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Epicurus.com - The Killers
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List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $19.98
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene
Directed By: Robert Siodmak
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780783217529
Format: Black & White
ISBN: 0783217528
Label: Universal Studios
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Universal Studios
Release Date: 1998-04-28
Running Time: 103
Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical Release Date: 1946-08-28
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Editorial Reviews:
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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
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: It made Burt Lancaster a star in his very first movie.
Comment: 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 him. When he gets out he hooks up with a gang lead by "Big Jim" Colfax (Albert Dekker). His girl friend is Kitty played by Ava Gardner. She seems rather ambivalent about Big Jim, but you can tell she has a thing for the Swede & the felling is mutual. The gang sucessfully pulls a big payroll job but tries to cut the Swede out. Kitty tells the Swede of the gang's plan & he turns the tables, on them, stealing all of the money, as well as Kitty. They escape to a hotel where I imagine the Swede had the best night of his life. Kitty absconds with all the money the next morning before he wakes up. Then the movie returns to the the present which was 1946. You then find out the rest of the story. A young Ava Gardner & the new Burt Lancaster are the attraction in this one. Pretty good
Customer Rating:
Summary: don't be thinking "Hemingway".
Comment: 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 starts with our hero awaiting his impending murder, in a pose of resigned acceptance. The story is told by an insurance investigator who is charged with paying off Ole Anderson's life insurance beneficiary, a maid who had been kind to him during the lowest point of his life. The insurance agent gets interested in Ole's connection to a big robbery and the story unfolds. Burt is stunning to look at...he is all virile masculinity on the screen. Ava was unbelievably beautiful, and the scene where Ole gets pole-axed by Kitty is a classic. Excellent, classic noir made especially notable by its relevance to its two soon-to-be-famous stars.
Customer Rating:
Summary: THIS MOVIE SOUNDS LIKE A DOUBLE-CROSS
Comment: ...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 HOPE IT TURNS OUT TO BE WORTH IT!
Customer Rating:
Summary: Timeless film-noir classic
Comment: 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 hand. He soon joined a group of criminals headed by Albert Dekker where he met and became enamored with the drop dead gorgeous Ava Gardner. Falling deeply in love with Gardner, Lancaster winds up taking the fall for her when she's appprehended with stolen jewelry by old time Lancaster friend police lieutenant Lubinsky played by Sam Levene.
After serving a 3 year sentence Lancaster emerges from prison only to take up with his old gang. When a robbery for $250,000 goes bad Lancaster goes into hiding in a small New Jersey town where he is eventually murdered.
Terrific and accomplished film noir actor Edmond O'Brien playing insurance investigator Jim Reardon begins to delve into the circumstances surrounding The Swede's death when his personal effects reveal a life insurance policy serviced by O'Brien's company.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing cult movie !
Comment: 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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