RARA-AVIS: Re: The Killers

From: Dave Zeltserman ( dave@hardluckstories.com)
Date: 06 Jun 2008


I actually much preferred the Lee Marvin/Dickinson/Reagan version. Maybe partly because it was so surreal watching Reagan doing stuff like slapping Angie Dickinson around, but also the Lee Marvin version had this weird offbeat vibe that I liked a lot.

--Dave Z.

--- In rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, "Nathan Cain" <IndieCrime@...> wrote:
>
> I recently watched the 1964 version of the Killers, after having
> watched the 1948 version with Lancaster and Gardener. The original was
> one of the best films I've ever seen, and Gardener's character is, in
> my mind, the most evil femme fatale to ever saunter across a screen.
> It was hardly surprising then that the remake with Lee Marvin and John
> Cassavetes didn't measure up. I think, though, that Ronald Reagan
> really ruined what could have been an all right film. Was it just me,
> or was he horribly miscast as a gangster? He had no menace, no charm,
> no anything at all. I just could not believe him in that part. It
> didn't help that the man looked exactly the same in 1964 as he did in
> 1984 when he was president. Watching the one time leader of the free
> world bitch slap Angie Dickinson was a surreal experience.
>



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