Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit."

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Mickey Spillane (novel), A.I. Bezzerides (screenplay)

Stars:

Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ralph Meeker	...	Mike Hammer
Albert Dekker	...	Dr. G.E. Soberin
Paul Stewart	...	Carl Evello
Juano Hernandez	...	Eddie Yeager
Wesley Addy	...	Lt. Pat Murphy
Marian Carr	...	Friday (as Marion Carr)
Marjorie Bennett	...	Manager
Mort Marshall	...	Ray Diker
Fortunio Bonanova	...	Carmen Trivago
Strother Martin	...	Harvey Wallace
Mady Comfort	...	Nightclub Singer (as Madi Comfort)
James McCallion	...	Horace
Robert Cornthwaite	...	FBI Agent
Silvio Minciotti	...	Mover
Nick Dennis	...	Nick

Storyline

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 Hammer's 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, Mike's 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.

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Plot Keywords:

mike hammer | mechanic | hitchhiker | hospital | cliff | 

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Taglines:

Blood red kisses! White hot thrills! Mickey Spillane's latest H-bomb!

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Genres:

Film-Noir | Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian Spanish

Release Date:

18 May 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly

Filming Locations:

The Castle - 325 Bunker Hill Avenue, Bunker Hill, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$410,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$214 (USA) (2 May 2008)

Gross:

$882 (USA) (13 June 2008)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Parklane Pictures Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min 104 min (original)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Kefauver Commission, a federal unit dedicated to investigating corrupting influences in the 1950s, singled this out as 1955's number one menace to American youth. Because of this, Robert Aldrich felt compelled to conduct a writing campaign for the free speech rights of independent film-makers.

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Goofs

When Nick discovers Hammer's Corvette, a crew member's reflection is visible in the driver-side door.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Mike Hammer: You almost wrecked my car! Well? Get in!

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits scroll backwards (down instead of up).

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Connections

Referenced in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962)

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Soundtracks

"Symphony No. 8: Unfinished"
(uncredited)
Music by Franz Schubert

User Reviews

Noir for a Nuclear Age

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+