Film Review
One of the absolute best examples of American film noir,
The Killers manages to combine the
most alluring cinematographic style with a thoroughly compelling
thriller storyline. The film, one of the few true film noirs from
Universal, marked the screen debut of 32-year-old Burt Lancaster,
a one-time circus acrobat who quickly became one of Hollywood's most
iconic movie stars. It also gave the virtually unknown Ava
Gardner her first important screen role, a femme fatale whose seductive
beauty masks a heart of coldly vicious feline duplicity.
Production was supervised by Mark Hellinger, who was once a successful
journalist before he became an independent film producer, credited with
such great films as
The Roaring Twenties (1939).
Advertised as
Ernest Hemingway's The
Killers, it is in fact only the film's prologue (leading up to
the shocking killing of the Swede) which is Hemingway's work - taken
from his short story
The Killers.
The remainder of the film is original, a taut labyrinthine plot that
was scripted by none other than John Huston (he was denied a credit
because he was then under contract with another studio, Warner
Brothers). In common with many film noir dramas of this period,
the film employs an extended flashback narrative structure, similar to
that used previously in Orson Welles's
Citizen Kane (1941).
The Killers was directed by
German émigré Robert Siodmak, who is credited with some
of the finest classic film noirs - others include The
Spiral Staircase (1945),
The Dark Mirror (1946) and
Criss Cross (1949). The
influence of German expressionism is keenly felt in Siodmak's inspired
use of stark shadows, unusual camera angles and harsh lighting, all of
which give the film an unsettling dreamlike feel, whilst heightening
the bleakly oppressive mood of pessimism and cynicism which is so
quintessentially film noir.
In 1964,
The Killers was
remade by Don Siegel, with John Cassavetes, Lee Marvin and Angie
Dickinson. Originally made for television, the film was deemed to
be to far too violent for the small screen and was instead given a
cinematic release. Today, this film compares poorly against the
1946 original, which is almost universally acknowledged as one of the
great masterpieces of classic American film noir, and also one of the
most attention-grabbing and enjoyable examples of its genre.
© James Travers 2008
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Robert Siodmak film:
Cry of the City (1948)
Film Synopsis
Late one evening, two strangers arrive in a small New Jersey
town. They stop at a roadside café where they intend to
kill a man named Ole Anderson, also known as "the Swede".
When the target fails to turn up, the killers make their way to his
boarding house where he lies waiting for them, almost as if he wanted
to die. After Andersen's death, insurance investigator Jim
Reardon is assigned to look into his murder, to establish why he
should choose to make a chambermaid he barely knew the beneficiary of
his life assurance policy. By speaking to the people who knew
Andersen, Reardon begins to piece together his eventful past life - a
life soiled by violence, greed and treachery...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.