FILM · 1964
The Killers
31 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (31)
- #001
According to Don Siegel, Universal's policy at the time was to shoot the film's final scene first. According to Siegel and Clu Gulager, Lee Marvin arrived late and was drinking on the first day of shooting, but since he had no dialogue, the scenes were used in the film.
- #002
Angie Dickinson recalled that Ronald Reagan deliberately avoided discussing politics because the rest of the cast were entirely liberal Democrats.
- #003
NBC made a thirty-film deal with MCA Inc. to produce "Project 120," a two-hour series made for TV. The first was to be "Johnny North," also known as "The Killers." It was to be the first TV film shot in color and had the longest shooting schedule for such a film up to that time — four weeks. However, because of its violence and sexual content, its title was changed and it premiered in cinemas.
- #004
Virginia Christine, who played the blind secretary at the Sage Home for the Blind, also appeared in The Killers (1946), which was likewise based on the same Ernest Hemingway short story.
- #005
Although the score was composed by John Williams, the film's opening and closing music, which quoted Henry Mancini's score for Touch of Evil (1958), was removed.
- #006
It was Ronald Reagan's last film.
- #007
After John Cassavetes was cast as the race car driver, director Don Siegel discovered that he could barely drive the car.
- #008
The steam room scene was being shot when the crew heard on the radio the news of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. Angie Dickinson cried hysterically and fainted to the floor. In his memoirs, director Don Siegel says he had great difficulty helping her.
- #009
In the final scene, when Lee Marvin is shot and falls to the ground, he was genuinely drunk.
- #010
This is the only film in Ronald Reagan's career in which he played a villainous antagonist. By comparison, the two hitmen who played minor roles in the original short story and the 1946 film, Clu Gulager and Lee Marvin, are elevated here to morally questionable protagonists.
- #011
Don Siegel wrote his own script for the film and eventually handed it over to Gene L. Coon to use as his own final screenplay.
- #012
President John F. Kennedy's assassination during shooting caused a delay in the production.
- #013
Clu Gulager is the only actor Ronald Reagan kills in his films (though it could be argued that he also kills Lee Marvin).
- #014
A still photograph exists of a scene cut from the end of the film. A police officer kneels beside Strom's (Lee Marvin) body checking for signs of life.
- #015
Other actors considered for John Cassavetes's role included Steve McQueen, Rod Taylor, Cliff Robertson, George Peppard, Robert Wagner, Bobby Darin, George Maharis, Tom Tryon and Lee Marvin.
- #016
The Killers was restored and preserved by the Film Foundation in Los Angeles.
- #017
The cars used (and prominently featured) in the action were supplied by the Ford company. Correspondingly, the racetrack scenes featured contemporary (1963/1964) Cobra race cars with Ford components (and badges).
- #018
The music style is believed to have been an inspiration for the creation of the theme of the TV series produced only a few years later (and the popular film series "Mission: Impossible" that followed).
- #019
This was the first feature film in which Angie Dickinson appeared alongside Lee Marvin. They would also appear together in Point Blank (1967) and Death Hunt (1981). They first shared top billing in the "M Squad" episode Diamond Hard (1957).
- #020
Other actors considered for Lee Marvin's role included Steven Hill, Neville Brand, Carroll O'Connor, David Brian, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, Ralph Meeker and Barry Sullivan.
- #021
Other actors considered for Ronald Reagan's role included Barry Nelson, Gig Young, John Forsythe, Leslie Nielsen, Van Johnson, Richard Conte, Steve Cochran, Richard Basehart and Walter Matthau.
- #022
John Cassavetes (Johnny North) and Lee Marvin (Charlie Storm) would appear together three years later in The Dirty Dozen (1967).
- #023
Ronald Reagan was criticized for attending a Hollywood party. Many thought the event should be cancelled because of the John F. Kennedy assassination, but Reagan and Robert Taylor attended anyway.
- #024
Seymour Cassel, who appears briefly as a clerk at the hotel near the end of the film, appeared in many films directed by the star John Cassavetes, though here they do not share any scene together.
- #025
Angie Dickinson (Sheila Farr) and Claude Akins (Earl Sylvester) had appeared together in Rio Bravo (1959).
- #026
In the car racing scenes, John Cassevetes wears a blue Vilem B. Haan racing suit. Vilem B. Haan, known worldwide, was a leader in racing accessories and automotive supplies based in Santa Monica, California.
- #027
This was the debut of the actress/singer Nancy Wilson.
- #028
At 50 minutes 52 seconds, while Jack Browning (Ronald Reagan) rehearses catching and passing the mail truck, the black sedan's interior rear-view mirror is clearly flipped up so as not to darken Mickey Farmer's (Norman Fell) face. The mirror was changed back after the car stopped behind the car driven by George (Robert Phillips). This flipped-up and then changed-back mirror business is repeated at the 57th minute while Johnny North (John Cassavetes) rehearses — this time so as not to hide the faces of Sheila Farr (Angie Dickinson) and Mickey.
- #029
One of the reasons this film was released in cinemas was that, as in the original film, there are no authority figures on the side of law and order: the killers and the investigators are combined in the same characters.
- #030
Finnish censorship certificate #69710 was issued on 29-3-1968.
- #031
French visa #29502.
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