The Cinematheque

“The kind of noir thriller the word quintessential was minted for … It’s one of the great films of disenchantment. And one content to do without grandstanding moments.”

Wally Hammond, Time Out

Directed by Hollywood luminary Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross, Phantom Lady), The Killers is one of film noir’s defining works—a master class in the criminality, corruption, and cynicism of the American-bred genre. Elaborating on Hemingway’s short story about a man who offers no resistance when hired killers come for him, the film casts Burt Lancaster (in his star-making screen debut) as ​“the Swede,” a world-weary ex-boxer murdered as the film opens. Edmond O’Brien (White Heat) is Riordan, an insurance investigator probing the Swede’s death. Ava Gardner is double-crossing dame Kitty Collins—the quintessential femme fatale. The narrative unfolds as a series of Citizen Kane-style flashbacks, each authored by an associate of the dead, recounting the Swede’s downfall. This restoration, with consultation from Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, comes from the original 35mm nitrate negative of the film.

“The ultimate noir dreamscape. The Citizen Kane of crime movies.”

Eddie Muller

“The movie’s languorous aestheticism is complemented by its spasmodic violence … The jagged razzmatazz of the choreographed, closely edited fight scenes was unsurpassed until Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull.”

J. Hoberman, The New York Times