Robert Aldrich's 1955 detective thriller, "Kiss Me Deadly," came at the end of the American classic film noir cycle, and shows the genre at its most violent, surreal, cruel, cynical, and visually bizarre. It's the last great explosive moment of the classic era of film noir -and I do mean explosive. This is one detective film, like "Chinatown," which you won't soon forget.Aldrich and screenwriter A. I. Bezzirides took on Mickey Spillane's popular P.I. Mike Hammer, but aside from keeping the basic plot outline of the original novel, they completely changed the nature of the character in a very reactionary move. Spillane's Mike Hammer is a New York detective-avenger, a self-righteous vigilante who deals out justice when the paralyzed forces of the law can do nothing: he's a vicious knight on a mean-spirited quest to right wrongs through brute force. (The title of the first Hammer novel, "I, the Jury" pretty much sums up his attitude.) The movie relocates Hammer to Los Angeles and turns him into a shallow con-artist who only cares about his car and his looks. He's a lousy detective too, relying on knocking people around for information, often innocent inoffensive folks, and never really paying attention to the important details of the case. His detective work is entirely matrimonial, where he and his `assistant' Velda put the squeeze on couples to blackmail them. Hammer's motto is simple: "What's in it for me?" Ralph Meeker is perfect in the role, looking as if someone carved him out of slab of meat.
No doubt, in this story Hammer is in way over his head...if only he knew it. He picks up a nearly naked girl (Cloris Leachman in an early role) who throws herself in front of his sports car. Later, they're run off the road, and faceless gangsters torture her to dearth and leave Hammer for dead. Hammer sets out to find out what's up; not because he cares what happened to the girl, but because he sniffs out big money and he'd like to get the guys who wrecked his sports car! Hammer finds himself in a violent quest to locate an object that everyone desires: a package called `The Great Whatsit.' The Great Whatsit isn't a meaningless red herring or Hitchcock McGuffin, however. Its contents are the great surprise of the plot, and the perfect exclamation point on a movie taking place in a chaotic world that seems to be falling apart. I won't tell what the Great Whatsit is (and shame on the reviewers here who have!), but...oh wow!
And this brings us to the issue of the ending, and the only extra on this disc. (Don't worry, I'm not going to spoil the ending.) For years, "Kiss Me Deadly" had a mysteriously abrupt finale that many people praised for its surreal, weird quality. This was how I first saw it. However, in 1997 the original ending was discovered in Aldrich's personal print of the film by editor Glenn Erickson and film noir scholar Alain Silver. Apparently, an accident involving a careless projectionist snipped off part of the ending, so what we had enjoyed and critiqued for years was actually a mistake! The new ending shown on this disc fortunately doesn't change the tone of the film: it's still pretty astonishing, filled with a brilliant use of light and sound effects. However, there's still something about that abrupt ending that gets to people. The DVD contains the option to watch this original abrupt ending so you can make up your mind which one `feels' more right to you: what the director intended, or the mistake that many embraced as a stroke of brilliance.
No matter which ending you like, "Kiss Me Deadly" is a fabulous piece of brutal crime cinema. The photography is amazing, filled with weird and surreal images and crazy camera angles. The performances are all dead-on: Meeker's ugly Mike Hammer; Albert Dekker as the sinister and poetry spouting Dr. Soberin; Wesley Addy as Hammer's police acquaintance Pat, the sole voice of reason in the mess; Paul Stewart as a smarmy L.A. gangster; the late Jack Elam as freaky thug; and Gaby Rodgers in the film's strangest performance as the distant, weird, but ultimately very dangerous (to every living thing on the planet!) Lily Carver.
If you love detective films and film noir, "Kiss Me Deadly" is a great must-see classic. For a 1950s film, it is surprisingly violent and far ahead of its time. And either end will leave you shivering in shock. If only they had the guts to end films this way today!
Buy Kiss Me Deadly (The Criterion Collection) (1955) Now
Robert Aldrich's KISS ME DEADLY is one of these movies I watch every two or three years with the same pleasure. When I discovered it for the first time long ago, Film Noir meant Humphrey Bogart, Howard Hawks, James Cagney or John Huston to me. So imagine the shock KISS ME DEADLY gave me.Everything was so innovative in this movie from the initial credits rolling backwards over Cloris Leachman running half-naked on the road and gasping in Mike Hammer's car with a quite erotic intensity. From the sadistic torture scene of Christina Bailey to the character of Maxine -VeldaCooper who helps Mike Hammer to nail adultery husbands by seducing them. From the secondary characters so well written that it seems that they all have a tremendously important role in the story.
At last, the performance of Ralph -Mike HammerMeeker is so perfect that it's hard to imagine another actor in the role. I personally can't. And Nick Dennis, Mike Hammer's friend, whose onomatopeia are now part of Movie History. And, and...
OK ! check for yourselves if you still don't know this movie. Superb copy with various subtitles, the alternate ending and the original trailer.
A DVD zone your library.
Read Best Reviews of Kiss Me Deadly (The Criterion Collection) (1955) Here
I love film. Made up until about 1959. I'd planned for ages to amass a reputable film noir collection, and the bug bit about a month ago. I made a list.This film was down the list somewhat, because I had not seen it and the cast seemed sort of mediocre. Reading the great online Amazon reviews has shaped my choices profoundly. So I took a chance on this. And IT MADE MY HAIR CURL!! (And my hair's straight!)
Extremely noir it is, but much more. The pace goes less crackingly than some other films noirs, but the plot is very dense and convoluted in a most satisfying way (akin to 'The Big Sleep' with Bogart & Bacall, I suppose.) It is not in the same category of noir, in terms of production values and budget, as such alleged classics of the genre as "Double Indemnity" and "The Postman Always Rings Twice." It lacks the darkling cinematography of "The Big Combo". But it shows us a thoroughly dirty LA, a cast of unpleasantly unwholesome females (no delicately beautiful Jean Wallace here, as in "Big Combo".) In fact, no classy or good-looking dame to be seen.
We come now to Ralph Meeker. His Mike Hammer is hard-boiled but not in an overt way, like Cagney's Cody Jarrett in 'White Heat', for one. He is just one masculine, selfish, obtuse private eye... maybe a little bit weary of the female form, the female bag of tricks. Nevertheless, despite his cool, even stolid demeanor, for me he's the sexiest, handsomest gumshoe EVER.
The camera work is highly competent but doesn't strive to be overly-arty; in places it's almost surreal. The film has such a depressing air to it that I wonder if ANY film qualifies better to be film noir par excellence.
And the ending... the restored ending, that is... well, my hair will never be the same again. WOW! All I can say is, FIVE solid stars. And KABLOOEY!!!
Want Kiss Me Deadly (The Criterion Collection) (1955) Discount?
"Kiss Me Deadly" -among the noirest. Spillaine, Bezzerides and Meeeker triumph. This is the way movies, cinema, film, flicks were meant to be-branded into the ether forever.Save 50% Off
No comments:
Post a Comment