Killers, the: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, Vince Barnett, Virginia Christine, Jack Lambert, Charles D. Brown, Donald MacBride, Charles McGraw, William Conrad, Elwood Bredell, Robert Siodmak, Arthur Hilton, Mark Hellinger, Anthony Veiller, Ernest Hemingway, John Huston, Richard Brooks: Amazon.ca: Video

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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 piece (complete with a fickle femme fatale played by Ava Gardner) The Killers is all mood and fatalism. --Tom Keogh

Amazon.com Essential Video

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

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
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4.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Cast Pins Story, May 29 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Killers, the (VHS Tape)

Here's an example of an assortment of fine actors, and a dedicated and imaginative director, overcoming a sloppy script. Once the Hemingway material was used up the screenwriters emptied the sack of film-noir spare parts in an effort to keep this vehicle running: the fight game, the big heist, the prison cell buddies, the nightclub shootup, the chanteuse, the double-cross. But just watching the actors delivering their lines and director Robert Siodmak's lighting and camera work make it worthwhile. And you'll never see better black and white cinematography than here. Burt Lancaster is pretty awkward in his first film, but he gives a glimpse of the power and screen magnetism he later devleoped.

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5.0 out of 5 stars The Swede Lives Forever, Aug 25 2002

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andy7 (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killers, the (VHS Tape)

Edmond O'Brien, the King of Noir. Ava Gardner, like a porcelain goddess femme fatale. Burt Lancaster as the victim in waiting. Albert Dekker, the villain from "Kiss Me Deadly". What more do you want?
The climax in the roadhouse with accelerating piano notes will have you grabbing your chair, the curtains, and the carpet all at once. A great noir film that never loses its path or pace, it's about greed and lust and all the death that follows it.
Look for an appearance by William (Cannon, Jay Ward cartoons) Conrad as a brutal hit man.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Smoky Rooms and Cheap Perfume, July 11 2002

By

Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Killers, the (VHS Tape)

Definitely belongs among the top rung of noir classics. All the elements are present in spades: from the femme fatale, to the doomed protagonist, to the hardened gunsels, to the ultimate double-cross. Most of all, this tour-de-force of deepening shadows, and cheap perfume gets its aura from the masterful photography of Woody Bredell and the complex camera set-ups of German director Robert Siodmak. Credit should also go to maverick producer Mark Hellinger who had a real feel for the material, while the script by Anthony Veiller snaps and crackles with appropriate innuendo and menace, punctuated by a terrific score from composer Miklos Rosza. Hellinger took a real chance telling so much of the story in alternating flashback, a definite departure for the more linear-minded audiences of the day. But the strategy works, as the pieces come powerfully together at film's end. This is early Burt Lancaster, rather sensitive and weak and clearly before joining the faces on Mt. Rushmore; it's also early Ava Gardner, enough to plunge any man into purgatory, before too many bullfighters and too much Sinatra coarsened the features and corroded the voice. Most of all, there's the always commanding Albert Dekker, a much underrated player, who could transform the dullest dialogue into the penetrating power of a.45 automatic on full trigger. Along with other noir icons: William Conrad, Jeff Corey, Jack Lambert and Charles Mc Graw. The opening sequence is as tense and taut and brilliantly photographed as any on record, with an air of menace and doom so thick that the killing comes as ecstatic release. This early noir entry set the pace and was never surpassed (though the very last shot seems badly misjudged). Anyone wondering what the fuss over this quintessentially 40's genre was all about should scope out The Killers, for a glimpse into the elusive heart of darkness, a glimpse, as it were, that came to define the entire species.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Filling in Blanks Superbly
Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers" was one of the famous author's more power-laden stories. Read more

Published on Mar 29 2002 by William Hare

4.0 out of 5 stars LANCASTER MAKES A GOOD DEBUT IN FIRST-RATE FILM
First-rate I say, but NOT a masterpiece. I just saw this film about a week ago and it has suffered from little reputation here in Europe... Read more

Published on Feb 2 2002 by Henning Sebastian Jahre