Killing noir?: The adaptation of Robert Siodmak's The Killers to radio

Though noir is now remembered as a series of American films from the 1940s and 1950s, it is not as well known that these films were often adapted to lower-budget radio versions on programmes such as the Screen Director's Playhouse and Lux Radio Theater after the films had been released. This article analyses Robert Siodmak's The Killers (1946) and its radio drama adaptation on the Screen Director's Playhouse in 1948. A close analysis of scenes in both works shows both the potential and the limitations of this radio genre. This radio drama is sometimes pitifully direct and unconvincing. Yet, other sequences are haunting and intense, fully fitting and realizing the designation of radio noir.