Ernest Hemingway's The Killers

The Killers (1946). 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. ***THIS IS A DVD WITH THE ORIGINAL "THE KILLERS" 1946 MOVIE ONLY*** THIS DVD DOES NOT CONTAIN THE 1964 REMAKE*** Product Description

Killers

"The Killers" is a gem of a film. This is Burt Lancaster's first starring role, and what a great start! Understated as "the Swede", his violent outbursts make him a natural in this part. Edmund O'Brien as the insurance investigator, Sam Levene as the police lieutenant, Ava Gardner as "Kitty" and Albert Dekker as "Big Jim" are all excellent. What starts out as a small insurance claim morphs into a major crime. A must-have for any film collector. January 2, 2008

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