Director: Robert Siodmak
Stars: Burt Lancaster, Aa Gardner, Edmond O'Brien

The police don't care, but since Lancaster had an insurance policy, claims investigator Edmond O'Brien is on the job. In short order, master sleuth O'Brien unravels Lancaster's life story through a series of flashbacks.

Lancaster is a promising boxer managed by Charles D. Brown. His best friend is Sam Levene, and his girlfriend is Virginia Christine. An injury ends Lancaster's career, so he joins an organized crime ring led by Albert Dekker. There, he meets femme fatale Ava Gardner. He takes a rap for her, and is sent up the river, where he meets aging stargazer Vince Barnett.

Once paroled, Lancaster rejoins Dekker's gang, which plans a big payroll heist with gangsters "Blinky" Jeff Corey and "Dum-Dum" Jack Lambert. Lancaster takes all the loot by gunpoint and flees with Gardner. But she leaves Lancaster high and dry, sending the impoverished and heartbroken Lancaster to his obscure small town filling station.

How others will see it. The Killers was a big commercial hit and an immediate critical success. The film made moviestars out of Lancaster and Gardner. It was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Director and best screenplay. Even Hemingway loved it.

Today, the film retains its classic status. At imdb.com, the user ratings are very high. A gender gap opens up over age 45, with 29% of older women giving the movie only 1 out of ten. This is perhaps out of dislike for Gardner's character, who is shameless throughout and treats Lancaster poorly.

How I felt about it. Aside from the aforementioned 29% among women over 45, it appears that I am the only person who regards this movie as vastly overrated. For me, the movie is bogus. Allow me to phrase my skepticism in the form of questions:

1. Professional hitmen try to blend in. Why are two hitmen sent, and why do they throw their weight around so much?
2. Why does a penniless gas station attendant without family have a life insurance policy? Would he really leave it to a hotel maid?
3. Would said hotel maid be able to identify Lancaster from a photo years later? How many times did she see him, four?
4. Why doesn't Lancaster leave town? There have gas stations in Walla Walla, Washington.
5. Why does Dekker send hitmen after Lancaster when he is certain to leave town?
6. What are the odds of Dekker encountering Lancaster in the first place?
7. Why does Dekker make such a show of eyeballing Lancaster? Lancaster could break Dekker's neck in five seconds.
8. Why is there no murder investigation by the police? Or the FBI? The hitmen likely crossed state lines.
9. Why would Lancaster carry around a handkerchief that he used in a big time holdup? Way to frame yourself.
10. Beautiful, loyal, and charming Virginia Christine throws herself at the unattached Lancaster for years, and he keeps brushing her off. In what parallel universe does that ever happen?
11. It is difficult to believe that O'Brien shows up just in time to hear Blinky's deathbed confession. Particularly when "Blinky" doesn't know he's there, and just happens to be reliving the day of the big heist.
12. Isn't it rather courageous for O'Brien to make himself the bait for two professional hitmen? But then, why would those hitmen target O'Brien in a crowded nightclub?
13. Where does Lancaster meet the nicest man in the world? He's his cellmate in state prison.
14. O'Brien walks into a trap at Dekker's. Yet Dekker and "Dum-Dum" are the ones immediately gunned down.
15. Dekker makes the second deathbed confession to O'Brien in the same film. What are the odds?