Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

rodrig58 Burt Lancaster, a great great actor, is very convincing even when is badly beaten as a boxer and when is tough with the other characters. I did not understand why he gave up and left himself to be shot and killed, perhaps Hemingway wanted like that, I did not read the book. Ava Gardner is too young and too beautiful for anything, too delicate to be a felon's mistress. Edmond O'Brien, very natural in the role of insurance guy Jim Reardon. The other actors are very good too, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, Vince Barnett, Virginia Christine, Jack Lambert. Queenie Smith, in a very small role, is excellent. Robert Siodmak, good craftsman.

Olga Levin I am increasingly becoming a bigger fan of noir, still rather new to this genre even though I love classic movies and have seen my fair share of them. I love the intense build-up of this movie in the very beginning, that diner scene is really something! I was just talking to a customer at my workplace about the movie and I told her that if I ever decide to get into the food business, I'd want to open a diner just like the one in The Killers. What a lot of movies today lack is a very good storyline. Sadly with the advancement of CGI, the amount put into creating a very strong storyline in a movie has declined over the years. The old classic Hollywood glamour rarely exists in today's movies as well. This is something that I hope that Hollywood would bring back one day.Black and white movies certainly teach you how to really appreciate the story, and how to appreciate the cinematography of black and white film. Noir can't be replicated in color like it was done in the 1940's because there was more that added to the films other than being in black and white. There was the style and sex appeal of the characters, this is very evident in Ava Gardner's role as the main femme fatale in the movie. Although film noir focuses on the female sex appeal, there is certainly sex appeal in the male characters as well. I definitely found this in Edmond O'Brian's portrayal of the main detective. Very dashing, handsome, and masculine. I do wish that they would give Ava Gardener a more lengthy song to perform like they did in Dark Passage with Lauren Bacall.Ernest Hemmingway certainly scored my interest in continuing to read his writing with this one. After seeing the movie, I made sure to buy the collection of Hemmingway's short stories. If you are new to film noir or just thinking about getting into classic movies seriously, I'd recommend starting with this one.

bcstoneb444 Considering The Killers dates from early in the noir cycle it's a little surprising that it's as definitive a crystallization of the noir ethos that we're likely ever to see. Wow! Director Siodmak and cinematographer Woody Bredell are at the top of their form: they pile shadow upon shadow, scene after scene. So much going for this one: noir composer of choice Miklos Rozsa here comes through with maybe his best score ever, regardless of genre. Jangling and Stravinsky-esque, it never lets up. Burt Lancaster is fine as the doomed Swede, and of course Ava Gardner is a wonder. The visage of her in that slinky black evening dress is the very definition of the noir femme fatale. Only Rita Hayworth in Gilda gives her a run for her money. A bonus is that Ava sings her song using her own voice. And how about Charles McGraw and William Conrad, for my money the two coldest hired assassins in film history. And it is refreshing to see a young, relatively slim and more or less handsome Edmond O'Brien taking on the gumshoe role. The rest of the supporting cast is primo, especially Albert Dekker as Mr Big and, in a turn that seems to anticipate his appearance in Kiss Me Deadly a decade later, Jack Lambert nearly steals the movie as the problematic thug. Also fascinating is the inclusion on the Criterion DVD of a 1956 short produced in the Soviet Union(!) which sticks pretty faithfully to the story and does a pretty good job of capturing an American atmosphere, quite amazing considering the times.

TheLittleSongbird Regarding the latter, that is saying quite a lot seeing as Ernest Hemingway's work is very difficult to adapt and has met very mixed success on film. What is remarkable about The Killers is how it takes a very good and remarkably powerful short story and expands further on it, one of the few Hemingway adaptations to be just as good as its source material and at times be even better than it.This said it is a fabulous film too on its own terms, and is quintessential film noir, audacious, taut, exciting and suspenseful when it could have been overblown, overwrought or dull if done wrongly. And as much as I did like the 1964 remake, mostly because of Lee Marvin, the 1946 original is the far superior film, with an obvious difference for the better being the production values. The remake was hurt by its rather rushed and cheap made-for-TV look, whereas the production values is one of the strongest things about this version, with its crisp photography, brilliantly atmosphere production design influenced by Edward Hopper and shadowy lighting, that bring such an effective noir-ish atmosphere, the opening scene is particularly striking in this regard.Miklos Rozsa's music here is one of his most ominous and stirringly orchestrated, used sparingly but with palpable effect, really allowing the atmosphere to speak and enhancing it even further when it features. So good in fact, that it was used again for the TV series Dragnet. Robert Siodmak's expertly direction, which maintains a powerfully bleak tone throughout, and a cracking screenplay are further great things, as is a story that is tightly paced and excitingly taut with tons of suspense and intrigue and intricately done and never confusing flashbacks, not getting dull for a minute. This viewer for one was riveted throughout and never found herself confused.Strong acting also helps, with Burt Lancaster thoroughly convincing in his first starring role, his best moments in fact are stunning, and Ava Gardner in the femme fatale role is wonderfully beautiful, classy and mysterious. Albert Dekker and Edmund O' Brien are the standouts in support, Dekker is splendidly larcenous and O'Brien drives the investigation with such taut aplomb. Charles McGraw and William Conrad are chilling too, and you wish the film developed their characters just a little more. While the characters are not the most well-developed, they are still interesting and carry the narrative without any annoyances or irrelevance.All in all, superior version and quintessential film noir in its own right. 10/10 Bethany Cox