This Hemingway short story interpretation just happened to be on Turner Classic Movies tonight. It stars Ava Gardner in her breakout role as Kitty Collins and Burt Lancaster as "Swede" Anderson in his very first movie. Hemingway apparently thought this was the best movie made of any of his work (of course, Gardner was also a frequent house guest of his). And it is a quite good noir. Instead of the usual private eye, this one centers on an insurance man, Jim Reardon played by Edmond O'Brien, investigating a policy left to a chambermaid (nope, not for any of the reasons one could think for leaving money to a chambermaid). The Swede (who happened to work with Nick Adams) has been shot and killed by two unknown killers and his benefactor is a chambermaid who barely remembers him (not to mention the fact that she knew him by another name altogether). Reardon follows the clues to a gang of robbers and Kitty Collins. Twists and turns unfold and, of course, Reardon gets his man.
The movie is a huge expansion on the short story. The first 10-15 minutes (I'm guessing, I didn't time it) is almost word for word from the story. But that's the whole story--the short story ends with Nick Adams coming back to the diner after having seen the Swede--so the majority of the film (it's a little over an hour and a half long) is its own creation but it works with the set-up Hemingway offers. Anyway, it's a good whodunit with some good twists (even if they are vaguely predictable because of the genre).
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