TCM is Showing Robert Siodmak and Anthony Veiller’s Film Noir Masterpiece, The Killers (1946), but Not on Red Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley; It’s on Thursday Night (Tonight!) at 8 p.m. ET, with Edmund Sweaty Eddie O’Brien, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, William Conrad, Charles McGraw, Jack Lambert, Jeff Corey and Charles D. Brown

[Ernest Hemingway’s Short Story, “The Killers.”]

By David in TN
wednesday, november 30, 2022 at 6:21:00 p.m. est

TCM Shows Robert Siodmak’s Masterpiece The Killers (1946), but Not on Red Eddie Muller’s Noir Alley Thursday Night at 8 p.m. ET with Edmund O’Brien, Ava Gardner, Burt Lancaster, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, William Conrad, Charles McGraw, Jack Lambert, Jeff Corey and Charles D. Brown.

Film Noir Guide: “Two brazen hit men (McGraw and Conrad, in his film debut) show up one evening in an unlikely film noir locale (Brentwood, New Jersey) and put eight slugs into a filling station attendant (Lancaster) who had waited passively for them in his cheap hotel room. (When asked by a friend why the killers are after him, Lancaster replied simply, ‘I did something wrong once.’)

“An insurance investigator (O'Brien), obsessed with discovering the reason for the killing, seeks out Lancaster’s friends and enemies—his beautiful but scheming girlfriend (Gardner), his prison cellmate (Brown), his partner in a big heist (crime boss Dekker and goons Lambert and Corey) and a police detective (Levene).

“What the investigator uncovers turns out to be the ‘double cross to end all double crosses.’ Lancaster, in his film debut, gives a sensational performance as the depressed loser. Gardner distinguishes herself in the femme fatale role, proving that she was not just a gorgeous sex symbol but a genuinely talented actress.

“This classic noir, based loosely on an Ernest Hemingway short story of the same title, was remade in 1964 with John Cassavetes in the Lancaster role, Angie Dickinson as the femme fatale, Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager as the killers and Ronald Reagan (in his final film before turning to politics) as the crime boss. The classic TV show Dragnet borrowed Miklos Rozsa’s compelling score (dum da dum dum) and made it famous.”

David in TN: Red Eddie Muller has yet to feature this classic Noir on Noir Alley. He has shown the 1964 version. Virginia Christine, the “Mrs. Olsen” of the Folger coffee commercials and character roles on TV for decades, plays Lancaster’s Nice Girl date who gets thrown over for Bad Girl Gardner, and then marries Sam Levene’s character. It’s fun to see a young “Mrs. Olsen” dressed up as a late 30s Girl About Town.

The Killers is being shown, due to Ava Gardner being Star of the Month. For a bonus, at 2 a.m. ET see East Side, West Side (1949) with Barbara Stanwyck, James Mason, and Ava Gardner. A New York high society marriage’s disintegration leads to murder. It’s a soap opera type but good for James Mason fans.

N.S.: David once noted that one of the hallmarks of a film noir is that a man runs into the sexist woman he's ever seen, and from that point forward, is a lost soul. Boy, is that ever true in spades in this picture.

When I saw that David had sent me this piece early in the week, I thought to meself, “How nice of David to send in the Noir Alley so early.” A few hours later, I realized, “Hey, that isn’t Noir Alley!” It’s a crime masterpiece. Red Eddie Muller doesn’t broadcast masterpieces, unless someone holds a gun to his head. That meant that The Killers would be airing earlier in the week.

I made the same mistake a few weeks ago. David sent me an item on TCM broadcasting the Raoul Walsh/Jerry Wald/Richard Macaulay/Robert Rossen crime picture, The Roaring Twenties (1939), which is not only a masterpiece (starring Jimmy Cagney) but, as David reminded me, of great factual historical significance. So, I owe David an essay on the The Roaring Twenties and history.