B-Movie Masterpiece Starring Ronald Reagan Out In New DVD Set

B-Movie Masterpiece Starring Ronald Reagan Out In New DVD Set

By Tirdad Derakhshani, The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS)

Ronald Reagan was sometimes mocked by his detractors for his less-than-stellar career in Hollywood, where he never quite reached A-list status.

Yet the actor, who would go on to occupy the White House for two terms, was nothing less than brilliant as the villainous mob boss Jack Browning in director Don Siegel’s veritably vicious 1964 crime drama The Killers, a remake of Robert Siodmak’s 1946 noir classic.

Both films have been restored in pristine 4K and will be released July 7 in an affordable single-set release by the Criterion Collection.

Released two years before Reagan would win the gubernatorial election in California, Siegel’s star-studded B-movie masterpiece featured remarkable performances from a terrific cast that includes Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Angie Dickinson, and Clu Gulager.

Marvin and Gulager star as hitmen surreptitiously hired by Browning to go after a tough hombre named Johnny North (Cassavetes), a former-race-car-champ-turned-teacher.

The killers have no heart. To find North’s whereabouts, they resort to terrorizing the principal of a school for the blind. Who does that?

The film opens with Johnny’s death. He refuses to run and takes a hail of lead with cool determination. You know, like a man. The rest of the story has our killers trying to figure out the story behind the hit: Who was this Johnny cat? Why was there a contract out for his death?

Siegel, whose films include classics such as Coogan’s Bluff (1968), The Beguiled (1971), and Dirty Harry (1971), directs The Killers with spare, brutal precision. In this, he was helped by the source material: The Killers is an adaptation of a 1927 short story by the master of taut, masculine minimalism, Ernest Hemingway.

Siegel’s color film is a personal favorite. But some fans prefer the bold black-and-white photography of Siodmak’s film, which stars William Conrad and Charles McGraw as the hitmen, Burt Lancaster their target, and Ava Gardner as his gal.

Start your day with National Memo Newsletter

Know first.

The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning

President Biden Signs Spending Bill To Avert Shutdown, Urges Ukraine Aid
President Joe Biden with First Lady Jill Biden as he signs gun and school safety legislation

WASHINGTON, March 23 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a $1.2 trillion spending package, keeping the U.S. government funded through a fiscal year that began six months ago.Biden described the package, which Congress overwhelmingly passed in the early hours of Saturday, as investing in Americans as well as strengthening the economy and national security. The Democratic president urged Congress to pass other bills stuck in the legislative chambers.

Keep reading...Show less
January 6 riot

Police munitions explode as Trump supporters riot at US Capitol on January 6, 2021

Photo by Leah Millis/REUTERS

It may come as a surprise to hear that I actually agree with Donald Trump on something: America does have a two-tiered system of justice. In fact, you could say I beat him to it since I reached that conclusion long before the former president adopted it as his mantra.

Keep reading...Show less
{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}