The Killing (1956)

Start here, because this is Kubrick's control at its most compact: 84 minutes, a racetrack robbery and a plan the film shows you piece by piece, out of order, as each gang member's part of the day replays from a new angle. A flat, semi-documentary narrator stitches the fragments together and is not always to be trusted. Sterling Hayden's newly released ex-con is all grim efficiency, and the ending is as cold and ironic as anything Kubrick did later. Once you have watched how carefully this machine is built, you will notice the same clockwork running under the grander films to come.