The Killers (1964)

Directed by Don Siegel. Starring John Cassavettes, Lee Marvin, Clu Gulager, Angie Dickinson, Ronald Reagan, Claude Akins, Norman Fell, Virginia Christine.

Hitmen Marvin and Gulager knock off former racecar driver Cassavettes, then try to piece together why; majority of film is presented in flashback as Cassavettes gets involved with two-timing moll Dickinson and ruthless financier Reagan for a million-dollar theft they need a getaway driver for. Expanded from the same-named Ernest Hemingway short story, this tough, sunlit crime noir provides a satisfying blend of brute force, broken dreams, and cold-blooded worldview. Follows a mostly predictable pattern of crooked emotional handicapping and double-crosses, but its mean energy and terse thrills give the pic plenty of juice to appeal to genre newbies and aficionados alike. The curt dismissal contained within Marvin’s final line is almost worth the price of entry by itself. Notable for its casting of Reagan as an out-and-out heavy, the only villainous role of his career (it would also be his last film role period prior to his retirement from acting in 1966). Previously filmed in 1946 with Burt Lancaster.

73/100