Film

The Killers

Name: The Killers
Genre: Crime, Mystery
Released: 1964
Cast: Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes, Clu Gulager, Claude Akins

Other titles called The Killers: the 1946 film.

A taut, stylish noir about two contract killers investigating why their mark didn't run. Built on a Hemingway story, *The Killers* is all lean dialogue and sudden violence—a film that trusts you to keep up. It's for anyone who loves crime fiction that moves like a thriller but thinks like a mystery.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like lean, unsentimental crime stories where the mood of menace and the sharp, clipped dialogue carry more weight than plot mechanics, and where a 1960s television-era hardness still feels fresh.

Skip it if you need a fast, tightly plotted thriller with clear motives and steady action, since this one moves slowly and leaves much of its logic for you to piece together.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety minutes and asks for patience, with long quiet stretches, a deliberate pace, and a grim, cool tone that rewards attention over excitement.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Point Blank1967

Lee Marvin returns in another revenge thriller with the same lean precision and sudden brutality. Parker is unstoppable, the plot is clean, and the 1960s Los Angeles is gorgeous and cold.

But It's deliberately stylized to the point of abstraction—plot takes a backseat to mood and violence. Some find it remote.

Kiss Me Deadly1955

Another Hemingway adaptation (Mike Hammer) that trades the original's poetry for atomic-age paranoia and viciousness. Aldrich's direction is savage. The ending is unforgettable.

But It's darker and crueler than you might expect from a detective story. The sexual violence is ugly on purpose.

The Killing1956

Kubrick's racetrack heist told in fractured time with a small crew of competent criminals. Sharp, funny, and entirely in control. The structure itself becomes part of the suspense.

But The budget shows—it's shot on a shoestring, and some of the miniatures look it. The pacing is elliptical, not straightforward.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Killers

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Branded to Kill1967

Same premise—hitman investigating his own failure—but Suzuki dismantles narrative logic itself. Where Siegel is precise, Suzuki is fractured and hallucinatory.

A Japanese contract killer with a bizarre obsession (the smell of boiling rice) investigates why he failed a job. It's *The Killers*' structure filtered through Suzuki's surrealism—dreamlike, violent, utterly strange.

But It's aggressively weird and elliptical. If you need a film to make conventional sense, this will infuriate you. Also grainy and hard to find.

The Grifters1990

Con artists and small-time crooks in a story built on betrayal and style. Frears brings real tension to the double-crosses, and the cast is perfect. A forgotten masterpiece.

But Everyone in it is terrible, and the film doesn't offer you anyone to root for. It can feel cold.

In a Lonely Place1950

Bogart as a volatile screenwriter accused of murder—a noir that's actually about paranoia and the impossibility of proof. Ray's direction is intimate and devastating.

But It's slow by modern standards, and the protagonist is genuinely unlikeable. The ending will hurt.

The Asphalt Jungle1950

The template for every heist film since. A meticulous robbery and the human wreckage it leaves behind. Huston's control and the ensemble cast make it feel both inevitable and tragic.

But It's a procedural, so if you need constant forward motion, it will feel methodical. The pacing is deliberate.

The Maltese Falcon1941

Hammett's detective novel brought to life with style and brains. Bogart is Bogart, Huston's direction is crisp, and the mystery actually rewards paying attention.

But It moves fast and assumes you're following every plot thread. Miss a line and you'll need to rewind (or just accept confusion).

Murder, My Sweet1944

Dick Powell as a private eye in a twisty noir full of femme fatales and murder. It's playful about its own mechanics while staying genuinely suspenseful.

But The plot is complicated enough to lose you, and it doesn't always make sense. The ending relies on exposition.

The Friends of Eddie Coyle1973

A minor-league criminal trying to stay afloat in Boston. It's unglamorous, deeply felt, and the small crimes feel as consequential as anything in bigger movies.

But Nothing much happens in the traditional sense. It's a character study masquerading as a crime film, and it's deliberately downbeat.

In the Loop2009

Both films trust you to piece together motive from behavior. Neither explains everything. Both understand that the real killing is done by words.

A sharp-edged political thriller about spin and complicity, built on betrayal and people saying exactly the wrong thing. It's funny and vicious and moves like a bullet.

But The dialogue is dense and profane, and it asks you to keep track of competing agendas. Some find it mean-spirited.

In the Mood for Love2000

Both are about investigation—one explicit and violent, one interior and aesthetic—but both understand that the real mystery is why people do what they do. Both are perfect in their craft and cold at heart.

Two neighbors discover their spouses are having an affair. Instead of confrontation, Wong Kar-wai makes a film about longing, style, and the spaces between people. Ravishing and melancholy.

But It's deliberately paced and more interested in color and gesture than plot. The plot is almost secondary to the mood. Requires patience.