RARA-AVIS: The Killers

From: Nathan Cain ( IndieCrime@gmail.com)
Date: 06 Jun 2008


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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