- If Robert Siodmak's version of The Killers left you wanting to see more of the creepy, wisecracking hitmen played by William Conrad and Charles McGraw, then Don Siegel has a film for you. It's not nearly as good as Siodmak's classic 1946 film noir, but Siegel's 1964 adaptation of The Killers handles the hitmen just as well as the original film, which is saying something. This time around, the two killers are played by Clu Gulager and the incomparable Lee Marvin, and it's their investigation of their own newly-deceased victim that propels the flashback-laden story. As Marvin's character puts it, "I gotta find out what makes a man decide not to run. Why, all of a sudden, he'd rather die."
- The man in question is a former racing star named Johnny North (John Cassavetes). When the hitmen confront him at the film's start, Johnny's working in a school for the blind. Or maybe it's more accurate to say that he's hiding there. As we eventually discover, Johnny torpedoed his racing partnership with a dedicated mechanic named Earl (Claude Akins) by getting mixed up with the alluring Sheila Farr (Angie Dickinson). Initially, Sheila's feminine wiles only kept Johnny distracted, but Earl also blames her for the fiery crash that ended Johnny's days as a racer. They go their separate ways for a while, but one day Sheila returns to convince Johnny to drive the getaway car in a mail truck heist planned by a "friend" of hers named Browning (Ronald Reagan). It's a real dope who would fall for the same dangerous woman twice, but to help the dangerous man who turns out to be her husband is really beyond the pale.
- As the hitmen's investigation leads them to ply Earl with a bottle, to turn the steam up on a crook named Mickey (Norman Fell), and to dangle Sheila out of an open window, we gradually learn more and more about what made Johnny tick. More interesting to me, however, is how the two films illustrate what made Siodmak and Siegel tick, considering that both directors were adapting the same Ernest Hemingway short story. As one might expect, Siegel's film is more sensationalistic, never hesitating to depict people getting gunned down or victimizing the blind, while Siodmak's film preferred to relegate the more sordid details to its dimly-lit margins. Neither director hesitates to present plenty of crazily canted angles, though, which is surprising given that eighteen years of filmmaking took place between the two adaptations. Both directors deploy plenty of flashbacks, the staple of noir storytelling, but I found those in Siodmak's film to be far more engaging. Subject matter aside (sorry, boxing beats car racing any day), the flashbacks in Siodmak's film were delivered by a larger number of colorful characters, giving the audience a much more varied set of impressions. That said, Siegel's film is of course more literally colorful, but I hardly consider that to be an advantage in the fundamentally dark and hazy world of crime noir.
- Just as pronounced are the differences in characterization and acting between the two films. While Siegel's killers are far more introspective than Siodmak's, I'd be hard-pressed to say which set I preferred. Ronald Reagan's villain is probably more intriguing than that of Albert Dekker, but that could simply be because of the path Reagan's career took after this film. While Cassavetes does seething anger well, his performance certainly can't hold a candle to Burt Lancaster's quiet resignation. Finally, we get to the real measure of many a film noir, the femme fatale. Both Sheila and her earlier counterpart Kitty Collins are absolute devils, seemingly going out of their way to get the people around them killed. Ava Gardner's Kitty is definitely the more amusingly depraved character, though, especially when she pleads with her dying husband to exonerate her. This film gives instead grants its last great moment to one of its eponymous killers by having Lee Marvin deadpan "Lady, I haven't got the time." I guess there was little chance that this version of The Killers would be as good as the previous one, but an ending like that and a hitman like him make it nearly as memorable.
- This was Reagan's last film, which is too bad. He made for a pretty great villain.
- Both the 1946 and 1964 versions feature Virginia Christine. This one also had bit parts featuring Seymour Cassel and Don Siegel himself.
- Score by John "Johnnie" Williams.
- This was originally supposed to be a TV movie, but...well, it's probably obvious why that couldn't have happened.
