Paul’s Pick: Hemingway’s The Killers (1946)
There are many film adaptations of novels by Ernest Hemingway, and he despised all but one of them, the 1946 adaptation of The Killers, based on one of Hemingway’s Nick Adams stories, nominated for four Academy Awards, featuring Burt Lancaster in his first film, in a breakout role as an ex-boxer, a lonely misfit in love with Ava Gardner, who is bad to the bone. It was remade in 1964 beyond all recognition to Hemingway’s story, to showcase Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes and Angie Dickinson. (Closed captioning, 103 minutes.)