The killers.
(DVD) 

Title from container.

From the story by Ernest Hemingway.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1946 and 1964.

Special features: Disc 1: Stuart Kaminsky (interview from 2002 with writer Stuart M. Kaminsky); Source and adaptations: Hemingway's short story (audio recording from 2002 of actor Stacy Keach reading), Screen directors' playhouse (radio adaptation from 1949 of the 1946 film, starring Burt Lancaster and Shelley Winters), Andrei Tarkovsky's The killers (short film adaptation); Siodmak trailers: Son of Dracula (1943), Cobra woman (1944), The killers (1946), Cry of the city (1948), Criss cross (1949). Disc 2: Reflections with Clu Gulager (interview from 2002 with actor Clu Gulager filmed by his sons, John and Tom Gulager); Don Siegel on The killers (audio excerpt from Don Siegel's autobiography, A Siegel Film, read by actor and director Hampton Fancher); Trailer. Insert includes essays by novelist Jonathan Lethem and critic Geoffrey O'Brien.

The killers (1946): director of photography, Woody Bredell ; film editor, Arthur Hilton ; art direction, Jack Otterson, Martin Obzina ; set decorations, Russell A. Gausman, E.R. Robinson ; "The more I know of love" lyrics, Jack Brooks ; music, Miklos Rozsa. The killers (1964): director of photography, Richard L. Rawlings ; art directors, Frank Arrigo and George Chan ; set decorations, John McCarthy, James S. Redd ; film editor, Richard Belding ; costumes by Helen Colvig ; music score, Johnny Williams ; song "Too little time", Henry Mancini and Don Raye ; "Too little time" sung by Nancy Wilson.

The killers (1946): Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, Vince Barnett, Virginia Christine, Jack Lambert, Charles D. Brown, Donald MacBride, Charles McGraw, William Conrad. The killers (1964): Lee Marvin, Angie Dickinson, John Cassavetes, Clu Gulager, Claude Akins, Norman Fell, Ronald Reagan.

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, in a 1946 film that helped define the noir style; and Don Siegel, in a brutal 1964 version 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.

DVD format, NTSC, region 1, (1.33:1) aspect ratio, Dolby digital, mono.

In English with optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing.