opinion: What Mark Hellinger, a Hollywood producer, expected from a movie, top billing one unknown but good looking Circus acrobat, an obscure but beautiful secondary n0-dramatic actress and directed by a German expat expressionist? On top of that the lead actor should be killed five minutes after the start, revealing the killers and the whole story should be presented backward on flash-back narrative…
Al (McGraw) and Max (Conrad), two unpleasant, tough and sarcastic gangsters arrived late into a small village restaurant looking for a guy named big Swede (Lancaster). Since he was not showing up on that night, the two crooks started to verbally harass the owner and one sitting guest and after a short while, the intimidation increased telling them (and the rest of the audience) what they intend to do in the village late that night… ” I’ll tell ya what’s gonna happen. We’re gonna kill the Swede. You know big Swede that works over at the filling station? We’re killin’ him for a friend…”. After immobilizing the guest and the cook, the crooks disappear out in the dark night to fulfill their deadly assignment.
It´s a memorable and beautiful scene sequence before the crooks gun down Swede, where he is lying on his bed wearing a white undershirt. Even after he was informed that two murders are there to eliminate him, Swede shows to be a resigned man decided to accept his cruel fate and not run anymore… his helpless face reveals the tragedy caused by some wrongdoing during his past. The ultimate bill just arrived at his door to be collected!
The room door suddenly opens, showing the light behind on the corridor and the two sinister shadows entering the dark room… in the best pulp fiction moment, the camera focus on the crooks showing the flashlight of the expelling fire and the sound of twelve bullets being empty on Sweden´s body. The melancholic and tired victim is dead as an inevitable payment for his past sins!
Since the dead man has a Life Insurance to be paid to a certain lady, a quiet and persistent Assurance Inspector named Jim Reardon (O´Brien) starts to investigate why the client just accepted his fate, because of something wrong he did years before! What could have happens?
Tracking down and interviewing the dead man’s friends he founds out the Swede is connected to a big heist happened some years ago and insured by his Assurance Company… The track it will link to the unscrupulous crook Big Jim (Dekker), his lover, the dangerous and delightful femme-fatale Kitty (Gardner) and some more ruthless and not trusted low-life crooks associated to the holdup.
The very detailed narration in flash-back involves among other things a tragical love triangle (Big Jim-Kitty-Swede), a greedy double-double-crossing and some dead bodies. However the heist money still out of sight. Nobody has seen it. Nobody has it!
Some piece of advice: before lamenting your fate and accept your death penalty, begin to never trust a beautiful but cruel femme-fatale that will cause your disgrace and run away with the money!
“The Killers (1964)” (Don Siegal´s kind Dirty Harry version), happens to be Ronald Reagan ultimate movie (he hated to be a crook) before starting as Politician and this 1946 version happens to be Burt Lancaster, the former Circus acrobat debut movie…
rating: 4,5 of 5;
when latest: September 30th 2016;
where: S. Paulo, Brazil;
quotes: “… Maybe because I hate him. I’m poison, Swede, to myself and everybody around me! I’d be afraid to go with anyone I love for the harm I do to them! I don’t care harming him! …”;
director: Robert Siodmak;
starring: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien, Charles McGraw,William Conrad, Albert Dekker;
country: USA;
release date: November 26th 1946;
run time: 97 min;
genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir;
storyline: Two professional killers invade a small town and kill a gas station attendant, “the Swede,” who’s expecting them. Insurance investigator Reardon pursues the case against the orders of his boss, who considers it trivial. Weaving together threads of the Swede’s life, Reardon uncovers a complex tale of treachery and crime, all linked with gorgeous, mysterious Kitty Collins;
The Movies I have seen! 
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