Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4210 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-02-12
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Black & White, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 105 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
This 1946 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's short story adds well over an hour of new material to the original tale. The reason is, while director Robert Siodmak, star Burt Lancaster, and an outstanding supporting cast are faithful to Hemingway's work, his story only takes up about 15 minutes of screen time. Burt Lancaster plays the doomed man sought by hired guns in a small town. Hemingway's bruisingly concise dialogue makes an early sequence set in a diner quite unnerving, but after the killers dispense with their prey, Siodmak turns to an insurance investigator (Edmond O'Brien) who looks into the reasons behind the murder. An exemplary film noir (complete with a fickle femme fatale played by Ava Gardner), The Killers is all mood and fatalism.--Tom Keogh

Synopsis
A former fighter awaits the arrival of his executioners. When they arrive they shoot him dead without a fight. An insurance investigator must decide why it is that a man gave up his life so easily...

Customer Reviews

Essential Film Noir
The Killers was directed in 1946 by Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross, 1948; The Spiral Staircase, 1945) and was adapted by Anthony Villier and John Huston from the Ernest Hemingway story of the same name. Much of the film is told in flashback sequences similar to that of Citizen Kane (1941). An insurance investigator, played by Edmond O' Brian (DOA 1950; Barefoot Contessa 1954), attempts to solve the murder of `Swede' who is gunned down by two hitmen. Burt Lancaster stars as `Swede' in his film debut and would later star in Criss Cross also. This truly is a brilliant film noir with some excellent dialogue, especially in the opening diner scene (lifted straight out of short story), as well as superb cinematography. The Killers also made a star out of Ava Gardener as the femme fatale interest Kitty. I don't think however she is as great a femme fatale as say Lana Turner, Gene Tierney, Lauren Bacall or Gloria Grahame were in similar roles. The Killers was a critical as well as box-office hit and received an Oscar nomination this year but lost out to William Wyler's `The Best Years Of Our Lives'

The DVD package is very basic with no extras but is a decent transfer.

A first-rate crime noir from 1946
How do you make an interesting movie when the character the movie ostensibly is all about is just a dumb lug, as interesting as a boiled potato? The Swede stumbles into one situation after another, willing to believe in true love or lies. For me, director Robert Siodmak and screenwriters Anthony Veiller, Richard Brooks and John Huston (the last two uncredited) solve this problem three ways.

First, there is the great look and style of the movie. I think it's impossible to say one movie looks better than all others, especially when it comes to noirs, but The Killers nails as well as any the dark, foreboding feel of cheap hotel rooms, shadowy streets and close-ups of white, worried faces. Second, all the flashbacks in this movie create the sense of a complex jigsaw puzzle slowly being solved. The story not only becomes complicated and interesting, it's great fun to see what the next piece in the puzzle is going to show us. And what helps make all those puzzle pieces interesting is the cast of characters who take turns in the flashback spotlights. There's not a dud actor in the lot. And third, for me, is the sourness of the ending. No, not the last scene of a smiling Edmond O'Brien jauntily leaving his boss's office. It's the revelation of what a nasty piece of work Kitty Collins really was and how far out of her league was the Swede. He was just a big, thick-eared guy who, in other circumstances, might have gone straight, but he didn't have a chance when he saw Kitty that first time at the party sitting next to the piano player. I don't think this was what Rodgers and Hammerstein had in mind when they wrote about seeing a stranger across a crowded room.

Besides, "I did something wrong once" is a great line to power a crime movie with.

What also struck me is the simplicity of the logic behind Jim Colfax' decision to unleash the two hit men onto the Swede. At first, it seemed so much smarter just to let things coast by. But Colfax's reasoning holds up if you think about it, and that logic powers the action of the movie. What doesn't hold up is the motivation of the two hit men's behavior in the diner. How much easier it would have been to walk in, sit down and order a couple of cups of coffee. Then mention they were in town to pay back some money to the Swede but they don't have his address. Anybody know where he lives? Someone would have said, "Why, sure. He lives at Ma's boarding house just a couple of blocks from here." I know, this more practical approach would have gutted the foreboding and nervousness of the movie. I'm not advocating this, just suggesting that it's a little bothersome when a great plot device has a flaw.

I adore films of the 40's, Film Noir at it's peak of success!
I recently read Ava Gardner's biography and she stated that her role as Kitty in "The Killers", closely resembles that of herself in regards to her outlook upon her personal relationships with the men she had been involved with. She felt at home with her character and could identify with her feelings. Therefore felt comfortable during the making of this particular picture, unlike many others. I adore film noir and this is one of the best. It has a wonderful plot and is very well shot (No pun intended), Ava looks so young and fresh, a classic beauty of the 40's. How could a women that looked so incredibly stunning and whom was clearly intelligent ever doubt herself so?