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Genres: CrimeThrillerDr

Starring: Ralph Meeker, Nick Dennis, Cloris Leachman, Jack Elam, Albert Dekker, Leigh Snowden, Paul Stewart

Director(s): Robert Aldrich

Available Quality: Hi Def

Country: USA

Year: 1955

Available Quality: DivX, iPod, Hi Def, Hi Def

IMDB Rating: 7.7 out of 10 (7737 votes)

Tough L.A. private eye Mike Hammer gives a ride to Christina, a frightened young woman he finds running along the road one night. His car is run off the road by unseen thugs. Hammer is knocked out and Christina is tortured in an unsuccessful attempt to get information from her. They are put back into Hammers car which then is forced off a cliff. Hammer wakes up in the hospital. Velda, his trusty secretary, informs him that Christina is dead. Pat Chambers, Mikes policeman friend, tells him to stay off the case, but Mike thinks it might be a big story--meaning big money for him--because the FBI is interested. He, Velda, and Nick, his garage mechanic friend, start investigating in hopes of finding out why Christina was killed.

Kiss Me Deadly (iPod)	Resolution: 480x288 px	Total Size: 296 Mb
Kiss Me Deadly (Hi Def)	Resolution: 852x512 px	Total Size: 540 Mb
Kiss Me Deadly (Hi Def)	Resolution: 1808x1080 px	Total Size: 6711 Mb
Kiss Me Deadly (DivX)	Resolution: 592x352 px	Total Size: 702 Mb

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We have taken some photos of "Kiss Me Deadly". They represent actual movie quality.

Visitors Review

(24 May 2012)

Stylish and exciting despite some quirky elements

OK, I mention quirks, so let me get right to them. One involves the way the bad guy gets it in the end, so I can't say anything about it without giving away a major plot element. But it is perhaps the oddest way any character has died since a character in Charles Dickens's BLEAK HOUSE died of spontaneous combustion. Just watch the movie; you'll see what I am talking about. The other endearing quirk is some of the "hot" technology you find in it. Without any question, this film features the first answering machine in the history of cinema. A full two decades before the breakout of the answering machine in American life, there is a reel-to-reel tape machine answering machine in Mike Hammer's apartment.Despite a hokey ending, this is a really cool film. Ralph Meeker never had the kind of career he should have had. He was charismatic, a good looking guy, and a talented actor, but had only a few roles that were plum parts. In particular, he had a very fine role as a rogue ex-calvary officer in Anthony Mann's THE NAKED SPUR, and he had a great part in Stanley Kubrick's anti-war classic PATHS OF GLORY. All things considered, his finest role was, however, playing Mike Hammer in this film.The film has great atmosphere, a fine story (until the bizarre end), and fine acting. Stylistically, it is film noirish with a hipper edge. Mike Hammer may be a detective, but he likes to have fun as well. Philip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler's novels always has a sense of the tragic element of life as well as its absurdity. His stance towards many of the events of his books is ironic. There is no sense of irony with Mike Hammer. He has a chip on his should just for the heck of it. He may lack Philip Marlowe's depth and complexity, but he probably gets more enjoyment out of life. He probably would also make a better dinner guest.There is a great period feel to the film. It was made and set in the mid-1950s, but rarely have I seen a film that gives such a great sense of when it was made. It also features a great case. In particular, it is amazing to see Cloris Leachman play a part when she was young and very cute. I thoroughly recommend this movie. It has a lot of energy, a lot of style, and tells a great yarn. And even though the ending is scientifically iffy, it is still a lot of fun.

Sparky (23 May 2012)

Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly was the 5th film on our list for our Movie Reviews 4 Fun "movie club." Read our reviews here (replace the spaces with dots):www geocities com/moviereviews4fun/reviews html

erk207 (22 May 2012)

A highly enjoyable modern crime drama

This movie blew me away. I had just seen David Lynch's "Lost Highway" andwas shocked when I realized that its plot structure and characters arecompletely and obviously based upon "Kiss Me Deadly". Wow, some of thescenes in this movie are so horrific and powerful. It's just a great movieway ahead of its time.

Robert J. Maxwell (22 May 2012)

The Monster in the Box

Ralph Meeker is Mike Hammer, Mickey Spillane's hard-as-nails privateeye. He picks up a young woman on a deserted highway. At a pit stop,both are knocked out and shoved in Meeker's car over a cliff. Meekersurvives, but the attempt to kill him has made him truculent.He spends the rest of the movie tracking down the evil doers. Thefollowing of leads gets him into trouble with Wesley Addy and the LosAngeles Police Department. It also takes him into contact with allsorts of bad guys, treacherous women, and odd balls. He is beaten onceor twice. His car-mechanic friend, Nick the Greek, is killed. He slapsothers around, beats some into insensibility.The wind up has something to do with a black box in the possession ofAlbert Dekker. A soft-eyed, winsome blond, Marian Carr, shoots Dekkerand then wounds Meeker in order to take the box for herself, though sheknows not what is in it.Meeker escapes as Carr opens the box and a tremendous scene follows inwhich whatever is inside the box hisses like a sea monster, emits ablinding light, turns Carr into a pillar of flame, and blows up thebeach house.I understand the movie got all kinds of plaudits from the Frenchcritics of the period, and many others have found it pregnant withprofundities. They got past my apperceptive apparatus. To me, theproduction was exactly what it was to its director, Robert Aldrich."It's just a movie," he said.Ralph Meeker isn't a bad actor, although not very expressive. But thepart doesn't call for sensitivity or subtlety, just a kind of musculardetermination. The motive behind Meeker's pursuit? I don't know. Ofcourse, someone killed a woman he'd picked up but so what? Mike Hammerdon't hold no truck with sentimental attachments to strange broads. Theother actors are seasoned. None turns in a poor performance. But theskill is wasted on a genre movie in which a PI walks and drives aroundLos Angeles contacting one threatening or frightened stranger afteranother. It's all been done before, and better. I'll mention "Murder MySweet" and "The Big Sleep" in passing. Some scenes are ludicrous. It'sa sunny morning. Nick the mechanic discovers a new Sportsmobile infront of Meeker's house. He adores it and begins talking loudly tohimself, showering it with praises, gesticulating wildly all the while,musing at the top of his voice, "Should I tekk it for ah drive aroundda block?" Of course, this being a residential area of Los Angeles, thesidewalks are not only empty but sterile, so there's no one around tohear or see him behaving like a lunatic. The dialog lacks sparkle.There's not a memorable line in it.In Spillane's novel, the box was filled with drugs, not radioactiveabracadabra. If it had stayed drugs, I'm not sure this movie would havegotten the attention it did in 1955.

(21 May 2012)

Noirs Noir

One might have noticed the opening credits which scrolled from the bottom of the screen upwards.Have you ever seen a film do that?Ralph Meeker plays Hammer at his nastiest. Albert Dekker as Dr. Soberin plays it for effect. There are metaphors here galore..in the end she had to open the box of the great whatsit..what does that imply to the viewer.? Screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides..and its a corker..

ackstasis (21 May 2012)

"Kiss me. The liar's kiss that says I love you, and means something else."

Robert Aldrich's 'Kiss Me Deadly (1955)' opens with one of the mostcaptivating sequences I've seen in a long while. Dispensing with thecredits until a later date, when they scroll slanted and backwardsacross the screen, the film fades directly into a pair of naked feetfleeing along a roadway, the soundtrack dominated by her amplifiedbreathing and panting, the flicker of passing automobile headlightsbriefly illuminating her anguished facial features. A passing motoristswerves to avoid the barely-clothed woman, skidding dangerously ontothe gravel, and the disgruntled driver, private investigator MikeHammer (Ralph Meeker), reluctantly offers her a ride. The credits rollover images of the road ahead, filmed from the backseat of Hammer'sconvertible, to the soundtrack of Nat King Cole's "Rather Have theBlues" on the radio, the mysterious woman's sobbing and breathing stilldisconcertingly audible. I was immediately transfixed by Aldrich'sdirecting style - gritty, mean, and yet still very professional - and,had the film maintained this tone for the entirety of its running time,I would have proclaimed 'Kiss Me Deadly' to be no less than amasterpiece.It doesn't take long, however, for the film to fall into the familiartrappings of a pulp detective novel, not unlike your typical RaymondChandler or Dashiell Hammett adaptation. This isn't necessarily adamaging characteristic, and the film very much retains its ability tothrill and entertain, but it loses the raw grittiness that,stylistically, made the prologue sequence so damn gripping. Theremainder of the story, creatively adapted from a novel by MickeySpillane, interestingly blends two distinct genres: on the one hand,it's a hard-boiled pulp detective story, complete with a hard-edgedprivate investigator, seedy villains and a scheming femme fatale. Onthe other hand, it's a science-fiction off-shoot of the Cold War, witha destructive, possibly-nuclear Macguffin for which the film'scharacters are quite willing to kill. Ralph Meeker is ideally-cast asMike Hammer, a wry, stubborn and selfish detective whose inability tocooperate with the unsympathetic authorities can only lead toapocalypse. The screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides, like many noirs, carriesa streak of misogyny, with even the innocent girls (including MaxineCooper and Cloris Leachman) being neglected and abused at every turn.'Kiss Me Deadly' is also interesting in that the filmmakers haveobviously become very aware of typical film noir conventions, and theinclusion of the mysterious Pandora's Box - knowingly referred to as"the great whatsit" - is a deliberate satire of what Alfred Hitchcockhad called the MacGuffin, a plot device that motivates the film'scharacters, but the details of which are of little or no importance.The influence of this device can be seen in numerous subsequentpictures, from the opening of the Ark of the Covenant in StevenSpielberg's 'Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)' to the mysterious glowingbriefcase in Quentin Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction (1994).' The DVD releaseof 'Kiss Me Deadly' includes the film's restored original ending, inwhich Hammer and Velda escape into the crashing waves, their futuresnonetheless still uncertain, as the apocalyptic nuclear device destroysthe seaside cottage in a blinding mushroom cloud. I much preferred itto the abrupt, truncated ending that had previously been common in mostprints, and Aldrich himself confirmed that he had no part in thesomewhat-crude chopping of his film's conclusion.

yarborough (17 May 2012)

Hugely disappointing.

I first saw this movie last week after, literally, waiting two years (thoughI must admit those years seemed short). Anyway, I was hugely disappointed.My interest was stirred when I saw a magazine that talked about the 50greatest TV shows of all time and, under the original Dragnet entry, itstated that the director of this movie learned a few things from the Dragnetshow in filming this so-called "film noir." But that is an insult to Webb.This movie is simply horrible. It is very tediously directed, as isexemplified by the relentless and irritating breathing of the unrecognizableCloris Leachman during the opening credits. Also, Mike Hammer in this movieis flat and boring--just plain tired. The idea that this movie is a filmnoir is outrageously absurd. Film noir's are supposed to be hard-boiled,dark, realistic, and starkly filmed. But the look of this movie is extremelybright, there is too much tenderness (particularly between Hammer and hisannoying car-mechanic friend), and it becomes a sci-fi flick in the last fewminutes. Also, the oh-my-God turn of events at the end of the film (with alady that Mike Hammer first believes is innocent), is a total insult to theintelligence of the viewers. Finally, the way Mike Hammer escapes from thehotel after being drugged is a complete joke. Avoid this movie at all costs.

emuir-1 (17 May 2012)

Graduates of the Strasberg school of bad acting.

The best thing I can say about this tedious film is that the lightingand set design were really enjoyable. I loved the dark streets andthose endless staircases throwing shadows of the banister rails on thewalls. The cars were out of this world and made me almost weep withnostalgia. However, for this kind of film Mike Hammer's penthouse padwas a bit out of place.Now for the gripes: some of the actors were so grating and over the topthat I can only assume they were graduates of the Strasberg school ofbad acting, or that they had been told they were in a comedy. Mostirritating was the noisy mechanic, so much so that I was relieved whensomeone dropped the car on him and put us out of our misery. Next tohim was Gaby, who seemed to be giving her impersonation of ShellyWinters in 'A Place in the Sun.' I could not concentrate on anythingbut Velda's lacquered hairdo and wondering why she was sweating somuch, and were the 50's women so stiff and awkward when kissing a man?Add to them a host of TV actors, the whole film looked like a crossbetween the Outer Limits and 50's TV Detective show.

(15 May 2012)

Very disappointing film noir

As a huge film noir fan who was aware of this film's importance to various directors I admire, I was very interested in seeing this movie and then extremely disappointed by it. Some of the acting is fine but some of it is atrociously bad. The story is preposterous which would be fine if it were more entertaining. And the film as a whole is a big dud. If you're looking for great noir, check out "Double Indemnity", "Chinatown", "The Maltese Falcon" and others. Hell, even rent "Detour"--low-budget and dated but far superior to this film.

David Ferguson (15 May 2012)

The Great Whatsit

Greetings again from the darkness. This one showed up near the finishline of the classic Film Noir era, and has some features that make itstand out: unusual female characters, a quasi-parody feel, and a twistyending unlike others from the genre. Based loosely on the MickeySpillane pulp novel, the screenplay comes from AI Bezzerides, who isbest known as the creator of the TV series "The Big Valley". Thebiggest impact comes from director Robert Aldrich.Aldrich is a bit under-appreciated in Hollywood history having alsodirected Whatever Happened to Baby Jane; Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte;The Dirty Dozen; and The Longest Yard (the good one). Here he turns upthe intensity on the Private Investigator story by having Mike Hammer(a terrific Ralph Meeker) be quite a bit more forceful and aggressivethan Marlowe and the previous film PI's.The film starts quite abruptly with one of the more fascinatingbeginnings in all of cinema. A panicky woman is running barefoot down ahighway wearing nothing but a bathrobe. That woman is Cloris Leachman(her screen debut) and she nearly causes Hammer to wreck his pristineJaguar. Their relationship doesn't last long, but it leads to a veryunique torture scene that is almost entirely out the viewer's sightline. Still, we quickly realize Hammer is in some deep trouble and he'snot the kind to let it be.Two other very interesting female characters are part of the story:Gaby Rodgers plays Lily Carver as a conniving trickster and MaxineCooper is outstanding as Velda, Hammer's trusty assistant and maybemore. Ms. Rodgers and Ms. Cooper have other common ground. They soondisappeared from Hollywood films as both married powerful men in thebusiness. Rodgers married the famous songwriter Jerry Lieber, who wrotemany Elvis hits. and Cooper married an Oscar nominated writer.The cast features many prominent actors of the time including AlbertDekker, Paul Stewart, Wesley Addy, Nick Dennis, Jack Elam, and JackLambert. There is also a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid connection.Strother Martin has a brief scene as does Percy Helton (as the MedicalExaminer). In Butch Cassidy movie, Martin is the Bolivian payrollsupervisor who hires the boys, and Helton is "Sweetface" who gives awaytheir hiding place. Another note on Helton: he had one of the longestacting careers in history 1915-1978 (which was 7 years after hisdeath).If you love films from the 40's and 50's, then this is a must see. Itcertainly has a place in Film Noir lore, and also has numerous otherpoints of interest. Keep in mind that it was filmed at the height ofthe Atomic Bomb era ... when scare tactics were the norm.

(06 May 2012)

Sleepy

I Agree with the last review here, so and stagie End of Noir was at least eight years prior this just reminds us of how we miss the Classic Black Cinema Features from the 40's.

rake-7 (05 May 2012)

Dissenting Opinion

You are entitled to believe that I am not completely qualified tocomment because I did not watch this picture through to the end. That'sright, I turned it off. And pretty far in, too. You are also entitledto know that I am a huge noir fan, and agree with virtually everythingthe articulate reviewers here have had to say about other films. Giventhe level of rapture about this one, I am naturally forced to questionmy own assessment (and will no doubt view again at some point), but Ialso can't help but think I'm on some possibly narrow but pretty solidground... The fact is, I found this picture both frustrating andstrangely dull -- due, primarily, to one overriding factor: For thefirst 2/3rds of the story (the part that I saw before giving up) thereis not one scintilla of additional information provided beyond what weknow in the first ten or fifteen minutes. One after another characterwho may or may not know something gets murdered, and along the way wediscover... not a thing. All that the fans of this picture admire iscertainly there -- the hardboiled nonchalance, the offbeat characters,the remarkable editing and mis-en-scene, the incredibly modernunderplayed performances -- but great noir mystery/thrillers, even ifthey are packed with blind alleys, red herrings, and dead-ends (thinkThe Big Sleep), hold your attention by giving out just enough to keepyou puzzling; one's mind is engaged with an emerging back-story, or aseries of incidents, items, and facts that appear to be adding up tosomething... Kiss Me Deadly provides none of this, and the result is agrowing realization that the entire exercise is just one big waitinggame; you'll never get anywhere near enough information to try andconceive an explanation, a culprit, or a possible solution, so youmight as well just disengage and wait for the end. So, I chose todisengage. Literally. Interestingly, I divine from the commentary herethat the ending is a whopper. Well, it had better be, because it's ahelluva long journey when the lid on the story is so tightly sealed.

(29 April 2012)

Best 50's Noir Ever!!!

This review is from: Kiss Me Deadly: The Criterion Collection (DVD) You either get it or you don't. Robert Aldrich's 1955 Noir masterpiece grabs you by the gut and never let;s go until the apocalyptic finale which comes in two versions. But you in the know get the truly explosive finale. Talk about your generation!! Speed and violence stew at the core of this great film. Ths shot selection and lighting immediately invoke the noir world. What a treat to have a brand new pristine print by Criterion. Instability is the ovverriding factor, especially if you are in a quest in the noir underworld. And of course you get special features which help to explain why Kiss Me Deadly is so so good!! New high definition restoration. Audio commentary by noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini. New video tribute by director Alex Cox. Mike Hammer's Mickey Spillane, a 1998 doc about th life and work of th author. In this atomic version of Spillane's novel, directed masterfully by Robert Aldrich, the good manners and mores of th 1950's are BLOWN UP REAL GOOD!!! Ralph Meeker is something else altogether in this baby. He should have won an Oscar over Ernest Borgnine. Marty was great but Kiss Me Deadly is super explosive Great!!! Fromtne moment when Hammer picks up Christina, played by Cloris Leachman, in her feature debut, until the explosive ending. Boom Boom Out go the lights!! FYI, American prints from th 60's until restoration in the 2000's, had the alternate ending when Hammer and Velda don;t make it out of Ground Zero. What a Quantum Leap!! All the difference in the world. Criterion also includes a great booklet,also. Time for me to go. Fading fast! Spend the $ and get the Criterion edition. It's well worth it!! SMRZ!!! .

(29 April 2012)

HEY RALPH, NEXT TIME GET GABY A BOX OF WINE GLASSES, PLEASE

Offbeat noir that gets better with each viewing. Ralph Meeker, a sidelines character actor best known to the baby boomer gen for his frequent guest appearances in numerous 60's TV series and 70's TV movies, plays reknown fiction-author Mickey Spillane's trademark "Mike Hammer" private investigator [PI] character. Remember when the Western met the living dead in the form of vampires [CURSE OF THE UNDEAD, 1959]? Well now another odd combo as it's film noir meets the atomic age. This noir is different. The opening credits roll in reverse, driving scenes are filmed from behind, and the bad guys doing their dirty work are often filmed below the knees [or not at all] with only gait, voice and the viewer's imagination creating the picture. And the two female leads have much shorter hair than we're used to seeing in noir.Vet character actress Cloris Leachman, who we are all familiar with from her numerous 70's TV movies, her role as Phylis in the Mary Tyler Moore show [1970-77] and a couple of noteable Mel Brooks' comedies [YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, 1974, and HIGH ANXIETY, 1977] is the first person we see in this film, playing a mysterious figure named Christina. We all remember her chiseled facial features---hawk-like nose and sickle-like lips---but here, younger and with the short, blond, croppy hair and raincoat-only attire appears surprisingly attractive. She hails Meeker's sports car on a desolate highway one lonely night and asks for a lift. Inside she tells her story of escape. The two are followed and kidnapped by persons unknown who incapacitate Hammer and torture her. The unconscious duo are then brutally driven off a cliff to their certain demise with only Hammer surviving. Now it's time for Hammer to dust himself off and figure out this bizarre encounter.Before being intercepted Christina gives Hammer a verbal message containing two words. A letter she mailed at a gas station before her death is received by Hammer days later and contains the same two words. Hammer knows that no one is gonna kidnap you, torture you, then drive you off a cliff because you stepped on their daisies. Somebody's after something---and it's not a bag of shells.What carries you through this film is Meeker and his monotonous yet always-thinking, simmering and unpredictable persona. Despite his sordid nature he manages to keep us interested in his welfare---we don't want that nice hair to get mussed up. Meeker's only other noteworthy movie roles was playing the dishonorable soldier who annoyingly shadows Jimmy Stewart in the Western classic, THE NAKED SPUR [1953], playing the groveling, condemned soldier in Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY [1957] and as the military psychiatrist in THE DIRTY DOZEN [1967]---remember his report informing Lee Marvin that he had a group of both imbeciles and psychopaths on his hands. He's focused and in-the-zone in this one, easily his career-best performance. He's always nattily attired and the hair perfectly groomed despite his escapades. Kind of reminds me of that kid we all had in high school who was different---with the neat, pressed clothes, perfectly groomed, and always bringing the brown paper bag with lunch from home instead of gagging on the lousy cafeteria food. And the gals would often be on his periphery. This pampered and pompous kid was quite a source of annoyance to the rest of us "normal" dudes in class as was Meeker to the police lieutenant---also searching for the truth---on his tail. Meeker was able to decipher Christina's message because among one of many admirable traits of this austere, aloof but likeable PI, was an ability to look and listen carefully and remember details. Hey, generation X could learn a lot from this guy.Interestly, the only person in the film to bring a child-like grin to his stoic face is his auto mechanic friend Nick ["va-va-va-vroom"] who is probably the only person he genuinely likes. His "secretary" Velda is obviously the person he trusts the most. When Nick is mysteriously murdered in his auto shop and Velda is kidnapped he goes on a septuagenarian slapping spree. Love the way Meeker gets things done---and procures the info he needs---with alacrity and economy: a slap across the chops here, a desk drawer vising some fingers there, lauding then breaking a priceless record, stopping a nocturnal predator with a box of popcorn. Wish he carried a gun, though. Another memorable performance is provided by Christina's roommate Gabriella, played a by little-known actress named Gaby Rodgers. She reminds one of an older, middle-aged, trail-beaten Anne Heche. Rodgers' not-soon-forgotten oddball , missing-a-marble performance as Christina's androgynous, missing roommate is great. Her on-and-off plaintive and whimsical demeanor and child-like voice with the staccato-like delivery was engaging, and deceiving too, as they did not portend her eventual psychopathic meltdown [figuratively and literally]. Her performance soon brought to mind two other similarly flavored performances: Melanie Griffith [THE DROWNING POOL, 1975] and Jennifer Tilley [BOUND, 1996] and there are probably others. Fine work by Director Aldrich with his insightful pick for a singular and probably influential femme fatale characterization. Hard to believe the talented Rodgers never made it after this. Nice seeing veteran actor Albert Dekker whose last film was THE WILD BUNCH [1969]. Always loved his deliberate and mysterious voice which allowed him to play exotic, erudite characters so well [you've got to see him in Dr Cyclops, 1940]. Here he played the mastermind of the obscure and nefarious group. The ending is morose and open-ended. The film seemed to prey on the 50's fear of Cold War nuclear posturing. Worth your time if you like noir or just for Meeker and Rodgers' raw and terrific performances.

Neil Doyle (24 April 2012)

Good film noir but something is amiss...

RALPH MEEKER makes a credible Mike Hammer, even though there are timeswhen I thought what a great role this would have been for either KIRKDOUGLAS or HUMPHREY BOGART. Meeker was a handsome actor who never quitemade it in Hollywood after some stage work, notably as the drifter inPICNIC on Broadway in the role that went to William Holden in the filmversion.From the very start, this is a fascinating film noir, beginning withthe pick-up of CLORIS LEACHMAN (introduced in her film debut) and fromthere veering into a highly tense detective yarn, some of which is hardto follow when you start asking too many questions. Some pertinentexplanations are missing, but the artful B&W photography around SanFrancisco, up winding alleys and high wooden staircases, keeps the eyefascinated while the story unwinds.The story itself involves a rather "Pandora's Box" kind ofsolution--what is the thing that so many have been killed for? And whenthe solution does come, it's a shocker.Summing up: Nice film noir, gritty performance by Ralph Meeker and somesharp direction by Robert Aldrich who once again uses Frank DeVol forthe background score (as he did for "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte").Trivia note: WESLEY ADDY has a key supporting role as a law officer,just as he would nine years later in Aldrich's HHSC. And the little manwho played the creepy undertaker in that flick (PERCY HELTON), is agreedy morgue attendant here who gets his comeuppance from Hammer.

Hyzenthlay_and_me (24 April 2012)

3D-Pow!

I've seen this one a few times over the years, it's time to write aboutit now after finally seeing it on the silver screen. Kiss Me Deadly asa movie feels like a bomb that goes off in your face, the 3D-POW ofwhich Nicky speaks. When left to analyse it you can't really pin itdown as a moral story, or a political parable, or any sort of a messagefilm, it's shipwreck, earthquake, atomic plume, it beats you intoinsensibility. Everything's wrong, even the credits scroll the wrongway. You've got a pimp/private detective who's named after a bluntinstrument, and his "secretary" Velda who coos about how he would notsmell as sweet by any other name (after mentioning his name in Greek,Michaelis Sfyri). Pretty car, fashionable modern apartment (Hammer hasan answering phone in the 50s), expressionist paintings, tastefulfurniture - all paid for by blackmail and marriage wrecking. We'relargely left to wonder about the nature of their relationship,doubtlessly perverse.The movie plays with our sympathies, Hammer is alternately shown askind and sadistic, one time he's a Samaritan helping an old man out,another he's the playground bully breaking his friend's toy to see ifhe'll cry. He's persecuted by the Man, but he's also happy to persecutehimself, delighting in the screams of his prey. We have Percy Helton asthe pudgy mortician, yelping pitifully like people do in real life,Kiss Me Deadly doesn't give us the practised monotone squeal of ascream queen to signify, "It's only a movie". You get to noticing things about the movie after a while, you can pickout the incipient nasal whine in character actor Strother Martin'svoice (here he has a one scene role as a truck driver) that was tobecome full rasp by the time of Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch where heplays Coffer, rifle-kissing massacre artist, redneck double act with"TC". Then there's Albert Dekker playing the eminence grise; here hisDr Soberin echoes Otto Kruger's Dr Amthor of 1944's Murder, My Sweet,the smooth-spoken classically educated smarter-than-thou sociopathicquack, nemesis of the private detective!I could never be quite certain what Hammer's motive was, is it frontand centre as displayed by the "what's in it for me?" exterior and thesearch for the "great whatsit"? Or is he looking to avenge poorChristina with her chicken-legs run and hysterical gape? It's not clearstraightaway but to have seen Soberin's shoes, he most certainly had tobe awake, and ergo saw what they did to Christina, which, when you havea little think about, was worse than the slaps you might assume onwatch one.

(21 April 2012)

A lot more style than substance, but entertaining nonetheless

This review is for the 2001 MGM DVD.Kiss Me Deadly is a film based on Mickey's Spillane's book featuring his fictional private detective Mike Hammer. The basic storyline involves a naked woman (Cloris Leachman) in a trench coat that Hammer (Ralph Meeker) finds on a deserted highway. He later finds out she escaped from a mental institution and soon after the two are attacked by some unidentified men and the woman is killed and Hammer barely survives with his life. The rest of the movie focuses on Hammer finding out why these men killed this woman.I found the movie easy to watch and entertaining even though there were some obvious flaws in the plot and the production. It's clearly a movie from an era gone by: a man's movie from the "old school" of tough guy films where the lead character has all the women he encounters melting in his arms, he can be ruthlessly tough as nails, and is streetwise and smart without seeming too cerebral. He drives the coolest cars (a Jaguar and a Corvette) and lives in an impressive bachelor pad. (I never knew there were telephone answering machines in the mid-1950's.) The movie was filmed in Los Angeles in 1955 and has some nice shots of the undeveloped Pacific coastline plus scenes from the old Hill Street neighborhood. Overall I liked the look and nostalgic feel of the movie, even though the plot is mediocre at best.The DVD picture quality is overall near pristine. Once in a while in a tiny spot of film wear could be observed, but it was never a distraction to the movie. The only DVD bonuses are the trailer and the ending that was originally released with the film. The final scene shown at the end of the feature presentation shows what the director originally intended, but apparently due to a glitch in the editing at the studio, a different ending was used in the original theater release. In my opinion, the director's ending is better and it's terrific that it was preserved and used for the ending of the feature movie on the DVD.Movie: B-DVD Quality: A-

Martin Teller (21 April 2012)

Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

I didn't care for this a whole lot when I first watched it. In themeantime I've developed a tremendous appetite for noir, this is widelyconsidered one of the greats, and the guys on the "Out of the Past"podcast gushed over it. So I took the plunge and bought the Blu-Ray. Ithink my earlier complaints are for the most part no longer an issue.Originally I praised the beginning and ending but found the bulk of thefilm repetitive and dull. Now I still would like more plot developmentto be going on, but realize that the devil is in the details... it'snot so much what is happening, but how it's happening, this journeythrough a world of paranoia and violence. I made an aside about Hammerbeing a douchebag, but as I suspected, this is entirely intentional,with neither the director nor the screenwriter caring for thecharacter. This is really a non-issue anyway, there's nothing wrongwith an anti-hero. My other comment was about the acting, but now Ifind the performances quite memorable (especially being familiar withmany of the character actors) if not entirely "good" in the modernsense. The film still doesn't really grab me, but I understand betterthe charm it holds for others.

(20 April 2012)

The Search for the "Great Whatsit"

Kiss Me Deadly, 1955 film The film credits roll in a reverse direction, as if to symbolize this movie. The film opens on a highway at night, a woman is running down the road looking for help. A sports car stops to pick her up, she is crying. A police patrol is looking for a woman who escaped from an asylum! Mike Hammer tells them the woman is his wife. Later a big black sedan cuts them off and captures them. Christina is tortured to death (off screen), then she and Hammer are put in his car which is pushed off the cliff. When Hammer recovers he is questioned by the "I.C.C." about what happened. Hammer is a PI who specialized in divorce actions with his beautiful secretary Velda. Upon his return to his office we see a 1950s telephone answering machine. Then Hammer goes to meet a client. He learned the name and address of Christina's roommate. (We hear a trolley in the street.)Someone sent a gift car for Hammer. He looks it in the mouth and removes the extra features. Hammer then learns about some new people, and finds out more. He visits a rich man who tells him to drop the investigation. But trouble is his business, and he continues to look for something. Christina's friend Lily is afraid, and asks Mike to hide her. Then Mike's friend Nick is murdered. Velda talks about how some people are always searching for the "great whatsit"! Mike visits a bar to drown his sorrows. A message told him that Velda was abducted. At the office Mike is abducted and taken for a ride. They give him sodium pentothal to get him to talk. But Mike escapes from this trap. Later Mike finds a key and figures out where it belongs, and finds a very hot secret.When Mike goes to visit Captain Pat Murphy he gets a big surprise. Another body had turned up. Mike goes to visit an art gallery after hours, and finds a connection to the leader of the pack. There is an exciting ending after Gabriella opens the forbidden box. [Did "Raiders of the Lost Ark" copy this ending?] The director used a number of odd camera angles for this film set in Los Angeles. It is a sort of low budget film whose violent action is played down and off-screen. [Does it remind you of some TV programs from the 1950s? The search for a missing object may remind you of "The Maltese Falcon", a better novel and film.]

helleberg (20 April 2012)

Stinks on ice.

I don't know whether the blame for this ought to rest on Spillane,Bezzerides, or Aldrich. Doesn't matter, there's more than enough to goaround. It's unfortunate that this movie was "rediscovered" (I use theterm with hesitation because I don't think it was ever discovered inthe first place. Released, yes. Discovered, not quite) but even moreunfortunate that it's received such a glut of critical attentionlately. One of the "virtues" critics have been pointing out in thisflick is what a great job it does capturing the "soullessness" and"spiritual vacancy" of 50s Southern California. One writer went so faras to liken Meeker to "Marlon Brando with the soul burned out of him."The problem is that the movie doesn't depict a soulless Los Angeles,but that it tries to depict a vibrant and lively LA and does soineptly. Nick, the mechanic; the elderly Italian porter who givesHammer a clue; the opera singing informant; the boxing manager; to alesser extent, Velda, all these characters are lively and engaging andsuggest a real humanity against this "soulless" backdrop. However,Ralph Meeker makes Mike Hammer about as interesting as a bag ofdoorknobs (betcha thought I was going to say hammers). The womencharacters are painted very shallowly and with trademark Spillanemisogyny. I gotta say, I don't know exactly what that's about.These are broad complaints with the film. I've got a few very specificgripes, but they involve plot points, so be aware of spoilers below.First, the movie telegraphs just about every major event ratherstiffly. Two seconds after Christina, the asylum escapee, says "If wedon't make it to the bus stop . . ." viola, they are waylaid and don'tmake it to the bus stop. Every time the plot needs a forward push,Velda shows up and says "I got a few more names." Very convenient, verywooden, very unsatisfying.The dialogue is not stylized, it's unnatural. I would say that thedelivery is bad, but I don't think this script could have been readwell by anybody, which is to say Meeker and Cooper are not up to thetask. I think one of the lowest moments comes at the end, when Dr.Soberin is warning Lily about the atomic pinata. In four lines, hepiles on the allusion like cold cuts and mixes his metaphors like oiland vinegar to sprinkle on this ugly submarine sandwich of a scene."What's in the box?" says Lily. "It's like Pandora's box," says thedoctor. "You're like Pandora. Don't you know the story of Lot's wife?Please don't open the box, there's a Medusa's head in there. I'mbarking like the three heads of Cerberus at the gates of hell." Well,maybe not that bad, but you can check the memorable quotes link for theterrible transcript. A smart mystery writer would limit the allusion tothe one significant reference rather than trying to impress with theridiculous repetition (Robert Parker titles one Spencer mystery "TheWidening Gyre," then makes no further reference to this allusionthroughout the two-fifty pages that follow).A final complaint is that there obviously wasn't much research done bySpillane or Bezzerides. Having the good cop Pat explain the entireatomic dilemma simply by saying "Manhattan Project. Los Alamos.Trinity," really sums up the problem. Rather than devising a clearplot, the writers opted to throw around a few atomic age buzzwords thatseem to say something while saying very, very little. And then we endup with an image of the Malibu beach house exploding in the 1950sequivalent of a dirty bomb while a gut-shot Hammer clings to Velda inthe waves. What is the parallel here? That the hardboiled Hammer willwalk off his injury just as the fallout will roll off the back of thissoulless Los Angeles?Idiotic. Reforget this rediscovered tripe and go rent "Out of thePast."

Review total: 20, showing from 1 to 20

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