Couple of Killer scenes!

I first saw this film back in 1974 when we studied the film at school as part of our English-film and television studies. We did John Huston and Donald Siegel films amongst others.

It was a great film to watch and as part of the studies, I recall there were many interesting scenes which we discussed at length.

I recall that there is an early "teaser" of what is going to happen to Lee and Charlie (the Hitmen)
Earl, the pitman, asks How did Johnny North die, Lee replies, "Johnny choked to death on one question.....too many."
The exact same reason that would kill the killers; they ended up asking too many questions. After all Lee confirmed that the first thing Charlie taught him was to "Never think about a job"
as soon as they did it would appear they sealed their own fate.

Another interesting bit I recall from the teacher (although I don't know where he got his facts from) was that apparently Lee Marvin was drunk for the final scene where Charlie staggers out of the house. Don Siegel used it to his advantage and continued to film, and seeing the film again, I honestly have no reason to dispute it, as without a doubt it adds to the scene, he does look genuinely out of it as if he'd really had been shot.

An Excellent film.