The Killers - Double-Disc Set: The Criterion Collection DVD

• Additional Details
• Format: DVD
• Rating: Not Rated
• Number of Discs: 2
• Run Time: 196 Minutes
• Region: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Fullscreen
• Language: English
• Studio: Criterion Collection
• DVD Release Date: February 18, 2003
• Packaging: Custom Case
• Subtitles: English
• Audio:
  ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Mono
  
• Director: Don Siegel, Robert Siodmak
• Cast: Lee Marvin, Ava Gardner, Ronald Reagan, Angie Dickinson, Burt Lancaster, Edmond O'Brien, John Cassavetes, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene
• Genre: Drama
• Color: Black & White / Color
• Includes:
  The Killers (1946)
  Video Interview With Writer Stuart M. Kaminsky
  Actor Stacy Keach (Mike Hammer) Reads Hemingway's Short Story
  Production and Publicity Stills with Actor Biographies
  Rare Behind-the-Scenes Stills Gallery, Original Press Book and Ads
  Collection Of Trailers For Robert Siodmak Films
  Writer/Director Paul Schrader's Seminal 1972 Essay "Notes On Film Noir"
  Essay By Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn)
  Music and Effects Track
  The Killers (1964)
  Reflections With Star Clu Gulager
  Excerpts From Don Siegel's Autobiography, A Siegel Film, Pertaining To the Making Of the Movie
  Production Correspondence Including Memos From Don Siegel, Broadcasting Standards Reports, and Casting Suggestions
  Production and Publicity Stills With Actor Biographies, Rare Behind-the-Scenes Stills Gallery, and Advertisements
  Essay By Geoffrey O'Brien (Hardboiled America)
  Music and Effects Track
• Release Date: 1946, 1964

Two Radically Different Films Inspired By One Classic Story

Ernest Hemingway's gripping short story The Killers has fascinated readers and filmmakers for generations. Its first screen incarnation came in 1946, when director Robert Siodmak unleashed The Killers, helping to define the film noir style and launching the careers of Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner in an archetypal masterpiece. In 1956, then-film student Andrei Tarkovsky tackled the story with a faithful 19-minute short. In 1946, Don Siegel-initially slated to direct the 1946 version-took it on, creating the first-ever made-for-TV feature, but it proved too violent for broadcast in the wake of JFK's assassination. The Criterion Collection presents all three versions of this classic tale of amorality that asks why a man silently welcomes his fate with the passivity of a man already dead.

Expert Review:
Ava Gardner and Burt Lancaster sizzle from the second they meet in “The Killers,” a “double-cross to end all double-crosses,” based on the famed short story by Ernest Hemingway. This genre-defining film is the crowning achievement of virtuoso noir director, Robert Siodmak, earning him an Oscar nomination for best director. Lancaster’s first movie and Gardner’s first big success. Edmond O’Brien plays a tenacious insurance investigator. By Jacqueline Fitzgerald of Film Noir Blonde