The Killers is a 1946 American film noir directed by Robert Siodmak and starring Burt Lancaster in his film debut, along with Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien and Sam Levene. Based in part on the 1927 short story of the same name by Ernest Hemingway, it focuses on insurance detective Jim Riordan’s investigation into the execution by Al and Max, two professional killers, of former boxer Pete Lund who did not resist his own murder. The screenplay was written by Anthony Veiller, with uncredited contributions by John Huston and Richard Brooks.

Released in August 1946, The Killers was a critical and commercial success, earning four Academy Award nominations, including for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Hemingway, who was habitually disgusted with how Hollywood distorted his thematic intentions, was an open admirer of the film. It is widely regarded as one of the classics of the film noir genre.

Casting

right|thumb|Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster

Reportedly, Hellinger was looking to cast two or three unknowns on the theory that the known actors of the time were already so typed that the audience would know the threats instantly which would take away some of the suspense of the story. He later said that Lancaster was not his first pick for the part of the Swede, but Warner Bros. would not lend Wayne Morris for the film. Other actors considered for the part include Van Heflin, Jon Hall, Sonny Tufts, and Edmond O'Brien, who was cast in the role of the insurance investigator Reardon. Hellinger quipped that he tested so many potential "Swedes" that if somebody had suggested Greta Garbo, he would have tested her too. In The Nation in 1946, critic James Agee wrote, "The story is well presented, but Hemingway's talk... sounds, on the screen, as cooked-up and formal as an eclogue... There is a good strident journalistic feeling for tension, noise, sentiment, and jazzed-up realism, all well manipulated by Robert Siodmak, which is probably chiefly to the credit of the producer, Mark Hellinger. There is nothing unique or even valuable about the picture, but energy combined with attention to form and detail doesn't turn up every day; neither does good entertainment."

In a 2003 review of the DVD release, Scott Tobias, while critical of the screenplay, described the noir style, writing "Lifted note-for-note from the Hemingway story, the classic opening scene of Siodmak's film sings with the high tension, sharp dialogue, and grim humor that's conspicuously absent from the rest of Anthony Veiller's mediocre screenplay...A lean block of muscles and little else, Burt Lancaster stars as the hapless victim, an ex-boxer who was unwittingly roped into the criminal underworld and the even more dangerous gaze of Ava Gardner, a memorably sultry and duplicitous femme fatale...[Siodmak] sustains a fatalistic tone with the atmospheric touches that define noir, favoring stark lighting effects that throw his post-war world into shadow."

The film was considered a great commercial success and launched Lancaster and Gardner to stardom.

Eddie Muller listed it as one of his Top 25 Noir Films: "Hemingway's short story is fleshed out into an incredibly involuted screenplay, which Siodmak renders as the ultimate noir dreamscape. The Citizen Kane of crime movies."

Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 100%, based on 34 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.12/10.

Accolades

Wins

  • Edgar Award: Edgar; from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay, Anthony Veiller (writer), Mark Hellinger (producer), and Robert Siodmak (director); 1947.

Nominations—1947 Academy Awards

  • Best Director: Robert Siodmak.
  • Best Film Editing: Arthur Hilton.
  • Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic Picture: Miklós Rózsa.
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Anthony Veiller.

American Film Institute Lists

  • AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills - Nominated
  • AFI's 10 Top 10 - Nominated Gangster Film

Adaptations

The Killers was dramatized as a half-hour radio play on the June 5, 1949, broadcast of Screen Directors Playhouse, starring Burt Lancaster, Shelley Winters and William Conrad.

In 1956, director Andrei Tarkovsky, then a film student, created a 19-minute short based on the story which is featured on The Criterion Collection's release of the DVD.

The film was adapted in 1964, using the same title but with an updated plot where the two hitmen, Charlie Strom (Lee Marvin) and Lee (Clu Gulager), are actually the protagonists. Intended to be broadcast as a television film, it was directed by Don Siegel, and featured Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes and Ronald Reagan, who, as gang leader Jack Browning, famously slaps Dickinson's character Sheila Farr across the face. Siegel's film was deemed too violent for the small screen and was released theatrically, first in Europe, then years later in America.

Scenes from The Killers were used in the Carl Reiner spoof Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982) starring Steve Martin.

Seven screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker announced in 2016 that he has written a screenplay for a new adaptation of The Killers.

Legacy

The Killers has come to be regarded as a classic in the years since its release, and in 2008, was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Critic Jonathan Lethem described the film in a 2003 essay as the "Citizen Kane of [[Film noir|[film] noir]]."

According to Hemingway biographer Carlos Baker, The Killers "was the first film from any of his works that Ernest could genuinely admire." Commenting on the film, Hemingway said: "It is a good picture and the only good picture ever made of a story of mine."

In July 2018, it was selected to be screened in the Venice Classics section at the 75th Venice International Film Festival.

Has been shown on the Turner Classic Movies show 'Noir Alley' with Eddie Muller.

See also

  • The Killers (1956)
  • The Killers (1964)
  • Pulp Fiction (1994)
  • List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

References

Informational notes

Citations

Bibliography

  • Killers essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, Bloomsbury Academic, 2010 , pages 395-397
  • The Killers at YouTube