Before last night, I was A BURT LANCASTER Virgin. \u00a0Yes.\u00a0 It is true.\u00a0 I had not really fully gotten sucked into the phenomenon of this classic Hollywood film STAR.\u00a0 Sure, I\u2019d seen him in, \u201cThe Crimson Pirate,\u201d and other such films but NEVER before on the BIG SCREEN and BURT is BEAUTIFUL BIG!\u00a0 OH YEAH!\u00a0 What a freakin\u2019 HUNK!\u00a0 I mean the only other man that well\u2026 frankly\u2026 anyway\u2026 let me get a grip.<\/p>\n
After a brief drink then a fast jaunt across the road, we slipped into our reserved seats.\u00a0 The host launched the evening a quick introduction to an engaging film scholar and author, Alan K. Rode.\u00a0 He introduced, \u201cThe Killers\u201d<\/a> with wit and verve, making the audience chuckle before the film played.\u00a0 With this particular film gem, Burt Lancaster went from unknown to Hollywood STAR for every<\/em> good reason.\u00a0 Adonis had nothing on him.\u00a0 His taunt trained athletic energy, the acrobat\u2019s concentration, and the obscenely fluid ease of his movement\u2026 AH!\u00a0 WE all wish to be so fit, so right.<\/p>\n The second film, after a brief intermission, and a little more relevant film talk from the passionate and funny film scholar, Rode, \u201cCriss Cross<\/a>,\u201d a less successful yet watchable film with a lot of the same story elements.\u00a0 Lancaster\u2019s performance was impeccable.\u00a0 He held the film together, the other actors revolving around him like planets. \u00a0In the film his character, a easily forgettable type IF it were not glorious Burt in the tepid role, glows with innocent infatuation for an evil prize, a woman of little worth, a tramp, a moll, a gangster\u2019s wife that was once his <\/em>wife.\u00a0 The yucky plot-line of good boy meets BAD girl and loses life for love is not poignantly told in \u201cCriss Cross,\u201d which was a little slapped together and claustrophobic, even though it does have some beautiful (\u2026and also early arial\u2026) footage of old LA, with the trolley cars and union station figuring prominently.\u00a0 \u201cThe Killers<\/a>,\u201d however is a hard act to follow because it is, at first viewing, one of the masterpieces its genre, along with Casablanca<\/em>, and the Maltese Falcon<\/em>, other noir classics that one can not speed by, one must stop and enjoy these delicious golden noir films.<\/p>\n![\"The-Killers-Lancaster-01\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/talkinggrid.com\/dev\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/The-Killers-Lancaster-01.jpg?resize=300%2C228&ssl=1\")
<\/a>He played a boxer gone off, knuckles broken, lured by easy money into the wrong set, and reeled in by a breathtakingly beautiful Fem-Fatal played by a long, big-eyed, previously undiscovered stunner —Ava Gardner— to take part in an ugly payroll heist.\u00a0 The film unfolds in dazzling flashbacks, as the insurance claim detective pieces together the puzzle of the anti-hero\u2019s violent death.\u00a0 In other words: classic film noir<\/em><\/strong>. The story is utterly believable, gritty, eternal and elemental tragedy. \u00a0(The film is based on a short story by Ernest Hemingway.) \u00a0We go along for the ride even though we know it won\u2019t end well from the start.\u00a0 We, audience, mirror the protagonist\u2019s experience of being lured into a race to hell.\u00a0 Yet, at the end of the film, we have the satisfaction of resolution. THE LAW firmly upheld and evil<\/em> woman caught in her own net of deception.\u00a0 Ah!\u00a0 How delightful!<\/p>\n