The Killers (film)

The Killers (known in Spanish by the titles Los asesinos, Assassins and Outlaws) is a 1946 American film directed by Robert Siodmak, based on the short story by Ernest Hemingway. by Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien and Sam Levene. It had four nominations for the Oscars: for best director, for best screenplay, for best soundtrack, and for best editing.

In 2008, the film was deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Plot

Virginia Christine, Burt Lancaster, Vera Lewis and Ava Gardner in a picture of the film trailer.

Two hit men arrive in a small town and kill a gas station attendant: Ole Andreson "the Swede" (Burt Lancaster), who was waiting for them. Detective Riordan (Edmond O'Brien) investigates the case for the insurance company of which he is an employee, despite his boss telling him not to, for to be a matter of little economic importance. Riordan begins to connect the dots and discovers that the life of "the Swede" it was full of deception and crime, and that he had something to do with the mysterious Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner) in all of it.

Accommodations

In 1958, Andrei Tarkovsky, then a film student, created a 19-minute short film based on the story.

Later, another adaptation of the same work by Hemingway would be made: The Underworld Code (The Killers, 1964), directed by Don Siegel and starring Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson and Ronald Reagan as lead actors.

Note

1. ↑ In Hemingway's story, the last name is "Andreson"; other times, "Anderson" is written.