Two hit men drive into a small New Jersey town and gun down a gas station attendant for no apparent reason. An insurance investigator tries to get to the bottom of the story with tragic results. Robert Siodmak directed this 1946 classic based on a story by Ernest Hemingway. Burt Lancaster stars in his film debut along with Ava Gardner and Edmund O’Brien. Charles McGraw and William Conrad play the menacing killers. 103 minutes.
The Killers has been called the Citizen Kane of film noir not only because of its style and film techniques, but also because of its influence on subsequent films. Eddie Muller of Turner Classic Movies Noir Alley regards Robert Siodmak as the best of all noir directors, and cinematographer Woody Bredell as one of the great cameramen, especially in his use of light and shadow. Miklos Rozsa's musical score is also outstanding.
In his film debut Burt Lancaster became an immediate sensation and vaulted into stardom with his portrayal of the doomed boxer. After appearing in a number of mediocre films, the beautiful Ava Gardner also rose to stardom with her portrayal of the femme fatale. The rest of the cast was superb. Edmund O'Brien turned in a fine performance as an insurance investigator, as did Sam Levene as a police detective.
The beginning of this film is a film icon in itself. Charles McGraw and William Conrad are unforgettable as the killers, and their performances set the bar for all the hitmen to come. Here is a link to Eddie Muller's intro to The Killers. ###
Ella Raines, Franchot Tone, and Alan Curtis star in this 1944 murder mystery directed by film noir master Robert Siodmak. After a quarrel with his estranged wife on their anniversary, a man goes to a bar to drown his sorrow. He meets a woman, equally downcast, and invites her to attend a Broadway musical with him since his wife has declined. When he finally gets home, he discovers that his wife has been murdered and the police suspect him. He is quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death since he doesn’t even know the name of the woman who could be his alibi. Then, his secretary gets on the case.
Ella Raines, a personal favorite, plays the secretary as a smart, attractive professional with class and clothes to match. Alan Curtis and Franchot Tone are fine as her boss and his best friend, but supporting players also stand out. Thomas Gomez is solid as a police detective. Aurora plays a fiery Latin American singer who sings and acts with real intensity. Elisha Cook Jr., a film noir regular, plays a hopped-up jazz drummer. His solo in an after-hours jam session with Raines acting like a tart egging him on is unforgettable.
The movie has holes you could drive a truck through, but it still is a suspenseful and enjoyable thriller with great camera work by Woody Bredell. Eddie Muller regards Robert Siodmak as the best of all film noir directors and rates this film right up there with other 1944 standouts like Double Indemnity, Laura, The Woman in the Window, and Murder, My Sweet. ###
Christmas Holiday. Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly star in this 1944 film noir set in New Orleans during the Holiday season. Durbin’s personality and singing voice made her a box office sensation but here she appears in a serious role as a night club singer with a dark history who meets a stranded soldier, played by Dean Harens, on Christmas Eve. Directed by film noir master Robert Siodmak, the film is based on a Somerset Maugham novel. 93 minutes.
The film makes many changes to Maugham's novel. The setting is not a Paris bordello but a thinly disguised one in New Orleans where Durbin works as a singer but is obviously one of the girls. Here is a link to her singing "Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year," while the club's business goes on in the back ground.
Still, the film is remarkably true to the novel's core with its emphasis on tragic love, sin, suffering, and redemption. Christmas Holiday is a dark film superbly directed by Siodmak, one of the great masters of what would later become known as film noir. The writer, Herman Mankiewicz of Citizen Kane fame, produced a brilliant script full of rare depth and meaning. The screen play is supported by a musical score created by Austrian Hans Salter that ranged from Durbin’s rendition of Irving Berlin’s ballad, Always, to a magnificent orchestral version of Wagner’s Liebestod performed in a packed concert hall, and again at the film’s finale.
Speaking of the finale, the film’s creators dramatically changed what I consider to be Maugham’s very weak and ambiguous ending. The ending is still somewhat ambiguous but like the rest of the film, the direction, the acting, the writing, and the musical score transcend the novel on which it is based.
Deanna Durbin regarded Christmas Holiday as her best performance. She certainly demonstrated that the child singer had become a fine mature actress. Five years later she would leave Hollywood for good, and retire to a farm in France with her French husband. I don't think Gene Kelly ever played another dark role like this one. His great career as a dancer was still in the future.
Criss Cross: Burt Lancaster and Yvonne DeCarlo play star-crossed lovers in this 1949 heist drama that critics rank among the top three of all film noir. Robert Siodmak directed this film full of plot twists and turns, excellent cinematography, and a film score by Miklos Rozsa. 84 minutes. CC.
There is a tragic love triangle at the heart of the story. Lancaster is still in love with his beautiful ex-wife, played by DeCarlo, but she has taken up with a smarmy gangster played by Dan Duryea, one of Hollywood’s greatest film villains.
Lancaster gets involved with the gangster, and although the hatred between them is palpable, he agrees to participate in the robbery of an armored car bearing a company payroll. Lancaster, a driver for the armored car company, will be the inside man. As usual the gang members mistrust each other and plan to double cross each other once they get their hands on the loot.
The cast is superb. Lancaster’s character has his flaws, and is engaged in a criminal enterprise, but our hearts go out to him right to the tragic ending. He is tough but his innocence makes him a true tragic hero. Fate is against him.
Apparently, the producers wanted Ava Gardner or Rita Hayworth for the female lead, but since neither was available, they settled on DeCarlo. It was a happy accident. I can think of no other actress that could have matched her passion and intensity in this film. Her fiery personality is especially evident in a beautifully photographed Latin dance number performed by her and an uncredited Tony Curtis on a crowded night club floor. No wonder Lancaster could not forget her. It is sad to think that this beautiful actress ended her career playing Mrs. Herman Munster on the TV comedy series, the Munsters.
As always, Dan Duryea is superb as a sleazy, vicious gangster.
In 2004, film critic Dennis Schwartz wrote, "Robert Siodmak ...directs this cynical film noir of obsessive love and betrayal. It's 1940s film noir at its most influential as far as style goes, that is further enhanced by the beautiful dark photography of Frank Planer, the tight script by Daniel Fuchs, and the taut pacing by Siodmak. It's based on a story by Don Tracy...Siodmak keeps the suspense at a feverish pitch, and the characterizations are well drawn out. Criss Cross is one of the great examples of 1940s film noir at its most tragic. A must see film for fans of the genre."
Eddie Muller of Turner Classic Movies (TCM) rated Robert Siodmak as the best director of Film Noir, and called Criss Cross his masterpiece. Clicl on this link for Muller's six minute introduction to the film, or watch the video below.
Note: I would just like to add one more word about the final scene. It seems to me that whoever designed this scene must have had Michelangelo’s famous Pieta in mind. There was a cultural heritage that filmmakers and viewers shared back in Hollywood’s Golden Age, that sadly is no more.
