The Killers

(AKA: A Man Alone)

Where do you begin with a review for this movie? Do you start with the actors, or the lack of acting from one very important character? Maybe the style of the film: how it was sleekly filmed and the use of perfect settings. Or better yet, what about the story and how it unfolds. Lets start there shall we, with the telling of a charming story about murder, double crossing, prize fighting, prison life and the world of insurance adjusting!

As the audience, we discover the story through the eyes and ears of the dedicated insurance detective Reardon, played by Edmond O’Brien. I loved how we are told the story through flashbacks, pieced together by different characters Reardon meets during his investigation. For the most part, the flashbacks are sequential but there is some jumping around (The Atlantic city hotel scene where the maid saves the Swede from suicide didn’t happen first but last chronologically).

The use of flash backs to tell a story isn’t a common technique used by filmmakers, but some memorable films that have used it come to mind: Sunset Boulevard, Citizen Kane, Kurosawa’s Ikiru, Memento and the Usual Suspects. I don’t think flashbacks are used too often because the typical film watcher doesn’t want to have to think to follow along. Too many dumb shmucks out there I guess. Hollywood knows this and therefore panders to the masses. These types of moviegoers just want to be spoon-fed a story. Personally I enjoy being forced to be an active watcher, it shows that the writer is giving credit to his/her audiences’ intelligence. The story and how it unfolds gets an A+ from me. You can’t go wrong with the flashback!

The acting is a different matter however. I found Lancaster’s portrayal of the Swede to be very one-dimensional. Granted he was a boxer, and probably not a very smart cookie but I just didn’t find him believable. Scratch that, I mean I didn’t find the character very convincing. I have just seen Lancaster act so well in so many other pictures (From Here to Eternity, The Train and even Field of Dreams) that I thought he was flat in The Killers. The back of the box says that this was his first film; this might explain why he was so lousy. Other than his first scene (chronologically his last), where he didn’t care about the killers coming to take him out, he had no memorable scenes. Or maybe that was how the character was written and he was supposed to be played like that. If so, boooooooo! Definitely a bad choice by Lancaster, they could have used anybody for the role. I don’t think he got top billing when this movie was released; at least I hope he didn’t!

I enjoyed the rest of the acting. Ava Gardner played a very convincing double-crossing wench, not to mention she looked fairly hot in that tight sweater during the meeting about the payroll heist. O’Brien played a strong, uncompassionate insurance investigator (I loved when he kept filling Charleston’s glass to keep him talking). Overall I give the acting a solid B but Lancaster gets a C -.

Now we come to the style of The Killers. I enjoy Film-noir, but I only have a limited vocabulary when it comes to it. I’ve seen most of Bogart’s films, and I have thoroughly enjoyed John Huston’s direction of Film-noirs, but that is where my experience ends. What I can say though is that I truly enjoyed this audio-visual experience. Right from the get go, Siodmak had me with his sleepy town of Brentwood (No OJ there I guess). The identity of the two killers, and reason why they are there is not only a mystery to the people in the diner, but also to the audience. A great way to set up the movie!!

The picture looked sleek all the way through and the soundtrack complimented it very well. Watching it I could pick out where modern movies might have borrowed from it. For example, Blinky’s deathbed scene might be in The Usual Suspects ("This guy’s talking like a Thai hooker!), the opening diner scene could be in Pulp Fiction ("Any of you f%$#ing pr&*%s move and I’ll execute every mother f%$#ing last one of you!"), or even in Heat (DeNiro and the boys after the first job). I even think Harrison Ford’s Patriot Games borrowed a little something from the scene at the Green Cat bistro (When Ford confronts Richard Harris in the Irish pub). Ultimately I was impressed with the style of the film, I give it an A -.

The Killers is an enjoyable movie, except for Lancaster, that I recommend to others to watch, especially if they need to broaden their Film Noir horizons. One random thought though, I liked the other name for The Killers better, A Man Alone, it just sounds more profound.

"Look, I said it before, they call me ‘the Swede’ not ‘the Suede’!"

"Perhaps I should have stolen a couple of towels as well as some more mints from that Atlantic City hotel?"