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The Killers (1946)

1946 · Feature film · 103 min · dir. Robert Siodmak

She's a match for any mobster!

  • Drama
  • film noir
  • Crime
Watch now On the Internet Archive

Synopsis

Two hit men walk into a diner asking for a man called "the Swede". When the killers find the Swede, he's expecting them and doesn't put up a fight. Since the Swede had a life insurance policy, an investigator, on a hunch, decides to look into the murder. As the Swede's past is laid bare, it comes to light that he was in love with a beautiful woman who may have lured him into pulling off a bank robbery overseen by another man.

Synopsis from TMDb

Details

Director
Robert Siodmak
Writer
Ernest Hemingway
Composer
Miklós Rózsa
Cinematography
Elwood Bredell
Studio
Universal International Pictures
Released
1946-08-30
Running time
103 minutes

Cast & crew

Reviews on the Internet Archive

★★★★★ · star vehicle · mmedefarge · 2023-12-26

This was the movie that made stars out of both Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster. Scuttlebutt is that Lancaster already had Desert Fury in the can and was waiting for release when he went to Mark Hellinger's office to talk about this film. Supposedly he paced the office like a puma while Hellinger took another meeting then said the hell with this, I'm going back to New York. Hellinger managed to catch him before he left the building. The Killers was released first and the publicists for Desert Fury gave Lancaster top billing to attract audiences. Noir always suggests more than it expresses and…

★★★★★ · The Killers · The Spanman · 2022-10-01

Stand alone classic. Burt Lancaster is amazing in this thriller. Ava Gardner displays all her natural talents. Lots of mean guys with ugly faces too. No down and dirty film would be complete without Sam Levene in a cameo detective appearance. Sam is the icing on the cake, who leaves the cherry on top, to other rank amateurs.

★★★★★ · Lamb to the slaughter · pennock54 · 2022-09-10

Burt Lancaster is lost the second he sets eyes on Ava Gardner. A great cast, great story line -unbeatable.

★★★★★ · A DIRTY CITY · dahlusion · 2023-11-13

This is one of those crime noir that's as ugly as a dirty city. It left me felling filthy and heading for the shower to have a good scrub. It succeeded in holding my attention. Lancaster and Gardner own the screen in this one. My only complaint is that it's too long––90 minutes would have been ideal.

★★★★★ · Terrific, but not easy to follow · J. Criquette · 2023-05-03

It's going to take at least another viewing to help me to really understand all the ins and outs of the plot, but this is one of those movies where the plot is almost secondary. It grips you with the details, not the summary. Robert Siodmak understood human nature dispassionately.

★★★★★ · Meowwww! · Mannerheimwall · 2024-09-23

Delightful, deceitful romp in the gritty shadows of light and dark. Ava's character asking for warm milk at The Green Cat club = Dead.

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