The Killers (1946)

Calificación de los usuarios:

7.9/10   

Director:

Robert Siodmak

Escritores:

Ernest Hemingway (story)
Anthony Veiller (screenplay)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

28 agosto 1946 (USA)

Género:

Crimen | Drama | Cine Negro | Misterio | Romance

Frase comercial:

THE MOST SUSPENSEFUL PICTURE OF ALL TIME! (re-release print ad - all caps)

Plot:

Hit men kill an unresisting victim, and investigator Reardon uncovers his past involvement with beautiful, deadly Kitty Collins.

Plot Keywords:

Small Town | Gas Station | Insurance Investigator | Insurance | Childhood Friend

Premios:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 2 wins

Comentarios de los usuarios:

The swede story unravels in noir classic.

Reparto

Burt Lancaster	...	'Swede' Andersen
Ava Gardner	...	Kitty Collins
Edmond O'Brien	...	Jim Reardon
Albert Dekker	...	Big Jim Colfax
Sam Levene	...	Lt. Sam Lubinsky
Vince Barnett	...	Charleston
Virginia Christine	...	Lilly Harmon Lubinsky
Charles D. Brown	...	Packy Robinson
Jack Lambert	...	'Dum-Dum' Clarke
Donald MacBride	...	R.S. Kenyon
Charles McGraw	...	Al
William Conrad	...	Max
Phil Brown	...	Nick Adams
Queenie Smith	...	Mary Ellen Daugherty
Jeff Corey	...	'Blinky' Franklin

También conocida como:

A Man Alone
Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (USA) (complete title)
Asesinos (Venezuela) [es]
Forajidos (Spain) [es]

Duración:

103 min

País:

USA

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Negro y Blanco

Relación de Aspecto:

1.37 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Clasificación:

Australia:PG | Norway:16 | West Germany:16 (nf) | Finland:(Banned) (1947-1949) | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated

Compañía:

Mark Hellinger Productions

Trivialidades:

The film opened in New York at the Winter Garden Theatre on August 28, 1946. The first day, $10,341 was taken in at the box office, beating a previous house record by $3000.

Errores:

Personal o Equipo Visible: When they're making their getaway from the robbery, the camera crew is reflected in the windshield of the truck they're hiding behind.

Citas:

'Swede' Andersen: Why did you ever go back to him, Kitty?
Kitty Collins: Maybe because I hate him. I'm poison, Swede, to myself and everybody around me! I'd be afraid to go with anyone I love for the harm I do to them! I don't care harming him!

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in Pi (1998)

Banda de Sonido:

THE MORE I KNOW OF LOVE

The swede story unravels in noir classic.

You can scan thru many publications and they will tell you that Robert Siodmark's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's story The Killers is quintessential noir, and whilst I haven't seen enough of the perceived classics to make a sound judgement, I do understand why this one ranks so high.

Perfectly directed by Siodmark because it is washed with a moody ambiance that befits the script, the main players in the piece are bang on form to realise the mood and sombre tempo that makes the film a winner. The story basically revolves around Burt Lancaster's Swede Anderson who upon learning that hired KILLERS are out to fulfil a contract on him, promptly stays horizontal on his bed and awaits his fate. We then follow Edmond O'Brien's insurance investigator Jim Reardon as {thru a series of flashbacks} he reconstructs Swede's life and what caused his demise.

The story encompasses one of film noirs most well known femme fatales in Ava Gardner's foxy Kitty Collins, and it's certainly the films driving force observing her part in Swede's life, for better or worse as it were, but ultimately it's the classy framing of the film that marks it out as essential viewing, it's oppressive, it's almost stifling, and it's certainly story telling of the highest order, but mainly it just looks so fecking gorgeous you feel privileged to have been part of it.

8/10