"The father of a good friend of mine back in Canada used to own a video store in the VHS days. Once it closed down, he let me pick from a bunch of leftover, discarded movies nobody else wanted, which led me to my VHS copy of this that I still own (with Ronald Reagan on the cover!). Though they’re both great, I prefer this 1964 version to the 1946 version, largely due to its unique focus on the story through the hit men themselves (though I’ve never read Hemingway’s original story)."

"Both Maxwell Kardon and I were really into 'Short People', it's just a weird hit that's skewering racism and I think also one of those funny hits that are misunderstood. It might be banned by certain radio stations for being offensive because people just didn't get it. It's sort of like Ronald Reagan used 'Born In The USA' as his anthem [but] Bruce Springsteen's like, "I hate you!" Just the idea of that song being banned is so funny to me. We were inspired by the production and arrangements of the songs. There's the song 'Baltimore' that Nina Simone also does a cover of, but I think I prefer the Randy Newman original. It was a big sonic touchstone for us, as far as the drum sound on the songs that we rip off, on 'Fathers And Brothers' at the end, that sort of piano part that we pretty much stole from 'Baltimore' and the Little Criminals album. I like the fact this guy was an off-kilter songwriter and was definitely not afraid to make a song that had a historical context and call it a pop song."

"Ernest Hemingway’s superb eight-page short story is the jumping-off point and inspiration for these two essential and very different movies (Stacy Keach reads the story magnificently in one of the DVD extras). I don’t understand why more people don’t know the 1946 Siodmak film. For my money, this is not only the best noir movie of all time but is just about my favorite Hollywood drama from the 1940s. The complex narrative structure begins as a jumbled Rubik’s Cube, and, slowly but surely, each piece falls into its precise place by movie’s end (the stuff Quentin Tarantino’s dreams are made of). The moody atmosphere provided by Siodmak and his technicians is a marvel. The cinematic execution of a heist has never been better. Here marks the birth of two glorious stars: Burt Lancaster (a beautiful caged animal, all teeth) and Ava Gardner (wow). Paul Schrader’s seminal essay on film noir, as a DVD extra, is invaluable. For those of you who wonder why Siegel’s 1964 violent, stylish, quirkily entertaining B version (the first TV movie ever made) is on this list, I have two words for you: Lee Marvin. There has never been a star like him before or since. Words simply cannot do justice to the magic of this guy—the timbre of his voice, the calm, paranoid, roughneck danger in his physical moves. In a spectacular extra on this DVD, fellow actor Clu Gulager gives a very moving (and, one feels while watching it, very truthful) account of working with Marvin, Siegel, and Ronald Reagan (who hated the movie—yet another reason to see it!)."