After previewing the picture two weeks prior to its release, the trade paper "The Film Daily" cautioned theater owners about the "homicidal drama", describing it as "a sexy, suggestive yarn of crime with punishment, strictly for the adult trade." Other reviewers in 1947 also recognized the "yarn" as adult fare, but some still commended various elements of the film. William R. Weaver, the critic for the "Motion Picture Herald", watched a final cut of "Born to Kill" in mid-April at RKO and rated it "Good". He found the film's overall look "painstaking and polished" and Robert Wise's direction successful in maintaining "a steady pace". Weaver did, though, find fault with what he viewed as a distinct imbalance between the motives and actions portrayed in the story. "Produced for melodrama fans," he noted, "film contains enough killing for anybody, but furnishes less than adequate reasons for it."