DVD REVIEW: Hollywood Gold – The Killers

Shane | 22 March 2015 | Reply

DVD REVIEW: Hollywood Gold – The Killers
Shock Entertainment
Directed by Robert Siodmak, 1946
Starring Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmund O’Brien
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar
8 ½ /10

When an ex-pro boxer (Burt Lancaster’s Swede Anderson) lies on his bed awaiting two hitmen, and barely flinches as they arrive and kill him, insurance man Jim Reardon (Edmund O’Brien) tries to work out why. Stumbling upon the mystery of a payroll heist The Swede was involved in, and despite disinterest from the police and his own company, he pursues the truth at all costs.

Unravelling in flashbacks from various associates, The Swede’s life is shown on a downward spiral from the moment he met Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner), a no-good gold diggin’ dame if ever there was one.

As the story gets clearer, the bodies begin to mount up, but Reardon faithfully follows the trail and pieces together the true culprits in The Swede’s murder, the payroll heist and more.

The Killers is a wonderful old slice of a long-gone Hollywood, and completely deserving of its four Academy Award nominations.