Synopsis
Ernest Hemingway’s gripping short story “The Killers” has fascinated readers and filmmakers for generations. Its first screen incarnation came in 1946, when director Robert Siodmak unleashed The Killers, helping to define the film noir style and launching the careers of Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner in this archetypal masterpiece
Cast
| The Swede | Burt Lancaster |
| Kitty Collins | Ava Gardner |
| Jim Reardon | Edmond O'Brien |
| Big Jim Colfax | Albert Dekker |
| Lieutenant Sam Lubinsky | Sam Levine |
| Charleston | Vince Barnett |
| Lilly Harmon Lubinsky | Virginia Christine |
| Dum Dum Clarke | Jack Lambert |
Credits
| Director | Robert Siodmak |
| Producer | Mark Hellinger |
| Music | Miklós Rózsa |
| Editing | Arthur Hilton |
| Art direction | Jack Otterson and Martin Obzina |
| Cinematography | Woody Bredell |
| Screenplay | Anthony Veiller |
| From the short story by | Ernest Hemingway |
Disc Features
- Beautiful new digital transfer
- Andrei Tarkovsky’s student film version of The Killers
- Video interview with writer Stuart M. Kaminsky (Don Siegel: Director)
- Screen Director’s Playhouse 1949 radio adaptation, starring Burt Lancaster and Shelley Winters
- Actor Stacy Keach (Mike Hammer) reads Hemingway’s short story
- Production and publicity stills with actor biographies, rare behind-the-scenes stills gallery, original press book and ads
- Collection of trailers for Robert Siodmak films
- Writer/director Paul Schrader’s seminal 1972 essay “notes on film noir”
- Notes by Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn)
- Music and effects track
- English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
From the Current
The Killers (1946)
by Feb 17, 2003The Killers is exemplary film noir from Robert Siodmak, who, on the strength of three films—this, Criss Cross, and Phantom Lady—stands beside fellow German exiles Lang and Preminger as one of noir’s crucial directors. The film is as nested with weird resonances...
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