The Killers (1946)

August 30, 1946, release date

Directed by Robert Siodmak

Screenplay by Anthony Veiller, John Huston

Based on a 1927 short story “The Killers,” by Ernest Hemingway, in Scribners Magazine

Music by Miklós Rózsa

Edited by Arthur Hilton

Cinematography by Woody Bredell

Burt Lancaster as Pete Lund/Ole “Swede” Andreson

Ava Gardner as Kitty Collins

Edmond O’Brien as Jim Reardon

Albert Dekker as “Big Jim” Colfax

Sam Levene as Lt. Sam Lubinsky

Vince Barnett as Charleston, the Swede’s prison cellmate

Virginia Christine as Lilly Harmon Lubinsky, the Swede’s former girlfriend, now Sam Lubinsky’s wife

Charles D. Brown as Packy Robinson, the Swede’s boxing manager

Jack Lambert as “Dum Dum” Clarke

Donald Mac Bride as R. S. Kenyon, Reardon’s boss

Charles McGraw as Al

William Conrad as Max

Phil Brown as Nick Adams

Jeff Corey as “Blinky” Franklin

Harry Hayden as George

Bill Walker as Sam

Queenie Smith as Mary Ellen Daugherty (also known as Queenie)

Beatrice Roberts as nurse

John Miljan as Jake the rake

Vera Lewis as Ma Hirsch

Produced by Mark Hellinger Productions

Distributed by Universal Pictures

The Killers opens with two men driving at night; the camera is perched in the backseat so viewers see the road and the signs, one of which lets them know they are entering Brentwood, New Jersey, The music is dark and ominous, with bass notes and horns. The killers are the first characters to appear on-screen. After driving into Brentwood, they walk to the Tri-State Gas Station and then cross the street to Henry’s Diner, where they harass the owner, a customer, and the cook. They are in town to find the Swede and kill him, and they don’t bother to hide this fact. The Swede attempted once to double-cross Colfax, the leader of a payroll heist, and to steal Colfax’s girlfriend Kitty. Colfax isn’t going to let the Swede get away with trying to cheat him.

(This blog post about The Killers contains spoilers.)

The only customer in the diner, Nick Adams, happens to be the Swede’s friend and coworker. Once the killers realize that the Swede isn’t coming into the diner to eat, they leave, and Nick runs to the Swede’s boarding house to warn him about the men looking for him.

• Nick: “Swede, I was over at Henry’s. A couple of guys came and tied up me and the cook. They shoved us in the kitchen. They said they were going to shoot you when you came in for supper. Well, George thought I ought to come over and tell you.”

• Swede: “There’s nothing I can do about it.”

• Nick: “I can tell you what they look like.”

• Swede: “I don’t want to know what they’re like. Thanks for coming.”

• Nick: “Don’t you want me to go and see the police?”

• Swede: “No. That wouldn’t do any good.”

• Nick: “Isn’t there something I can do?”

• Swede: “There ain’t anything to do.”

• Nick: “Couldn’t you get out of town?”

• Swede: “No. I’m through with all that running around.”

• Nick: “Why do they wanna kill you?”

• Swede: “I did something wrong . . . once. Thanks for coming.”

• Nick: “Yeah. It’s all right.”

Some think of the Swede as the character caught in an existential dilemma in The Killers. They point to this conversation as evidence of his resignation to his fate, and there’s no doubt that he doesn’t put up any resistance. When the killers find him, they complete the job they were hired to do and take off. But for me, the Swede is just reacting to his circumstances. He has done something wrong in the past, but he never takes responsibility for the crimes that he has committed. He simply acquiesces to death at the hands of the killers, who aren’t on a path that cannot be changed because fate has put them on it; they’re simply doing the job they have been hired to do. In existentialist thought, the universe is indifferent to humankind, neither benevolent nor hostile. The Swede’s universe is decidedly hostile to him, and he simply tires of running away from it.

The character in The Killers who seems closest to being caught in an existential dilemma in the film is Jim Reardon, the insurance company investigator played by Edmond O’Brien. He’s the one who plods through each day in the insurance company bureaucracy and the one who does his job for small rewards (getting a paycheck and saving the company policyholders from a fraction-of-a-cent increase in their premiums). He accepts the responsibility of the choices he has made: He chose his job, and so he fulfills the requirements of his job as best he can. For Jim Reardon, the universe of the film is indifferent to the fact that he is involved in a Sisyphean task of returning each day to do his job. Yes, he is ultimately a success because of his perseverance: He solves the puzzle of the Swede’s crime and of his murder. But solving the puzzle isn’t the most important thing; what’s important is the process, and Reardon never gives up on the process. The near-meaninglessness of his bureaucratic job is summed up in the final conversation between him and his boss, R. S. Kenyon.

• R. S. Kenyon: “Owing to your [Reardon’s] splendid efforts, the basic rate at the Atlantic Casualty Company, as of 1947, will probably drop one-tenth of a cent. Congratulations, Mr. Reardon.”

• Jim Reardon: “I’d rather have a night’s sleep.”

Kitty Collins is the quintessential femme fatale. She lures the Swede into a hopeless romantic affair, and she double-crosses him and the others involved in the payroll heist. But Kitty doesn’t remain loyal to either the Swede or Colfax. When Colfax has been shot by Dum Dum Clarke and is dying on the staircase in the house that he shares with Kitty, Kitty wants only to save herself:

• Kitty: “Jim! Jim! Tell them I didn’t do anything. Jim, listen to me. You can save me. Jim, do hear me? Tell them I didn’t know those gunmen were coming. Say, ‘Kitty is innocent. I swear, Kitty is innocent.’ Say it, Jim. Say it. It’ll save me if you do.”

• Lieutenant Sam Lubinsky: “Don’t ask a dying man to lie his soul into hell.”

But that’s exactly what Kitty wants if it means avoiding conviction and a prison term.

I really enjoyed the double crosses and the twists and turns of the plot. The Killers kept me guessing until the very end when I saw it the first time. But to gain a better understanding of the Swede’s despair, Jim Reardon’s bureaucratic progression through his investigation, and the lengths to which Kitty will go to save herself, it’s worth seeing The Killers a second time.