User reviews

Movies like "Kiss Me Deadly" are reassuring that there's more to each genre than meets the eye. "Kiss Me Deadly" is part hard-boiled detective story & part apocalyptic sci-fi horror film. The movie suspects its own plots and its conventions are ludicrous. The result is a highly inventive film with a ridiculous but highly enjoyable storyline and comically fascinating characters.

The basic plot, loosely adapted from Mickey Spillane's bestselling novel,is: after private-eye Mike Hammer picks up a hitchhiker who is later murdered, he becomes determined to learn the truth about her death. Although the plot becomes more and more insane, it's highly interesting. There are no empty twists, as each one leads to something larger and more confounding.

I've never had more fun with a film noir character than the aptly named character of Mike Hammer. He isn't intimidated by any man and denies the world's hottest women. If he holds the upper hand in a situation, he seems virtually impenetrable. This characteristic leads to the ever-prevalent theme in film noirs of men vs. women and their places in relationships and society.

The film is a masterpiece of cinematography, exhibited in the disorienting camera angles and unique and unconventional compositions of Ernest Laszlo. In fact, Ernesto Laszlo's cinematography is so apt with the film's randomness that it made me giddy.

One of the most distinctive aspects of Kiss Me Deadly is the outrageousness of its final few seconds: the movie doesn't conclude, it detonates. In the hands of the director Robert Aldrich, the film becomes a starting point for a delirious expression of 1950s anxiety and paranoia, starting with opening credits that run backwards and ending with an atomic explosion.

Man, I saw this movie for the first time a few years ago and I still don't know what to think about it. Ralph Meeker as a fascistic Mike Hammer, a crazy hitch-hiker, an opera fan and a box that can destroy the world. I dunno.

From what I understand Alderitch (the director) hated Mikey Spillane's story (which was about a briefcase full of drugs or money or something else), thought Mike Hammer was an image of brutality and fascism and made a film that reflected it. He makes Hammer out to be some kind of sadist and makes the suitcase out be some kind of nuclear device. The movie turns from a simple detective story to some wierd-ass, sci-fi cold war parable.

It's sort of like the X-Files meets film-noir PI, or something to that effect.

All that being said, this is a GREAT film and is well worth watching by anyone who like apocalyptic film-noir (in fact, this may be the only film in that sub-genre). Anyone who is a fan of bizarre camera work, weird symbolism and a stranger storyline, should really check this out.

Observe the many bizarre inconsistencies (clocks that jump ahead and back, screams that don't jibe right with the soundtrack, camera angles that jump mysteriously) and keep in mind that these were INTENDED! When you get a feel for this film and start noticing what the director was attempting to do with this bizarre film I think that you will enjoy it even more. Truly a unique piece of film making.

Robert Aldrich was a no-nonsense film director. When he undertook the direction of this film, little did he know it was going to become the extraordinary movie it turned out to be. The fame seems to have come by its discovery in France, as it usually is the case. Based on Mickey Spillane's novel and adapted by Al Bezzerides, the movie has an unique style and it's recommended viewing for fans of the film noir genre.

Right from the start, the film gets our imagination as we watch a young woman running along a California highway. That sequence proved Mr. Aldrich's ability to convey the idea of a disturbed young woman that seems to have escaped from a mental institution. The plot complicates itself as Hammer learns that Christine, the young woman, has died. He decides to investigate, which is what he does best.

Some excellent comments have been submitted to this forum, so we will not even try to expand in the action but will only emphasize in the tremendous visual style Mr. Aldrich added to the film, which seems to be its main attraction. For a fifty year old film, it still has a crisp look to it thanks to the impressive black and white cinematography of Ernest Lazlo, who had a keen eye to show us Hammer's world as he makes it come alive. The great musical score by Frank DeVol fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the L.A. of the fifties.

Ralph Meeker made an excellent contribution as Mike Hammer. He dominates the film with his presence. Albert Decker, Paul Stewart, Miriam Carr, Maxine Cooper, Fortuno Bonanova, and especially Cloris Leachman, in her screen debut, make this film the favorite it has become.

Fans of the genre can thank Mr. Aldrich for making a film that didn't pretend to be anything, yet has stayed as a favorite all these years.

No need to recap the plot (even if I could) or echo some of the more obvious details.

Notice how no one stops to help poor Christina as she runs down the street frantically at movie's opening. Instead cars whiz by, until Hammer almost wrecks his snazzy car trying to avoid her. In fact, there's not an overload of compassion anywhere in this brutal noir classic.

As I recall, critics of the time reviled it for the unremitting violence and lack of heroics. At the same time, in years of movie watching, I've never heard screams of pain (e.g. Christina, Sugar Smallhouse) so convincing as here. They're almost too much to bear, which was likely Aldrich's intent. Add to the package a scummy, narcissist PI like Hammer, and you've got a melodrama unlike audiences of the time were prepared for. No wonder the movie bombed. (Two previous Hammer films had also disappointed Spillane fans-- I, The Jury {1953}, The Long Wait {1954})

Except this movie was years ahead of its time in both style and content. Sure, the plot doesn't make much sense. There are threads, but they never seem to come together in coherent fashion. Instead, the money hungry Hammer keeps thrashing around in the dark like there's got to be a big payoff somewhere in the tangle he's got himself into. Self-assured to the hilt, he's not one for self-doubt or moments of contemplation. Instead, he bulls his way through every situation, heedless of what he's getting into. I expect folks looking for deeper meanings find plenty of grist with this. Then too, it's hard to say enough about actor Meeker's spot-on portrayal. His Hammer amounts to a guy you neither like nor dislike, but can't help watching anyway (his physical resemblance to Brando is almost astonishing).

The visual style here is almost equally astonishing. Noir b&w has never been photographed (Earnest Laszlo) more effectively than some of those night scenes (e.g. the brutal fist fight between Hammer and his attacker {Paul Richards}), plus the long, dark hallways and staircases that suggest an enclosed world without redemption. Then too, the exploding beach house is well done, though it goes through 4 or 5 increasingly violent blasts, making Aldrich's apocalyptic point, I guess.

But it's not just Hammer and the thugs he's surrounded with. The women we see may be lovely or even beautiful (Carr), but none are to be trusted. Not even Hammer's Velda (Cooper), who, when you think about it, is his willing partner in the scummy infidelity scams that are his bread and butter. How many husbands, for example, has she seduced into grounds for divorce. It's not obvious, but there's a misogynistic undercurrent running through the narrative, which, I guess, is appropriate for the movie's generally nihilistic attitude. (Note how oblivious Hammer is to the grandeur of the classical music around him that keeps popping up in the screenplay. None of that sublime stuff for him.)

No doubt about it, the movie may retain the raw violence and sex that made author Spillane's potboilers so popular in the 50's. But crucially there's no one to root for here, not even the Hammer of Spillane's Cold War novels who kills commies on sight. No, Aldrich's and screenwriter Bezzerides world is not divided into good and evil, in the way that Spillane's brutal Hammer is redeemed by fighting on the good, patriotic side. Instead, the Aldrich world comes across as a nihilistic one, without enduring values, one that can only be redeemed by apocalypse, nuclear style. No wonder the French glommed onto the film immediately. I'm sure those pessimistic themes fit perfectly with the existentialist topics then so popular among their artistic class.

Anyhow, however you choose to take the 100-minutes—as a betrayal of the novels or as a somewhat profound gloss on the human condition-- the movie remains a memorable one-of- a-kind.

Kiss Me Deadly is an absolute joy to watch. There are no big-name stars, the director has never been mentioned in the same breath as a Hitchcock or Huston, and it's basically a simple Mickey Spillane story. How its presented on the screen is the genius of the picture. Right from the opening credit sequence, you know you're in for something fresh and innovative. This is a must see for fans of Quentin Tarantino, and there is a curious box containing a certain substance that glows when opened (Pulp Fiction, anyone?). It is one of the finest of the "film noir" genre, predominantly because of the moody black and white photography and its amazing 'timeless' appeal (I would rank it alongside Touch of Evil). It's great to know the film has been "rediscovered", and be sure to see a copy of the film containing 2 different versions of the mind-boggling final sequence shot at the time.

Sleazy, tawdry B-noir doesn't get any sleazier or tawdrier than Robert Aldrich's jazzy and astonishingly entertaining "Kiss Me Deadly." This film was released late in the life cycle of the film noir genre. By 1958 and Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil," true noir would be just about washed up. Any noir film from that point forward would be self-consciously aware that it was tipping its hat to an established genre. But "Deadly" came out when films still didn't have to work at being noirish---they just WERE, and dazzlingly so.

Born-to-play-a-bully Ralph Meeker plays tough-guy detective Mike Hammer, who's in the wrong place at the wrong time and picks up a mysterious panic-stricken girl (Cloris Leachman), who's just escaped from an asylum. From that moment forward, he finds himself tangled up in a barely lucid plot, in which a bunch of baddies want to get their hands on something the girl either had or knew about. Hammer doesn't know what it is, but he knows that if so many people want it, it's something he probably wants too, and the race for the great "whatsit" is on.

If you wanted to teach a film class about the look and attitude of a film noir, you couldn't pick a better film than this one. I found myself on a recent viewing of this film pausing my DVD player and studying the frame (because, sadly, this is what I do in my spare time), rehearsing in my mind what I would tell a class about any particular composition. And aside from the style, the film is steeped in noir sentiment--it's not simply cynical, like the glossier studio noirs of the 40's; it's downright apocryphal. It's not simply one man undone by the vengeful forces of fate here, but an entire civilization on the brink of extinction.

So pop this in and have a great time with it--feel free to quote it liberally, as there are plenty of juicy lines worth quoting. But as you watch it, you might want to stay away from the windows, for as Mike Hammer's hot-to-trot sometime girlfriend, sometime secretary Velda says, someone may "blow you a kiss."

Grade: A+

"Kiss Me Deadly" had few similarities with Spillane's story about a gang of dope traffickers… Instead Aldrich reworks the plot so that the criminals are mixed up in the theft of priceless and high1y dangerous radioactive material which they are planning to smuggle to an unnamed power… The complicated story begins with Hammer picking up a scared girl on a lonely road at night and continues through the girl's subsequent death, a kidnapping and a series of very brutal killings…

Spillane's Mike Hammer remains the ultimate in violent private eyes… The killings seem to matter less than the sadism… One scene in which Hammer deliberately breaks the irreplaceable records of an Italian opera lover in order to get the information he wants is more repellent than any of the murders in the film…

Furious but stylish, "Kiss Me Deadly" is a film of great power and stays unique for its mixing of art and pulp fiction

First-rate Mickey Spillane adaptation, easily the best film version of any of his novels that I've seen. Private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) investigates the reasons behind the death of a hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman in her film debut). It's a gritty, tough, violent noir with some good dialogue and morally grey (at best) characters. Meeker's the perfect Hammer. Albert Dekker has a small but important part. The rest of the cast is good except for Nick Dennis, who goes full Eli Wallach in his role as Hammer's mechanic friend. Robert Aldrich directs with style. The ending is pretty cool, but it's definitely one of those "love it or hate it" things. It's certainly memorable, which I think most of us can agree is part of what makes any film great.

This late entry into the film noir genre has some harsh and memorable scenes and an ending unlike any other film noir. Of course, most of those weren't made during the A-Bomb scares of the mid 1950s, as this was.

The movie features a tough, no-nonsense Mike Hammer-like private eye, played well by Ralph Meeker, whose tough-guy dialog is a little dated but still fun to hear. This is one of those noirs in which everyone is a tough-talking, tough-acting mug and one never knows who to trust. Except for Cloris Leachman, who is only in the first quick (but haunting) opening scene, the females in here are unfamiliar actresses but people with interesting faces and personalities.

That opening with Leachman is a real attention-grabber and is one of the best starts I've ever seen in a crime movie. It's very creepy, as is the unique ending. I also appreciated the cinematography in here a lot more once the DVD was issued.

A doomed female hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman) pulls Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit." The film withstood scrutiny from the Kefauver Commission (who investigated the mafia), which called it a film designed to ruin young viewers, leading director Aldrich to protest the Commission's conclusions. Today, the film is preserved by the Library of Congress. We can see who won in the long run.

"Kiss Me Deadly" remains one of the great time capsules of Los Angeles and Beverly Hills; the Bunker Hill locations were all destroyed when the downtown neighborhood was razed in the late 1960s.

Homage is paid to the glowing suitcase MacGuffin in the 1984 cult film "Repo Man", the film "Ronin", and in Tarantino's film "Pulp Fiction". The "shiny blue suitcase" is referenced with other famous MacGuffins in "Guardians of the Galaxy". In the film "Southland Tales", Richard Kelly pays homage to the film, showing the main characters watching the beginning on their television and later the opening of the case is shown on screens on board the mega-Zeppelin.

This is, indeed, the greatest of all private eye stories and film noir. With all due respect to such greats as "Asphalt Jungle", this is the real deal.

For some bizarre reason, this film is highly regarded by professional film critics, and it is certainly true that it contains many of the cinematographic ingredients we normally associate with film noir - the shadowy staircases, venetian blinds reflected on a monochrome wall, the post-war Californian street scenes with their fabulous cars, neon lights and immaculately dressed city professionals. It's almost as though someone wrote a recipe beforehand and then tried to follow it with pedantic precision to achieve a technically perfect result. The problem, though, is that the resulting film doesn't really work on any level, for reasons that have been well documented by other reviewers here who have watched it and found it badly wanting.

Rather than try to itemise the film's many failings, it's perhaps sufficient to cite one important anomaly that jars more than anything else. In true film noir, the female protagonists are typically hard boiled characters who understand male flaws and know how to exploit them. (Either that, or they are loyal wives operating in the background who also understand male psychology.) In Kiss Me Deadly, by contrast, women are constantly, quite literally throwing themselves at men, in a whole variety of totally unbelievable situations; begging to be kissed, made love to, and taken care of - in one case about 30 seconds after being introduced on arrival at a summer party. This immediately puts the viewer on notice that what we are dealing with here is not authentic film noir, in any meaningful sense of that term, but instead a male film director's psychological fantasy of how he would like women to behave for his entertainment. In the real world, women do not instantly decide to place their trust in a complete stranger and then initiate physical intimacy - it is simply too risky given the superior physical strength of the male and all the other unknowns involved. So the entire male-female dynamic in this film is not only false and implausible, it is also quite alien to the conventions of classic film noir which are strongly rooted in realism.

While I found more to enjoy in this film than some others here who have posted very negative reviews, I have to say that I do agree with the broad thrust of this critical commentary. Although Kiss Me Deadly is often seen as one of the last examples of the classic era of film noir, it does not stand even remote comparison with films like Double Indemnity, Out of the Past, or (to take a less famous example) Woman in the Window. Perhaps it would be better to see it as the first in a long line of pale stylistic imitators. In fact, to me it seems closer in spirit to some of the more paranoid science fiction films of the same period, which are not usually held in such high critical regard. By all means watch it and enjoy, but adjust your expectations to avoid disappointment.

Kiss Me Deadly (1955) : Brief Review -

A nihilist film noir set in the backdrop of the Manhattan Project goofs itself with too many red-hot kisses. The film noir genre was at its peak in the 1950s, and everyone wanted to add something extra to the crime noirs of those days. Kiss Me Deadly took its title very seriously, I guess. The film follows a private investigator in Los Angeles who becomes embroiled in a complex mystery after picking up a female hitchhiker. Hungry after something big, he investigates her death and finds himself in troublesome surroundings, which also cause harm to his close ones, such as his girlfriend and a mechanic friend. Like I said and as its title suggests, the film has so many kisses. I won't call them red because it was a black-and-white film, but you smell what I mean. I couldn't understand why there were so many kisses. Every time he meets his girlfriend, she starts kissing him, be it during exercise, in the bedroom, or during a formal meeting. Then he meets Lily, and there are more kisses. The height of it comes when he goes to Evello's house, and before he gets out of his car, Evello's sister starts kissing him within a short meeting of 2 seconds. Kisses were so easy those days, man. Anyways, coming to the screenplay, I found it a little less thrilling than what other critics have called. The performances were okay, though. Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, Wesley Addy, and debutants Maxine Cooper and Cloris Leachman-nobody looked off track. I have failed to understand Robert Aldrich's vision here. What was he really trying to say? If the same man has made a classic like "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane," then I can't understand how he can have a vague perspective towards his content. There are some moments that are worthy, but not the entire film. Still, a one-time watch for its thrilling and lustful attempt at film noir with contemporary effects.

RATING - 6/10*

By - #samthebestest.

'Kiss Me Deadly' is an overlooked crime gem that has proved to be a major influence on subsequent film makers from the French New Wave to cult classics 'Repo Man' and 'Pulp Fiction'. It's a movie which gets better and better with age. Director Robert Aldrich manages to put lots of style and interesting touches which sometimes border on the surreal into this toughest of tough guy movies. Ralph Meeker ('Paths Of Glory', 'The Dirty Dozen', 'The Anderson Tapes') is well cast as Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer. Meeker's Hammer is brutal and his performance really makes this one work. The supporting cast are all very good too, especially Albert Dekker ('The Wild Bunch') as Dr Soberin and Maxine Cooper as Hammer's "assistant" Velda. Also keep an eye out for the debut of Cloris Leachman is the striking opening sequence. The "great whatsit" which Hammer searches for is one of the great movie gimmicks, and the ending will blow you away - literally. I loved this movie from beginning to end. I think it ranks alongside 'Out Of The Past' (Tourneur), 'The Asphalt Jungle' (Huston), 'Double Indemnity' (Wilder), 'The Killing' (Kubrick) and 'The Killers (Siegel)' as one of the greatest and most influential American crime movies, and I'm sure Scorcese and Tarantino would be the first to agree. Highly recommended.

On a lonely stretch of road Mickey Spillane's famous private detective Mike Hammer picks up a dazed and confused Cloris Leachman in her big screen debut, trying to thumb a ride. He picks her up, but shortly afterward they're both attacked and he's left unconscious and she's dead.

Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer wants to find out why of course, a reaction similar to the one Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe had in Murder My Sweet when something exactly like this occurred. But Powell didn't have not only the local police, but the FBI snooping around in this apparent street crime.

Meeker's motives are not noble, he smells a big pay day. And while he's honest, he's not squeamish in the slightest about how he gets information. He runs into a variety of movie bad guys like Paul Richards, Strother Martin, Jack Lambert, Paul Stewart, and Albert Dekker.

Some are helpful, some are not. The bodies start to pile up and what this is all about is a McGuffin to end all McGuffins. Let's just say the police in the person of Wesley Addy and the FBI had very good reason to tell Meeker to butt out. In fact his very entrance into the case causes a lot of fatalities.

This turned out to be Ralph Meeker's career role. Perhaps had Meeker come along earlier or had gotten better breaks he could have had a great career in noir type films. As it was he became a respected character actor. Another performance you'll like is that of Nick Dennis who's a garage mechanic and part time leg man for Hammer.

Juano Hernandez has an interesting part as well. He's a fight manager and not above taking a dishonest dollar if he can turn one. He's a reliable tipster, but the well runs dry about this case when Meeker questions him.

But the performance really to watch is that of Gaby Rodgers who is a femme fatale to beat all. She makes Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon and Claire Trevor in Murder My Sweet look like Girl Scouts. Watch the ending, it's so incredibly surreal it will stay with you forever.

Can't tell you what the McGuffin is, it will give it all away. But it will be worth your while to see Kiss Me Deadly to find out.

By 1950s standards this film is totally cutting edge. Just off the top of my head here is a list of things in this film that were VERY uncommon in the 50s: 1. African-Americans and non-Americans in several supporting roles 2. Main character has an answering machine (yes it's a giant wall-mounted reel-to-reel, but still..) 3. Location shooting (lots of exteriors and cool cars) 4. Risqué shots of bare legs, sexy actions by female characters, etc. It's implied the characters have a sex life (in most 1950s movies no one had sex EVER). 5. Violence - OK - there is no GRAPHIC violence, but lots of implied violence. Some of the camera angles are quite modern and unusual (punches into the camera, walking into camera to end scene, female character stepping over male characters outstretched legs, etc.) Censorship of EVERYTHING was the norm in the 50s. I don't know how this one made it past the censors but I'm glad it did - it's a quirky gem for film noir fans LK

I am a huge film noir fan, and this is one my all-time favorites of the genre. The detective character is played to demented perfection. Look for the evil smile on his face as he smashes a hand in a desk drawer or roughs someone up for more information. The dialog is brilliant, challenging, and enjoyable to watch. The characters are the perfect mix of intelligent, dark, cold, and selfish that makes a film like this really work at multiple levels. My only quibble is I found the ending a bit disappointing. Otherwise, this is a true classic.

It's difficult to surmise whether or not director Robert Aldrich meant "Kiss Me Deadly" to be so overwrought. Perhaps this was the way the filmmaker saw the changing times being reflected in the cinema, and yet the movie is a head-pounding experience. Ralph Meeker plays super-tough private eye Mike Hammer, and he's ideal for the role: convincingly slapping the bad guys around while solving a murder case. Cloris Leachman plays a jittery pick-up on the run from scummy underworld types who involves Hammer in her plight, leading to a wild climax. Subplot involving a supernatural box gives the film an odd horror movie undercurrent, and is amusingly never explained (it's symbolic, providing subtext for many modern filmmakers like Tarantino). Extremely stylish film-noir gained its largest following in France and is now considered a cult classic. **1/2 from ****

The opening of Kiss Me Deadly was something that I saw years before I saw the full film of Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly, courtesy of Scorsese's American Movies doc. Just from this I could tell this movie had something "else" to this. In an incredible but shocking and, in its way, logical process, it shows a series of shots of a woman running down a road, stopping thanks to a car (driven by our PI, Mike Hammer), and then after a few moments of being safe with this man and the mystery not revealed yet... the car is stopped, feet come forward - and a dissolve over a woman's scream to a woman's legs being tortured. Then the perspective of Hammer, off to the side totally out of it, hearing men's voices discussing vague things involving what to do.

As any Screen writing 101 teacher will tell you, getting the opening and the ending of a movie right is so crucial. Here, this movie has both, and the ending involves that briefcase (yeah, that one, thanks Quentin for the reference). But what Aldrich and his collaborators do here is interesting: if you hear on the interview on the Criterion DVD, the movie isn't a close adaptation of the book - in fact it deviates a bit. The book doesn't have the whole aspect of the nuclear secrets. It was just another story of Hammer getting into violent s*** and kicking ass and taking names in the midst of his story.

Luckily, Aldrich also has a fine lead in Ralph Meeker, who can play tough and take-no-s*** just fine (he never 'made it' as a leading man, but he shows up in a number of memorable movies over the years from Alrdich, Kubrick and Lang). In this story Hammer is out to find out what the hell happened to him that night, who that dame was (played by a young Cloris Leachman by the way), and why he was set up to die in a car crash. He gets help from a mechanic and his secretary, but of course Hammer also has to contend with the FBI. Why are they involved? Oh, you'll find out.

The quality of the writing, however much it eschews Spillane's text or not, helps Aldrich to get to what he needs with this story. But it's such a rich film visually, too. He chooses his shots carefully, he doesn't cut to quickly when a key piece of info comes up (i.e. the first time any nuclear talk comes up between Hammer and an FBI guy), and how he follows people and then proceeds to beat them up. Or just talks to the woman by his side in the story (the one who... well, don't want to spoil it just yet).

It's the kind of no-nonsense noir I wish I had seen on a big screen first. It's made for that, and I imagine if a film society or retro-house put it on a double bill with something like The Big Heat, also featuring Meeker in a much different role, it'd grow some hair on a man's chest! Seriously, this is strong stuff of the period, which also somehow manages to push the envelope of what you could show at the time by what it doesn't show (how is Christina tortured for example - we don't know, and that makes it worse). It's a director taking B-movie pulp and elevating it with art and craft and a vision. And grit. And blood.