What 1946 film starring Burt Lancaster is based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway? The answer is The Killers.
Directed by Robert Siodmak, The Killers is a classic 1946 film noir and Burt Lancaster’s screen debut. Lancaster plays Ole “Swede” Anderson, a former boxer whose murder is investigated by insurance detective Jim Reardon, played by Edmond O’Brien. Ava Gardner co-stars as Kitty Collins, a figure tied to Swede’s downfall.
The film is based on Hemingway’s 1927 short story “The Killers,” first published in Scribner’s Magazine. Its opening sequence closely follows the story: two contract killers arrive at a small-town diner and wait for Swede, who refuses to flee when warned that they intend to kill him.
After that opening, the movie expands the brief story into an original investigation involving crime, betrayal and stolen money. That distinction can cause confusion: the entire film is not a literal screen version of Hemingway’s short story, but its opening and central premise come from it. The film earned four Academy Award nominations and entered the National Film Registry in 2008.