The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room Resource Guide for
THE KILLERS (dir. Robert Siodmak, 1946) and
THE KILLERS (dir. Don Siegel, 1964)
Presented in The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room in July 2023 in partnership with Universal Pictures.
Table of Contents
1) Film Descriptions
2) Special Features
3) EXPLORE Page Materials
-The Film Foundation on Letterboxd
4) Live Screening Commentary Script
THE KILLERS (1946), the first screen adaption of Ernest Hemingway’s deceptively short story, is a terrifying and taut film noir, one that would not only help create the genre but also come to define it. The iconic opening diner scene, filled with a deep sense of dread, gives way to a layered story of heartbreak and disappointment that is perfectly embodied in everything star Burt Lancaster—in his first movie role—does on screen. Director Robert Siodmak effortlessly takes Lancaster’s handsome exterior and infuses it with a startling innocence. Combined with an unforgettable Miklós Rósza score, haunting black and white photography from Woody Bredell, and a star-making turn from femme fatale Ava Gardner, THE KILLERS is a film you won’t soon forget.
THE KILLERS was restored using the original 35mm nitrate negative. 4K workflow and restoration services provided by NBCUniversal StudioPost.
Restored by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation. Special thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg for their consultation on this restoration.
The second screen adaptation of Hemingway’s story was also the first movie ever made for television. Don Siegel’s 1964 version of THE KILLERS differs greatly from Siodmak’s in both tone and temperament. It’s shot in vibrant color and from the opening scene—moved from the stark diner to a bustling school for the blind—the movie has an off-kilter kookiness that creates a jarring sense of unease. That unnerving sense is made even stronger by the performances in the film, namely by the killers themselves, played by straight man Lee Marvin and his unpredictable sidekick played by Clu Gulager. John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson take on the Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner roles and Siegel again twists things up, focusing more on their doomed love affair. The film also features Ronald Reagan in his last on-screen performance and his only villain role. In the end, Siegel’s film was deemed too violent for television but has lived on as a vital cult-classic companion to the original film.
THE KILLERS was restored using the original 35mm negative. 4K workflow and restoration services provided by NBCUniversal StudioPost.
Restored by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation. Special thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg for their consultation on this restoration.
THE KILLERS (1946)
Film Historian Foster Hirsch on the Origins of Film Noir via YouTube
Ava Gardner on What's My Line? via YouTube
Burt Lancaster on the Dick Cavett Show via YouTube
THE KILLERS (1964)
Don Siegel: Last of the Independents via YouTube
Lee Marvin Discusses Acting on the Johnny Carson show via YouTube
John Cassavetes: The Man and His Work via YouTube
THE KILLERS (1946)
In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, Imogen Sara Smith, McFarland & Co., 2011
Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, Eddie Muller, Running Press Adult, 2021
The File on Robert Siodmak in Hollywood, 1941-1951, Joseph Greco, 1999
Burt Lancaster: An American Life, Kate Buford, Da Capo Press, 2001
Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, Peter Evans & Ava Gardner, Simon and Schuster, 2014
THE KILLERS (1964)
Lee Marvin: Point Blank, Dwayne Epstein, Schaffner Press, 2017
Cassavetes on Cassavetes, John Cassavetes & Ray Carney, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2001
Angie: The Life and Films of Angie Dickinson, James Stratton, BearManor Media, 2020
In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City, Imogen Sara Smith, McFarland & Co., 2011
Dark City: The Lost World of Film Noir, Eddie Muller, Running Press Adult, 2021
THE KILLERS (1946)
"‘The Killers: The Citizen Kane of Noirs" for Criterion
"Fatal Women and the Fate of Women" for Criterion
THE KILLERS (1964)
"‘The Killers: A Decisive Reversal of Values" for Criterion
The Film Foundation on Letterboxd
THE KILLERS (1946)
THE KILLERS (1964)
THE KILLERS (1946) + THE KILLERS (1964)
Live Screening Commentary Script
7/10/23
Welcome to The Film Foundation Restoration Screening Room! Tonight we’re screening a double feature: THE KILLERS (1946, d. Robert Siodmak) and THE KILLERS (1964, d. Don Siegel).
You can stay with us here in the chat to learn more about the film as you watch or you can view the film full screen on-demand at 7pm.
In this chat mode the screening is live and picture controls (rewind/fast forward/pause) will not be available. If you miss anything or need to take a break, that functionality is available when watching on-demand.
Thanks for being here and we hope you enjoy our live commentary. We also encourage you to share your thoughts on the film as we go, making this a communal virtual viewing experience!
THE KILLERS (1946)
00:00:00 - 00:12:00
German-born director Robert Siodmak arrived in California in 1939 after a stint in Paris. In 1941 he started working in Hollywood, eventually signing with Universal in 1943 where he would help define the genre of film noir leading to THE KILLERS (1946).
After THE KILLERS (1946) Siodmak would continue to hone his noir skills and direct the great CRISS CROSS (1949) which also starred Burt Lancaster. In 1954 he would return to Europe to direct films before coming back to filmmaking in America in 1967.
To learn more about Siodmak’s long and rich film career, visit the link below to visit The Film Foundation’s Letterboxd account:
https://letterboxd.com/tff/list/directed-by-robert-siodmak/
00:12:00 - 00:24:00
THE KILLERS (1946) marked the film debut of 33 year old Burt Lancaster! He was born in Manhattan and raised in East Harlem. At age 9 he started his acting career by performing in circus acts at one of the city's oldest settlement houses.
Over the course of his 45 year career, Lancaster would work with director Robert Siodmak three times, first in THE KILLERS (1946), next in CRISS CROSS (1949), and finally in THE CRIMSON PIRATE (1952), which would mark the end of Siodmak’s first career in Hollywood.
To learn more about Lancaster’s film career, be sure to visit the below link to his appearance on The Dick Cavett Show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUfS4Wu6-xs
00:24:00 - 00:36:00
THE KILLERS (1946) is based on, as the title suggests, an Ernest Hemingway short story. The first 20 minutes of the movie are taken directly from Hemingway but the rest was created by credited screenwriter Anthony Veiller and uncredited scribes Richard Brooks and John Huston.
The treatment for the 1946 film was actually created by Don Siegel, who was originally slated to direct the film, but he would end up waiting 18 years to get his chance to direct the material.
To learn more about the history behind these two films, be sure to watch our interview with Eddie Muller, available on this page.
00:36:00 - 00:48:00
"No woman ever looked more conscious of her fatal power than Ava Gardner in her first scene from THE KILLERS (1946). Posing herself artfully at a piano, near a lamp that makes her dark locks and black satin dress shimmer like an oil slick, she has her back to the smitten boxer Swede (Burt Lancaster) but knows exactly the effect she is having on him.“
That quote is from a piece written by film noir expert Imogen Sara Smith, who we did a brand new interview with that’s available on this page.
00:48:00 - 01:00:00
Charleston is played by Vince Barnett, an actor known for his comedy on and off set, despite his strange dramatic role in THE KILLERS. Barnett would appear in over 230 films between 1930 and 1975 but was also known as a “professional ribber” and was often hired to play an “insulter” at banquets and parties. Some of his “victims” included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Charles Lindbergh.
01:00:00 - 01:12:00
Elwood Bailey Bredell, better known as Woody Bredell, was the cinematographer on THE KILLERS (1946). He got his start in Hollywood in 1917 as a child actor in silent films, working primarily in westerns with director Lynn Reynolds.
In 1937 Bredell started regularly shooting movies and became known for working on monster movies at Universal like THE MUMMY’S HAND (1940), THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (1940), and THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942).
To learn more about DP Woody Bredell’s long and rich film career, be sure to visit The Film Foundation’s Letterboxd account:
https://letterboxd.com/tff/list/shot-by-woody-bredell/
01:12:00 - 01:24:00
The original negative for the 1946 THE KILLERS was nitrate, which Universal Pictures doesn’t keep on their lot and stores offsite. The restoration team found that there was decomposition on that nitrate print—some frames were missing—but thankfully they had a composite nitrate fine grain that they were able to scan to help replace those frames.
To learn more about the restoration process behind THE KILLERS (1946), be sure to watch our interview with Cassandra Moore, available on this page.
01:24:00 - 01:36:00
Actor Charles McGraw plays one half of Siodmak’s pair of killers. Born in Iowa and raised in Akron, OH, McGraw made his first film in 1942 in an uncredited role in John Brahm’s THE UNDYING MONSTER. He would continue to play small and unbilled roles until 1950 when he was cast as the leading man in Richard Fleischer’s ARMORED CAR ROBBERY.
McGraw would die accidentally in 1980 at the age of 66 when he slipped in the bathroom and fell through his glass shower door. He was cut in several places, including a gash on his arm that broke his brachial artery, which caused him to bleed out before paramedics could arrive.
William Conrad, known for his voice and work in radio, played the other half of Siodmak’s pair of killers and for him it marked his feature film debut.
01:36:00 - end of the film
Thank you so much for joining us for THE KILLERS (1946) and please stick around for the presentation of THE KILLERS (1964, Don Siegel).
THE KILLERS (1964)
00:00:00 - 00:12:00
After director Don Siegel, the other main connection between the 1946 film and the 1964 film is actress Virginia Christine, who plays Lilly Harmon Lubinsky in the Siodmak and then shows up in the opening scenes of Siegel’s film as the blind receptionist Miss Watson.
Christine made her film debut in 1943 in an uncredited role in Lewis Milestone’s EDGE OF DARKNESS. She initially tested for the role of Kitty Collins in the 1946 version ofTHE KILLERS but lost out to Ava Gardner. Producer Mark Hellinger liked her test though and she was cast as Lilly Harmon Lubinsky instead.
She had a very active career in movies and television shows but eventually became best known for her work playing “Mrs. Olsen” in Folgers’s coffee commercials, which she started doing in 1965 and continued doing for the next 21 years.
00:12:00 - 00:24:00
Originally created to be one of the first “made for TV movies,” Don Siegel’s THE KILLERS (1964) was eventually deemed too violent by NBC and it was released theatrically instead. At the time of the release, star Lee Marvin said it was his favorite film.
Marvin and Siegel had worked together previously on the film THE DUEL AT SILVER CREEK (1952) which was one of Marvin’s first credited screen roles and Siegel’s 4th feature film as director.
To learn more about Siegel’s long and rich film career, be sure to visit The Film Foundation’s Letterboxd account:
https://letterboxd.com/tff/list/directed-by-don-siegel/
00:24:00 - 00:36:00
In the 1964 film, “The Swede” becomes Johnny North and is played by the great director John Cassavetes. He had directed his first feature film, SHADOWS, in 1958 and would go on to make such films as FACES (1968), HUSBANDS (1970), A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (1974), and more.
When Don Siegel hired Cassavetes to play race car driver Johnny North—after considering the likes of Steve McQueen and George Peppard—he learned that he could barely drive!
To learn more about Cassavetes rich and diverse film career, be sure to visit The Film Foundation’s Letterboxd account:
https://letterboxd.com/tff/list/starring-john-cassavetes/
00:36:00 - 00:48:00
Mechanic Earl Sylvester is played by Cherokee-American actor Claude Akins. His first film role was in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) in which he acted with the star of the original KILLERS, Burt Lancaster. The next year he acted in THE CAINE MUTINY (1954) alongside Lee Marvin and continued acting in films and on TV until 1994 when he passed away from stomach cancer at the age of 67.
00:48:00 - 01:00:00
“While making its hapless antihero a racecar driver, the 1964 version of ‘The Killers’ largely hews to the 1946 structure. The major alteration has the hit men, rather than an insurance investigator, teasing out the victim’s story. Money is involved, but so is curiosity.”
That quote is from J. Hoberman’s 2015 review of the two THE KILLERS films. To read what else he has to say about what makes each film special, visit the link below:
01:00:00 - 01:12:00
Ronald Reagan started acting in 1937 in Nick Grinde’s LOVE IS IN THE AIR and this film, THE KILLERS (1964), would mark the end of his Hollywood career. It was an unusual role for Reagan in that he had never played the heavy, the bad guy. He would go on to say that he regretted being in the film, largely because of the violence acted out by his character.
Three years after he filmed THE KILLERS Reagan would win the 1966 election for Governor of California.
01:12:00 - 01:24:00
Speaking about the restoration of THE KILLERS (1964), Universal’s Cassandra Moore discussed the elements they used. She noted that they had “a gorgeous negative, Eastman Kodak film, kept in really good condition, wonderful grain structure, really beautiful.” And that “for that particular element we were able to use the original negative, we were able to scan it, it looked fantastic, and it really comes alive.”
To learn more about the restoration process behind THE KILLERS (1964), be sure to watch our interview with Cassandra Moore, available on this page.
01:24:00 - the end of the film
Thank you so much for joining us tonight for THE KILLERS (1946 & 1964). THE KILLERS (1946) was restored using the original 35mm nitrate negative. 4K workflow and restoration services provided by NBCUniversal StudioPost. THE KILLERS (1964) was restored using the original 35mm negative. 4K workflow and restoration services provided by NBCUniversal StudioPost.
Both films were restored by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation. Special thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg for their consultation on this restoration.
We look forward to seeing you next month on Monday, August 14th for a screening of Shadi Abdel Salam’s AL MOMIA (1969) and THE ELOQUENT PEASANT (1970).
