CRITERION COLLECTION: KILLERS

Ernest Hemingway's simple but gripping short tale ''The Killers'' is a model of economical storytelling. Two directors adapted it into unforgettably virile features: Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross), in a 1946 film that helped define the noir style and launch the acting careers of Burt Lancaster (Sweet Smell of Success) and Ava Gardner (On the Beach); and Don Siegel (Dirty Harry), in a brutal 1964 version, starring Lee Marvin (Point Blank), Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo), and John Cassavetes (Rosemary's Baby), that was intended for television but deemed too violent for home audiences and released theatrically instead. The first is poetic and shadowy, the second direct and harsh as daylight, but both get at the heart of Hemingway's existential classic.

Ernest Hemingway's simple but gripping short tale 'The Killers' is a model of economical storytelling. Two directors adapted it into unforgettably virile features: Robert Siodmak (Criss Cross), in a 1946 film that helped define the noir style and launch the acting careers of Burt Lancaster (Sweet Smell of Success) and Ava Gardner (On the Beach); and Don Siegel (Dirty Harry), in a brutal 1964 version, starring Lee Marvin (Point Blank), Angie Dickinson (Rio Bravo), and John Cassavetes (Rosemary's Baby), that was intended for television but deemed too violent for home audiences and released theatrically instead. The first is poetic and shadowy, the second direct and harsh as daylight, but both get at the heart of Hemingway's existential classic.