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starring: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levenedirected by: Robert Siodmak
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780783217529
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, HiFi Sound, NTSC
ISBN: 0783217528
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: April 28, 1998
Running Time: 103 minutes
Sales Rank: 7541
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: August 28, 1946
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Editorial Review:
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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - It made Burt Lancaster a star in his very first movie.
The Killers was also one of Hemmingway's favorite treatments of his work.
Lancaster is known as the Swede. He is quickly murdered by two hired goons. The Swede had an insurance policy that interests investigator Jim Reardon, played by Edmund O'Brien. Then the movie flashes back in that classic noir style to find out why the Swede was assassinated. Years before the Swede was a boxer. After boxing he falls in with a bad crowd & goes to prison, taking the rap for a woman he believes loves ... Read More
Rating:  - don't be thinking "Hemingway".
The Killers is one of my favorite movies. It represents Burt Lancaster's breakout role, and is the introduction of Ava Gardner. She was only 18 at the time. This movie is structured as a classic film noir with our doomed hero (Burt Lancaster's Ole Anderson) whose fate is out of his hands. Ava (Kitty) is a stunning femme fatale. When I saw this movie the first time I simply would not accept that she had double crossed our hero, that's how good she was at playing both sides of the street. The movie ... Read More
Rating: - THIS MOVIE SOUNDS LIKE A DOUBLE-CROSS
...NOT TO SAY THAT THIS ISN'T A GOOD MOVIE-BUT THE POINT IS I JUST VIEWED ANOTHER BURT LANCASTER MOVIE CALLED"CRISS-CROSS
" AND I SWEAR THE PLOT IS IDENTICAL--ONLY A ASDIFFERNT LEADING LADY--AS I WAS VIEWING THE OTHER FILM BY BURT,-SO I I REALLY LIKED WHAT I SAW--GOOD PLOT, SUSPENSE, AND ALL--BUT I DIDN'T WANT TO GET "DOUBLE CROSSED" BY BUYING ANOTHER FILM SIMILIAR TO IT.BUT THE RATINGS FOR IT IS HIGHER THAN CRISS-CROSS..SO WHAT'SA VIEWER TO DO????? SO I WENT AND BOUGHT THE MOVIE "THE KILLERS"....AND ... Read More
Rating: - Timeless film-noir classic
Robert Siodmak's able direction of Ernest Hemingway's short story "The Killers" resulted in an outstanding vintage 1940's crime drama. With a superb cast and a convoluted intriguing plot with unexpected twists, this flick was a top shelf offering.
The story begins with the assassination of ex-pug Ole Andersen known as "The Swede" played by a youthful Burt Lancaster, a personal favorite. The Swede had been a boxer in Philadelphia of modest skills whose career short circuited due to a badly broken ... Read More
Rating: - Mesmerizing cult movie !
Since an insurance private eye investigates the murder of a wash up boxer he will be inmersed in a sordid underworld drama . An extendling Hemingway's taut tale.
Fine acting , superb script and masterful direction .
A must for those film noir lovers .
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