Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Tough private detective Mike Hammer (superbly played with unflinching ferocity and steely resolve by Ralph Meeker) stumbles onto a nefarious plot that puts his life in great danger when he decides to investigate the mysterious death of doomed hitchhiker Christina Bailey (Cloris Leachman in her fine film debut).Director Robert Aldrich astutely nails the pervasive paranoia of the 50's Cold War era, offers a vivid depiction of a harsh world that's largely populated by deadly and hostile people (ironically, ostensible "hero" Hammer in particular comes across as one real nasty and selfish bastard), delivers several startling moments of savage violence, and maintains an unsparingly bleak, gritty, and amoral tone throughout. The hard-hitting script by A.J. Bezzerides provides plenty of spot-on stinging commentary on mankind's self-destructive nature. The sterling acting from a topflight cast keeps this movie humming: Albert Dekker as elusive scientist Dr. G.E. Soberin, Patrick Stewart as shifty bigwig Carl Evello, Maxine Cooper as Hammer's loyal secretary Velda, Nick Dennis as jolly mechanic Nick, Gaby Rodgers as ditsy dame Gabrielle, and Wesley Addy as the browbeating Lt. Pat Murphy. Moreover, there are memorable bits by Jack Lambert and Jack Elam as a pair of vicious goons, Juano Hernandez as streetwise boxing manager Eddie Yaeger, Strother Martin as antsy truck driver Harvey Wallace, Marion Carr as the flirtatious Friday, and Percy Helton as sniveling worm coroner Doc Kennedy. Gorgeously shot in moody black and white by Ernest Laszlo, with a brooding score by Fran De Vol, and a complete doozy of a nightmarish apocalyptic ending, this honey rates highly as one of the best film noirs from the 1950's.

This film could fairly be deemed as fascist-noir. If often misogynistic, noir is rarely this brazenly phalocentric. Mike Hammer (yup, really the character's name) is a seducer of women and abuser of both genders. The audience is to applaud his every bullying gesture. The many women in the film exist to move the plot along and/ or to worship Hammer as a sex-God. He, like all good entrepreneurial Americans, is humbled only when he learns that some "alien" may be getting its hands on the destructive power that America alone is "supposed" to wield. Having said all that, I must guiltily confess my love for this film. Shot, it seems, almost entirely on location, it transports one to the lost LA of the early '50s. And, if Hammer, um, rams his way through all forms of otherness, he still encounters many forms of it on a dazzling tour through the underbelly of 1950s American urbanity. For all that is reactionary about the film, it contains strikingly unracist depictions of African-Americans compared to many other films of its era.

Early on in his writing career, Mickey Spillane wrote comic books. It shows in KISS ME DEADLY: despite director Robert Aldrich at the helm, this one comes off like one of the pre-Comics Code horror comics (and it goes "all the way," too, with an ending straight out of all-too-many of the sci-fi comics of the period). (Updated observation: The ending was courtesy of Aldrich, himself, apparently. But Mickey Spillane DID write comic books...) Ralph Meeker, I've always thought, was an under-utilized actor who rated better than he got- but not this time around; KISS ME DEADLY as a whole simply isn't as good as the sum of its parts. If you're one of those die-hard Noir fans who feels compelled to put this one high up on your list of must-see movies, do yourself a favor and go and hunt down some of the current reprints of pre-Comics Code horror comics; you'll LOVE 'em.

I must confess that, with this film I have seen a good noir film that is well nuanced and spine chilling.From the titles in the beginning to the final frozen frame, there is a sense of mystique that prevails. It helped me hang for the whole length of the film and I felt grateful at the end. The film poster itself has too many details that need some good time to decipher.To begin with, it's all in the writing of the script and placing them well in screenplay. Now, this film has done that part exceptionally well. Dialogues are good and they carry a certain intrigue that made me hold back to the whole length of the film.It has many undertones and many references too. It's disapproving of many conventional film making norms that were there in 1950's. But in the same structure, the body and the heart of the this film are radically different and we have been offered a very niche film. It's classically noir and it's classically left for viewers interpretation.The end climax is debatable and left me with questions. That's the kind of film that I like. The good films are good, but the great ones start asking questions about why anything happened. They start a debate internally within the mind and even with others, when you discuss about the film. Thus, this definitely is a great film.With sharp editing and superb cinematography, this film is a landmark technically in 1950's. The production design is wonderful too. All kudos to the technical team who have got the infrastructure of this film together.The acting, the nuances of emotions are done well by all the actors. Though, Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer stole the show.Great work by Robert Aldrich the director and great work by Criterion in giving us the film unedited, with even the alternative ending preserved. This is not a film for general viewers, it's strictly for aficionados.A 5/5 for a definitive, science fiction, noir film. http://braddugg.blogspot.in/