‘The Killers’

This 1946 release marked the 1946 screen debut of Burt Lancaster--in a full-fledged starring role. Directed by Robert Siodmak and based on an Ernest Hemingway short story, “The Killers,” like its star, wears very well indeed. One of the earliest films noir, it opens with Lancaster, a one-time ring contender and now a service station attendant in a small New Jersey town, refusing to run away from the hit men who have been on his trail for years. Lancaster’s story unfolds in flashback as dogged insurance investigator Edmond O’Brien starts tracing the ex-fighter’s troubled past, which turns up sultry shady lady Ava Gardner (pictured, in her first major role). In this bleak, terse and engrossingly fatalistic film Lancaster commands the screen from his first scene (AMC Thursday at 9:15 p.m.).