The Killers

Two professional killers are hired to murder a former racecar driver who has become a teacher in a school for the blind. Struck by the fact that the man passively lets himself be killed, they investigate his life and put the pieces together. The man had fallen in love with a beautiful and dangerous girl, and had let himself become involved in a holdup organized by her boyfriend. The job was botched and the man had been tricked into trusting the people who had been hired to kill him.

“I think Cassavetes has a quadruple talent: actor, director, producer and, sometimes, pain in the neck. I showed him the script, but he said he didn’t need to see it, he’d do what there was to do. ‘I need money,’ he said, ‘it doesn’t matter what I think of the script.’ I told him it was important, but he retorted by asking me what happened to my sense of humor. ‘Completely disappeared,’ I answered. Then, before leaving, I told him to kiss Gena for me. ‘Why?’ he asked. ‘Because a girl as pretty as her, who marries someone like you, is really the news of the week.’” (Don Siegel)

regia, produttore/director, producer Don Siegel
soggetto/story dal racconto omonimo di/from the homonymous short story by Ernest Hemingway
sceneggiatura/screenplay Gene L. Coon
fotografia/director of photography Richard L. Rawlings
scenografia/set design Frank Arrigo,George B. Chan
costumi/costume design Helen Colvig
montaggio/film editor Richard Belding
musica/music John Williams
suono/sound David H. Moriarty
interpreti e personaggi/cast and characters Lee Marvin (Charlie Strom), Angie Dickinson (Sheila Farr), John Cassavetes (Johnny North), Clu Gulager (Lee), Claude Akins (Earl Sylvester), Norman Fell (Mickey Farmer), Ronald Reagan (Jack Browning), Virginia Christine (Miss Watson), Robert Phillips (George Flemming), Kathleen O’Malley (Miss Leslie), Ted Jacques (l’assistente per le attività ginniche/gym assistant), Irvin Mosley (guardia del furgone postale/postal van guard), Davis Roberts (il maître d’hotel/hotel maître), Hall Brock (lo sceriffo/sheriff), Burt Mustin (l’uomo anziano/old man), Peter Hobbs (l’istruttore/instructor), John Copage (il guardiano/guardian), Tyler McVey (steward), Seymour Cassel (l’uomo al bancone/lunch counter),
produzione/production Revue Studios