I watched this at the Picturehouse on the 12th of January, 2025. It’s a classic film noir, (in black and white) released in 1946, about an insurance agent investigating a suspicious murder where the victim knew about and was resigned to his fate.
The thing about old classics is that while they may have been hugely influential and genre-defining, it becomes less and less likely you’ve seen them the older they get. Sometimes this results in an Exorcist scenario, where although apparently it was seminal and ground-breaking, it’s just not that scary or good if you watch it now. Other times, it results in an absolute delight, like The Killers.
This happens to be the second B&W film I’ve watched this week (the first being The Universal Theory), and I’m struck by the beauty of it all. After all, it’s only one step down from total fidelity (I guess it would be modern digital → B&W → silent films → running through an art gallery really fast), but there’s a depth of chiaroscuro there which is enhanced by the palette. It’s achievable of course with colour, and I’m sure a lot of it is just down to the style of the day, but it’s something I haven’t seen otherwise.
Monochromaticity aside, it’s also a really well-made film! The murder investigation is gripping, the characters are stylised but none the worse for it, and it’s alternately comedic and thrilling. The plot isn’t particularly suspenseful, and by the halfway point there’s little mystery left, but it’s just a really nice watch so I didn’t mind.
There were a few jarring notes which mark it as a product of its time. Firstly, while none of the characters had any real depth, the women particularly less so. Plus there’s a scene where the main bad guy is nervous and threatens to hit his wife. One of the characters (who is in love with her) protests, but another tells him to stay out of it—after all, “she’s his girl”.
Also, dear god everyone smokes all the time constantly in every scenario. I don’t recall a single scene where someone wasn’t sucking on a cancer stick or asking for a light. Right at the end, someone lies dying, and the single thing they want is for a smoke. I’m like????? Of all the things which were particularly period-based (and there were a lot which broke through the suspension of disbelief from the knowledge that it was an old film, like how cheap everything was, the clothes and styles, the way they talked), that was the single most striking.
Overall, an interesting, tightly plotted film slightly undercut by things out of its control.