The Killers
1946, 1964
Robert Siodmak, Donald Segal
Spine #176
Available on DVD and Blu-Ray
The Killers
1946, 1964
Robert Siodmak, Donald Segal
Spine #176
Available on DVD and Blu-Ray
Both versions of The Killers are the adaptation of Earnest Hemingway’s 1927 short story of the same name which document two hitmen who hold up in a diner and the inhabitants inside it while waiting for a Swedish ex-boxer to show up so they can murder him for reasons not known.
Eventually one of the characters is let go and finds the ex-boxer who awaits his own death as something entirely unavoidable. Its minimalist style offered a lot of interpretation and the back story is fleshed out from this groundwork for the 1946 version by German emigrant director Robert Siodmak (The Spiral Staircase).
The Killers would go on and create stars out of Burt Lancaster, who was a circus acrobat beforehand, and Ava Gardner who both absolutely excel in the film. This was actually Lancaster’s debut role and playing a man out of sorts can be a testament to his natural dreamy presence herein. Gardner would also be top drawer showing her duality of personas as the double-crossing femme fatale who you cannot help to fall for. This version of The Killers would eventually be hailed as a pillar of film noir and be selected for the United States National Film Registry.
The 1964 version, helmed by Donald Segal (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry), veered even farther from Hemingway’s setup, but still borrowed a lot of the similar themes and characters. Even the Soidmak version which was a landmark in film noir by that time inspired the approach to which Segal wanted The Killers to be its own version and not a retread.
Both versions used the Hemingway name to garner attention, but diverged drastically from their sources and from each other in an almost study of contrast film-making. Segal’s version is more bombastic and crude and is easily the more peripheral of the two films here, but still boasts a grand assortment of interesting aspects about its production. For one and maybe the most obvious is the inclusion of future President of the United States of America, as its titular bad-guy.
Seeing scenes where Ronald Regan slaps Angie Dickinson (our new Femme Fatale) around or a multi-million dollar raid on a mail truck are as mind melting as entertaining. In truth, Regan’s heart wasn’t in acting anymore as he was setting his ambitions to be governor of California and this marked the last film role he would take before him retiring.
Also this overly pessimistic film was the first ever of its kind to be made specifically for television audiences. Having been in production around the time President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, it was deemed too violent and never made it to air, but was eventually brought to the big screen. While those facts are indeed great fodder for interest in the project, its cast is still rock solid featuring John Cassavetes as the fall guy, Lee Marvin and Clu Gulanger as two sunglasses-sporting hitmen, and Claude Atkins as Cassavetes’ only friend in the world who gave a damn about him.
This upgraded Blu-Ray release double-header is an improvement over their already staggering looking DVD version from 2003 that first combined the two films. Included is a short film adaptation of The Killers by then student Andrei Tarkovsky from 1956, an interview with writer Stuart M. Kaminsky on both films, a Screen Directors’ Playhouse radio adaptation from 1949 starring Burt Lancaster reprising his role and featuring Shelley Winters, an interview with Clu Gulager, an audio recording from 2002 of actor Stacy Keach reading Hemingway’s short story.
Also included are essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and novelist Jonathan Lethem. It’s a solid amount of supplemental material that pays compliment to these two unique films.
As garden-variety remakes and the proverbial reboots litter movie theaters these days, the film industry has never been a stranger for a good adaptation or second try. It’s actually easy to see why as a viewing audience, we respond to these features by comparing and contrasting them with what we already know of their previous outings.
From casting, to the director, tonalities, to how variations contrast and differ; our opinions are also being exercised by our emoting of assessments. Beyond the name recognition whatever a specific title might hold, it offers a chance to preferably re-arrange and re-interpret something we may already love or could use a good sprucing up.
Simply watching a film is no longer the end of our experience, we more and more actively get the pleasure of responding and sharing our critical feelings on it. If that theory holds true, we’ll have new Batman movies to speculate and wax over until the end of time. The two version of The Killers here on display here show that they can co-exist in their own unique way and expound upon their source material in complementary ways. One film is more sultry and cool, while the other is more brash and relentless. Both still give us the good thrill.
