Fascinating, engrossing, and captivating all describe the 1964 neo noir crime picture “The Killers,” based on Ernest Hemingway’s short story from 1927. Producer-director Don Siegel (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” 1956) and screenwriter Gene L. Coon (major contributor to the original “Star Trek” television series) put together this saga of two hit men (Lee Marvin & Clu Gulager) who become so curious about the man they were hired to kill (John Cassavetes) that they go on a quest to find out the details of his life. Excellent work by Siegel and Coon.
The talented supporting cast behind Marvin, Gulager, and Cassavetes included Angie Dickinson, Claude Akins, Norman Fell, Virginia Christine, Don Haggerty, Robert Phillips, Kathleen O’Malley, Burt Mustin, and Ronald Reagan in his final film role before his entrance into politics, which led to election to Governor of California in 1966 and President of the United States in 1980. His movie career began in 1937 with “Love Is on the Air,” the first of nearly seventy motion pictures that ended with 1964’s “The Killers.” This was the only role of Reagan’s where he played a bad guy; one scene where he slaps Dickinson does indeed seem out of character for Ronnie’s usually easy-going on-screen persona.
“The Killers” was a remake of the 1946 feature film of the same name starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. (Virginia Christine was a co-star in the original as well.) This version was intended by Universal Pictures to be one of the very first “made for tv” movies, but NBC deemed it was too violent for a television broadcast, and the watchable drama “The Killers” was designated by Universal to be a film for theatrical release.
The Killers (1964)
cinema
My Review
Fascinating, engrossing, and captivating all describe the 1964 neo noir crime picture “The Killers,” based on Ernest Hemingway’s short story from 1927. Producer-director Don Siegel (“Invasion of the Body Snatchers” 1956) and screenwriter Gene L. Coon (major contributor to the original “Star Trek” television series) put together this saga of two hit men (Lee Marvin & Clu Gulager) who become so curious about the man they were hired to kill (John Cassavetes) that they go on a quest to find out the details of his life. Excellent work by Siegel and Coon.
The talented supporting cast behind Marvin, Gulager, and Cassavetes included Angie Dickinson, Claude Akins, Norman Fell, Virginia Christine, Don Haggerty, Robert Phillips, Kathleen O’Malley, Burt Mustin, and Ronald Reagan in his final film role before his entrance into politics, which led to election to Governor of California in 1966 and President of the United States in 1980. His movie career began in 1937 with “Love Is on the Air,” the first of nearly seventy motion pictures that ended with 1964’s “The Killers.” This was the only role of Reagan’s where he played a bad guy; one scene where he slaps Dickinson does indeed seem out of character for Ronnie’s usually easy-going on-screen persona.
“The Killers” was a remake of the 1946 feature film of the same name starring Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner. (Virginia Christine was a co-star in the original as well.) This version was intended by Universal Pictures to be one of the very first “made for tv” movies, but NBC deemed it was too violent for a television broadcast, and the watchable drama “The Killers” was designated by Universal to be a film for theatrical release.