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I recently got the Criterion set of both the adaptations of this out of the university library, along with the original short story, and had a marathon Killers session. It was ridiculously good fun, and I recommend that everyone do the same. The first, from 1946, is Burt Lancaster's first movie, also starring Edmond O'Brian and Ava Gardner, and it was fucking great! Seriously one of the best "straight" film noirs ever.
The second version (from 1964) though was the real surprise gem to me. Directed by Don Siegel and starring Lee Marvin, Clu Gulager, John Cassavetes and Ronald Reagan, and even though it bore basically no resemblance to the original story, it was a total dirty pulp classic! I mean sure it was kind of generic in some ways, but it was also just massive amounts of fun and totally bad ass in a lot of ways. Also you get to see Ronald Reagan play a master villain and slap a woman in the face!
They're both different enough that watching them together isn't predictable or boring, so yeah, check them out!
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The toothaches got worse, she dreamed of disembodied voices from whose malignance there was no appeal, the soft dusk of mirrors out of which something was about to walk, and empty rooms that waited for her. Your gynaecologist has no test for what she was pregnant with.
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