RARA-AVIS: The Killers and The Art of Noir

From: T. Kent Morgan ( tkmorgan@shaw.ca)
Date: 18 Jun 2007


When I arrived back from the Twin Cities on the weekend and caught up with the discussions, I saw that the movie, The Killers, had been mentioned. While checking out bookstores, I came across a couple of copies of Eddie Muller's wonderful book, The Art of Noir, in a Half Price store. The book, that features posters and graphics from the classic era of film noir, retailed at $35 and $51 for us Canadians. Half Price had their copies, which do not have a remainder mark, priced at $7.98. I thought I would alert list members to this bargain as I would guess that copies likely are available in other Half Price stores.

The book includes posters for The Killers. According to Muller, the original posters from 1946 touted author Ernest Hemingway. Muller said that when the movie was reissued 10 years later, the names of Burt Lancaster and Ava Gardner, now international stars, were prominent along with director Robert Siodmak. The 1956 poster carried a headline that read "The Screen's All-Time Classic of Suspense!" A Belgium poster from 1946 has a large mug shot of Lancaster and a full length shot of Gardner with no mention of Hemingway.

Kent Morgan



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