CONNECTION TO PREVIOUS ENTRY: Ava Gardner
SOURCE: Personal Collection–Criterion Collection DVD
STARRING: Burt Lancaster, Ava Gardner, Edmond O’Brien
CO-STARS: Albert Dekker, Charles McGraw, Sam Levene, William Conrad
DIRECTOR: Robert Siodmak
COMPOSER: Miklos Rozsa
STUDIO: Universal
SUMMARY: At the beginning of the film, two hit men (Charles McGraw and William Conrad) enter a diner, looking for “The Swede,” Pete Lund (Burt Lancaster), a former boxer. One of Pete’s colleagues warns him about the two men. The hit men find Pete and shoot him dead. Pete didn’t even try to flee, he seemed resigned to his fate. A life insurance investigator, Jim Reardon (Edmon O’Brien), is assigned to find the beneficiary of Pete’s $2500 life insurance policy. Through tracking down old associates of Pete’s, including Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner), Jim starts to unravel the mystery surrounding Pete’s life and how he ended up being murdered.
FAVORITE PART(S):
1) The music in this movie is amazing. I love that the hit men have their own theme music.
2) This is Burt Lancaster’s film debut and he is fantastic and receives top billing. Audiences in 1946 had to have known that he was going to be a huge star the second he appeared on screen.
3) I love when Pete and his girlfriend enter the club at the beginning of the film. The girlfriend orders a ginger ale. Then Pete spots Kitty Collins and immediately drops his girlfriend. The girlfriend amends her drink order, asking for the ginger ale to be “sweetened up.” This woman knows that she stands no chance against the mysterious and glamorous Kitty.
4) Kitty trying to coerce a confession from her dying husband to save her neck…in front of the police. Like that’s really going to work.
BEST QUOTE(S):
KITTY: Kitty is innocent! I swear! Kitty is innocent! Kitty is innocent! I swear, Kitty is innocent! Kitty is innocent!
“BIG” JIM COLFAX: If there’s one thing in this world I hate, it’s a double-crossing dame.
JIM REARDON: Will he be able to talk anymore?
DOCTOR: He’s dead now–except he’s breathing!
HITMAN: You got anything to drink?
DINER CLERK: I can give you soda, beer, ginger ale…
HITMAN: I said, ‘you got anything to drink?’
DINER CLERK: No