U6183@WVNVM.BITNET (Mike Karolchik) (02/06/90)
WVNET is the educational computer network of West Virginia, located in Morgantown WV. It is also the home of cinema officianado (and one heck of a nice guy) George Chastain, who hosts a weekly "lunchtime matinee". While George is busy setting up the video equipment and unwrapping his sandwich, I steal his announcements and send them to the rest of the world. Here's the blurb for this week: -------------------------------------------------------------------- This week we plan to show the first Hollywood version of THE KILLERS (1946), one of the most critically acclaimed of the many 1940's "film noir" mysteries. It's based on a famous short story by Ernest Hemingway, and extrapolates an elaborate detective/ caper/tragic romance plot in flashbacks. THE KILLERS features bad-but-beautiful Ava Gardner as the obligatory femme fatale, and she's the main reason we're showing this one right now -- another in our continuing series of "better late than never" memorial tributes. Here's your chance to pay your last respects and see one of Ava's best performances to boot. It also has Burt Lancaster in his film debut; scenes from this one were used in Steve Martin's DEAD MEN DON'T WEAR PLAID. Robert Siodmak (one of the true masters of the noir style) directed. The exceptional supporting cast includes Edmund O'Brien, Albert Dekker, Sam Levene, John Miljan, Vince Barnett, Donald MacBride, Jeff Corey, and Jack Lambert, with Charles McGraw and William Conrad as the title thugs. (Yes, that William Conrad. But get a load of him here.) Incidentally, the SECOND Hollywood version was Ronald Reagan's last film (to date); he played the double-crossing brains behind the mob, and is very convincing. It was directed in the '60's by B-movie genius Don Siegal (the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, DIRTY HARRY) and has a completely different style but another great cast including Lee Marvin, John Cassavetes, Clu Gulager, Ron and Angie Dickinson. Well worth watching, and maybe we will sometime. (Hmmm, maybe we can work out a double feature?) (George Chastain)