Kitty Collins from THE KILLERS (1946)

Film noir and its losers...

Image from the AvaGardnerMuseum page

Who killed the chauffeur? Why isn't Kansas City Confidential (1952) called Tijuana Confidential? How come Dan Duryea always managed to open every door despite the fact that he couldn't possibly have had the keys to any of them? These are questions we have all asked ourselves at some point in our lives... at least, I have. And maybe three other people. Well, you can add 'why didn't the Swede fight back?'. The answer may or may not lie with Kitty Collins.

Based on the Ernest Hemingway short story of the same name, which I've actually read, The Killers (1946, dir. Robert Siodmak) is one of the great noirs from that great year in cinema. It was nominated for four Oscars: Best Director, Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score, which makes it one of the best performing noirs at the Oscars, with Miklos Rozsa's score being a stand-out. It appears to have been the inspiration for the theme from Dragnet, and you can hear it right from the get-go as, in one of the most terrifying opening sequences in film noir history, a pair of killers, chillingly played by William Conrad and Charles McGraw, arrive in Brentwood, New Jersey, looking for Pete 'the Swede' Lund (Burt Lancaster). After an intense back-and-forth with the owner of Henry's Cafe, a scene I'm sure Tarantino has watched countless times, they head for their target. They kill him mercilessly and as Detective Jim Reardon (Edmond O'Brien) tries to piece the puzzle back together, we go back in time in classic noir flashback. There's a robbery, a mastermind, two idiots and a femme fatale.

‘You touch me and you won't live til morning' Kitty Collins

Kitty Collins (Ava Gardner) is simply of the greatest femmes fatale. She is every femme fatale stereotype and then some. Beautiful, unassuming, cold and deadly. In that order. She is a mystery. And you somehow know it. As soon as the Swede lays eyes on her, you know what's going to happen. She sings about love, but she can't possibly know what that is. And the Swede is about to find that out. As it turns out, she's involved with a crime boss by the name of 'Big Jim' Colfax (Albert Dekker) and there is going to be some sort of robbery. The Swede is, of course, going to be involved.

'If there's one thing in this world I hate, it's a double-crossing dame' Jim Colfax

Bad luck, Kitty Collins is one of the most prolific double-crossing dames. And why? Well, the usual reasons. She had a terrible life, a past she would rather forget and she swore she would try and make a better life for herself. What else? This seems to be the go-to motivation for all femmes fatale and that's fair enough. Unfortunately, this is film noir which means she went about it entirely the wrong way. She chose a life of crime, she chose the bad guys, and she chose Colfax. And she played everyone. Brilliantly so, I might add. In fact, I'm still not sure just who she double crossed, and how many times. There's another question for you.

We bid farewell to Kitty Collins and The Killers. Our next loser is a boxer down on his luck, with nothing but a loving wife by his side. The film is The Set-Up (1949), the actor is Robert Ryan and the loser... is Bill 'Stoker' Thompson.

See you on the sunny side of the street.