gulager played the clu younger killer and remembers the sharp clu gulager played the younger killer and between reagan's approach to the scene and that of the older killer, lee marvin. he came in and he did it. completely differently. there was not one smidgen of similarity between the first take and the second take of his performance. you know who that is... ronald reagan, same performance, really thought out. he save gave the same reactions to the lines. and it was really good. browning development corporation. you've come a long way from being an ex—male robber. reagan was actually a mobster pretending to be a legitimate businessman and this could have come back to bite him. the story gets stranger. in hollywood, businessman and gangsters have often been closer in hollywood, businessmen and gangsters have often been closer than you might think. the founders of mca had had to deal with gangsters ever since the company began, booking bands in al capone's chicago. so that makes this scene in the killers where reagan plays a crook turned businessman even more extraordinary. first of all,

see that model of a new building development clu gulager is messing about with in reagan's office? the black tower. so what on earth were don siegel and his designer playing at, putting a model of their producer's shiny new development bang in the middle of a criminal—turned—businessman's office? even if the businessman wasn't played by ronald reagan, it seems a bit cheeky! perhaps the universal executives were in on the gag, perhaps they didn't notice or perhaps they knew siegel had a point about the old gangster links and decided to let him have hisjoke. whatever the reason, that scene hinted that business and crime might not always have been polar opposites, which wasn't the obvious message to launch a career as a conservative politician. but, with the killers and its awkward links between business and crime safely confined to a few movie theatres, ronald reagan was able to move towards his new role as a politician. in the wake of his dazzling tv speech for barry goldwater, californian republicans clamoured to get him to run for governor. and early in 1966, he finally launched h

having two magnificent actors like lee marvin and clu gulager as the two killers.f i showed them going over to everybody and beating everybody up. but who should play the crime boss? why, ronald reagan. but reagan had generally been a good guy. are you sure that you're just thinking of the success of the job? so why did he agree to play a role so completely at odds with his public persona? reagan was working on his memoir, the — where is the rest of me? and he was busy. and i think he was focused much more at that point on the political. ronald reagan never wanted to play a bad guy. he didn't see himself as a bad guy. he didn't want to do that movie at all. but his friend, lew wasserman, who owned the studio, had made him a lot of money. so he owed him big—time. big—time. i asked him, why did he do this movie, and he immediately said lew wanted me to do it. there was no — i mean, don't blame mean. i like what you're doing with the car. just stick with that. and so, like an ageing movie gangster do one last bankjob, the ageing movie actor decided to do one last film