"The Killers" (1946) - Movie Review

“The Killers” would technically be the first American film noir I have seen. Before that I have only got the taste of it through the “Whose line is it anyway?” mock up of that era of film making. And it is truly an interesting experience which made me to look back the old movies of my native language. The story telling, flash backs, the lightings with shadows been used as the primary contrast mark up for a scene are nostalgic and also keeps up with the film in its style of narration and suspense.

Adapted from Ernest Hemingway’s short story, the first sequence in the café is witty, cold, dark and somewhat unbelievable too. Two strange man (Charles McGraw and William Conrad) come to a small town named Brentwood and enter a café. Their names we come to know through their conversation which each other. We know they are there for a job to hurt some one but they seem to enjoy the game with the people in Café. Even though they are pretty sloppy in showing their faces and leaving the people there unharmed, the whole sequence is funny and shrilling fear to the people out there. They are there to kill a man named Pete or Swede (Burt Lancaster). They leave unhopeful of him coming to the Café and one of the customers out there Nick (Phil Brown) runs to tell Pete who is his colleague to save himself, but Pete tired and given up on life says, he is done running. The men come and fire bullets on Pete who lays there to face it. In come the insurance investigator Mr. Reardon (Edmond O’Brien) and a visit to a strange beneficiary of Pete, Mary (Queenie Smith) in an Atlantic City Motel opens doors and curiosity on the killing.

As the flash back goes back and forth from different people who knew Pete who now we learn is actually a boxing fighter Ole Anderson, the faces are taken in the assumption of showing the actual players. Most of the people who tell the stories are taken as not liars. Some do not tell the whole story but everything points to the voluptuous beauty existing in the stories as Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner). This is a film which has the qualities of suspense suiting the time period and the evolution the film industry had at that time. But the focus while is on the suspense is more to the revealing of details through the eyes of Mr. Reardon. We know the players on hearsays and hunches, and it is not the main responsibility of Mr. Reardon too who pursues more for his cognitive interest than a company gain.

The suspense is nothing and the story telling is everything. Pete is the only character with faces and behaviour taken from the words of the people he met, befriended and fought upon. Questions pop up every single frame and get answered immediately. This makes the screenplay run without the notice of time period. The film while centers on Pete, Mr. Reardon and Kitty, the killers are the treat to watch. It would have been a great sequence to extend their involvement and dialogues which is a classic inspiration for Tarantino or any other director who came up with funny dialogues but the characters are so dangerous as the other people surrounding them hesitate a while before they laugh and possibly get killed too.

It is not a classic in the aspect of drama or novelty or grandeur as I have seen in “Rashomon” or “Citizen Kane”. It has its technique of screenplay and camera work finesse in style and presentation quite ahead of its time. The acting is subtle but animated when needed which amps up the high energy level for the script. Directed by Robert Siodmak, this is one entertaining, dark and witty film noir of its time. “The Killers” is a nostalgic reminder of the past and its influences on the present.