don siegel was brought into direct.n as the killers... but who should play the crime boss? why, ronald reagan. but he had generally been a good guy. so why did he agreed to play a role so completely at odds with his public persona? ronald reagan was working on his memoir, 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 quy- reagan never wanted to play a bad guy. he didn't see himself as a bad quy- guy. he didn't see himself as a bad guy. he didn't see himself as a bad guy. he didn't see himself as a bad guy. he did not want to do that movie at all. but his friend who owned the studio had made him a lot of money. so he owed them big—time. big time. i asked him why he did the movie, and he immediately said that lou wanted him to do it.” movie, and he immediately said that lou wanted him to do it. i like what you're doing with the car. just stick with that. and so like in ageing movie gangster do one last bankjob, the ageing actor decided to do

meanwhile, don siegel, reagan's future director in the killers, was also attacking fascism. isillusioned america to set up a messiah. i stayed at warners for one more picture. in 1919, siegel directed reagan for the first time, and his impression of him was surprising. it was night onto night, and the all—american boy, who at that time was extremely left—wing — i thought he was a communist — was ronald reagan. in fact, reagan's politics were on the move. in 1947, he became the president of the screen actors guild, known as sag, and appeared before the house un—american activities committee, denouncing communism from a liberal point of view. because we've spent 170 in this country on the basis that democracy is strong enough to stand up and fight for itself against the inroads of every ideology, no matter how much we disagree with it. by the early 1950s, reagan's once—promising movie career was stalling. when his limited range landed him leads... i thought i only made a downpayment on one house... ..it was only in pedestrian movies like this. but then, a whole new phenomenon b

in invasion of the body snatchers, a mix of noir and science fiction, directed by don siegel, the peoplebeen taken over by alien pods. step over to truck number one. that marvellous idea that i completely believe in is that the world is populated by pods, those are vegetables, and they have no emotions. they get up in the morning, they bathe, they eat, they go to work, they eat again and they go to sleep. they have no cultural aspirations. and the local psychiatrist thinks the advent of total conformity is just what the town needs. suddenly, while you are asleep, they will absorb your minds, your memories and you‘re reborn into an untroubled world. where everyone's the same? exactly. i think what it's saying is the very things that we think of as precious in a free society, like education, like love, like differences of opinion, like sexual expression, they may be great threats to social control. so the conformist crowd turn on the two dissidents. but has the arrival of blank conformity come from out of town to ruin the innocent townspeople? is it like communism or consumerism, or is it