POSTMODERN FILM APPROACH:
THE KILLERS (Part 2)
Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, William Conrad
Robert Siodmak, Mark Hellinger, John Huston, Ernest Hemingway
Here on this second a part of my tentative examination of Siodmak's The Killers I'd prefer to discover the director's selections and method, as I see them, a bit additional. This is an TRUE random evaluation, saltation round a bit with no formal plan or construction - shards of remark, in case you like.
The pic begins with the digicam inside the again seat of the killers' car as they drive down Wall Street to Brentwood, NJ, to seek out and kill the Swede. We see their silhouettes, a street signal declarative Brentwood, after which a road inside the city the place Henry's Diner sits throughout from a fuel station. Again, we get silhouettes of the hit males - they stroll throughout the city sq. to case out the closed fuel station. Then they appear throughout Wall Street to the diner in profile, just about like fashions sitting for his or her busts.
Inside the diner we now have George, the waiter, and Nick Adams sitting alone on the finish of the counter. The first oral phrase inside the image is "Ketchup" - Nick Adams speech George. This is curious - the bottle of cetchup is actually inches away from him on the counter.
This shot establishes Siodmak's methodology, which incorporates just about full eschewing of a a great deal employed Hollywood proficiency - the shot/reverse shot method of displaying a dialogue. The overwhelming majority of the pic works with two- and three- photographs, with the digicam nicely again from any particular soul face. There are some mid vary close-ups - e.g. the face of the Swede as he waits for the killers to burst into his room, or that of the gangster Dum Dum as he recollects occasions for the coverage man Reardon.
For au fon the most half, attempting to punch holes inside the logic of a standard Hollywood screenplay is not going to be any nice job, and the killing of the Swede isn't any exception. Nick Adams is aware of the 2 strangers intend to kill the Swede at any second, but after he tells the Swede and the Swede retreats into his soulal indifference and lethargy, Nick does noaffair. What? He would not run to the police? He simply goes away?
Although, if he did report what he is aware of, he would likely encounter the foolish chief we see inside the succeeding scene, the place the principle character, Reardon, is launched. After the chief makes just few speeches attempting to free himself of all accountability Reardon and Nick Adams attend the mortuary to view the physique of the dead Swede. Here is the place the flashback construction that the screenplay follows begins in earnest. Nick Adams is the primary of the characters to electrical relay components of the previous to Reardon.
In the flashback we see the Swede is already resigned to the truth that he will be killed by Big Jim Colfax. This is one affair we only grasp whole afterward, in reflection, after a great deal of the story has been advised. We, as TV audience in actual time with our preliminary observation of the pic, only sense that Colfax makes the Swede uncomfortable. We do not know why.
Reardon succeeding visits with the maid in an Atlantic City lodge, Mary Ellen Daugherty, whose nickname, in a bit of inside joke, is similar as that of the actress who portrays her, Queenie Smith. Queenie's recollections reveal, amongst different issues, the grandness of the raw handkerchief that Reardon discovered among the many Swede's results.
And succeeding - Reardon goes again to his work to see what data his secretary has managed to uncover in regards to the Swede.
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