The Killers (1964)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Don Siegel

Writers:

Ernest Hemingway (story)
Gene L. Coon (screenplay)

Release Date:

7 July 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

Tagline:

There is more than one way to kill a man!

Plot:

Surprised that their contract victim didn't try to run away from them, two professional hit men try to find out who hired them and why.

Plot Keywords:

Robbery | Teacher | School For The Blind | Violence | Helicopter Shot

Awards:

Won BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Lee Marvin	...	Charlie Strom
Angie Dickinson	...	Sheila Farr
John Cassavetes	...	Johnny North
Clu Gulager	...	Lee
Claude Akins	...	Earl Sylvester
Norman Fell	...	Mickey Farmer
Ronald Reagan	...	Jack Browning
Virginia Christine	...	Miss Watson
Don Haggerty	...	Mail Truck Driver
Robert Phillips	...	George
Kathleen O'Malley	...	Receptionist
Ted Jacques	...	Gym Assistant
Irvin Mosley Jr.	...	Mail Truck Guard (as Irvin Mosley)
Jimmy Joyce	...	Salesman
Davis Roberts	...	Maître D'

Also Known As:

Ernest Hemingway's The Killers (USA) (promotional title)
Johnny North (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1964) (cut) | Finland:(Banned) (1964) (uncut) | Finland:K-16 (1968) (cut) | Iceland:12 | Norway:16 (1964) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Australia:M | Spain:18 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Riverside International Raceway, Riverside, California, USA

Company:

Revue Studios

Trivia:

Among other actors considered for Ronald Reagan's role were Barry Nelson, Gig Young, John Forsythe, Leslie Nielsen, Van Johnson, Richard Conte, Steve Cochran, Richard Basehart and Walter Matthau.

Goofs:

Continuity: While the gang is going over the heist plot in the garage, Jack stands up and slaps Sheila with his right hand across her left cheek. When she recovers from nearly falling over, she holds her right cheek. In another shot soon after, she is nursing her bruised left cheek.

Quotes:

Charlie Strom: Lady, I haven't got the time.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in American Hardcore (2006)

Soundtrack:

Too Little Time

My favourite cult B-movie...

Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager, two contract killers, walk into a Midwest school for the blind and cold-bloodedly murder John Cassavettes. "We walk in, we put him down, we walk out," muses Marvin distractedly on the train back to Chicago. Cassavettes had the chance to run but didn't, and Marvin wants to know why.

Initially, Don Siegel's colour remake of the Ernest Hemingway story was intended as the first made-for-TV movie. Vetoed by the network for its amoral viewpoint and violence, it was released in cinemas and quickly became a cult 1960s B-movie.

Anonymous and menacing in executive suits, sunglasses and briefcase, Marvin and scene-stealing Gulager memorably personify organised crime under Siegel's expert direction. They're pure all-American evil.

True, the main plot - pieced together in flashback as the two hitmen track down the mail robbery gang led by Ronald Reagan (his last film) - is pretty routine stuff. But even that serves to heighten the threat represented by Marvin and Gulager, as they unravel the real reason for Cassavettes' deathwish.

"No one ever knows what we're talking about," mocks Gulager when femme fatale Angie Dickinson tries to act dumb. The scene in the hotelroom where the killers force her to tell is handled with a ferocious cool that is Siegel's trademark.

The Killers was still in production when Kennedy was assassinated - perhaps one reason, given its theme, why TV network ABC pulled it from their 1964 schedule. The scene where Gulager is shot down on a sunlit sidewalk even echoed the killing of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Gulager's character is called Lee).

OK, it's not a masterpiece. Even the great Don Siegel can't quite disguise a B-movie budget, a repetitious screenplay, brightly artificial colour, and exteriors that are only too obviously the Universal backlot. But it is tense and exciting, thanks to Siegel's authoritative grasp of the genre.

"I shot it in the style which I think is my style at its best," Siegel concluded later. "Very taut and lean with great economy. If I had to do it over again, I don't think I would change much."