length film by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel Clean Break by Lionel White. The film noir depicts the efforts of Johnny Clay (Sterling Hayden) and an assembled team to rob a racetrack.

The use of non-linear chronology and multiple points of view influenced many later filmmakers, such as Quentin Tarantino. When studio executives first saw the completed film, they stated that the film made no sense and no audience would sit through the non-linear story. Kubrick re-edited the movie, then found that the key to telling the story was to keep it the way it was in the book, and the way he first edited it. United Artists released the film at the bottom of double bills.

The film credits pulp writer Jim Thompson with "additional dialogue", though there is some question as to whether that credit fairly describes the extent of Thompson's contributions to the script. (Thompson was credited as a full co-writer on Kubrick's next film Paths of Glory.)