The Killers
Robert Siodmak / US, 1946 / 105 min.
The German Robert Siodmak, who emigrated to the USA in the early 1940s, had made 12 films by the time he directed The Killers in 1946. This fatalistic gangster film features stylish echoes of German expressionism.
The Killers is sometimes referred to as the ‘Citizen Kane of Noir’. In the eponymous short story by Ernest Hemingway that The Killers is based on, a down-on-his-luck boxer receives a visit from two contract killers. Why he allows himself to be killed without putting up a fight becomes clear when an insurance salesman and a cop investigate his dark past.
Burt Lancaster debuts as the archetypal antihero, a man who has lost all hope, in this masterpiece by genre specialist Robert Siodmak. Ava Gardner plays the woman who gives him de decisive gentle shove as he teeters on the brink. Flashbacks reveal how the ex-boxer heads for his doom, step by step.
Directors John Huston and Richard Brooks both acted as uncredited co-authors of Anthony Veiller’s script. Incidentally, neither Veiller’s Oscar nomination nor those for best director, music and editing resulted in statuettes.This is part of
Details
Director
Robert Siodmak
Production year
1946
Country
US
Original title
The Killers
Length
105 min.
Language
English
Subtitles
NONE
Format
DCP
Part of
Film Noir
Rain-drenched streets, curls of cigarette smoke, and men with a dark past. An inescapable fate and a femme fatale, sly and sexually independent. This summer Eye is presenting an extended programme of classic film noir, featuring masterpieces such as The Third Man and In a Lonely Place starring Humphrey Bogart. With vintage 35mm prints and newly restored works.
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