Now that you’ve (hopefully) had a chance to watch Kiss Me Deadly, please join us in discussing this film by posting your comments below.
The Cinema Sight Film Club #2: Discussion
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8 responses to “The Cinema Sight Film Club #2: Discussion”
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I hope you won’t mind some comments. I didn’t sign up for the club, thinking I didn’t have access to as many films (Duddy Kravitz was one) and wouldn’t be able to contribute regularly. I have the DVD of Kiss Me Deadly, and have seen it many times.
I think Kiss Me Deadly and Touch of Evil are probably the two best examples of what distinguishes film noir of the 1959s from those of the 1940s. The classic film noir cycle was split equally between those two decades – roughly 1941 to 1959. However, it terms of films, I’d say about two thirds are from the 40s. Noir in the 1940s was more melodramatic, with the femme fatale preying on the weakness of their corruptible conquests (Double Indemnity, The Killers, Out of the Past, Criss Cross, etc.) The music scores were lush with strings and lounge music; the themes of post-war malaise prevalent. In the 50s, the noirs became seedier, with, more violent behavior. The scores were strident and brassy, and the social themes of Communist paranoia, delinquency and the fear of the bomb showing up more often.
Hammett’s Sam Spade and Chandler’s Philip Marlowe were a far cry from Spillane’s Mike Hammer. The cynicism was there in all three, but the moral of code of Spade and Chandler was replaced by Hammer’s “What’s in it for me” code. Let’s face it, Hammer is a nihilistic thug and there’s hardly a likeable character in Kiss Me Deadly. Christine could have been, but she’s knocked off 5 minutes into the movie. Nick the mechanic seems to be the only person Hammer likes, but his sound effects laden speech is so annoying, that it’s kind of a relief when someone drops a car on him. I guess Hammer cares for his loyal Velma, but he treats her like crap.
Kiss Me Deadly seems to be operating in its own universe. Some violence is in your face, like Hammer smashing the fingers of Percy Helton’s Doc Kennedy as he squeals like a pig. Other times it is off screen, though equally chilling as when Cloris Leachman meets her end with only her screams, a pair of pliers and her quivering legs to tell us what is going on.
Robert Aldrich’s imagery really sets this film apart in my opinion. It seems way ahead of its time – from the reverse title sequence that would anticipate George Lucas’s Star Wars 22 yrs. later, to what is probably the first answering machine in Hammer’s hip bachelor pad. Hammer’s dispatching of a henchman by means of a bag of popcorn and a very steep and long outdoor staircase, the demise of Gabrielle, and the apocalyptic ending all add to other-worldliness of this movie.
Among noirheads, Kiss Me Deadly seems to be a polarized movie. Many have it in their top ten, others just can’t warm up to it. Personally, it resides around number 5 or 6 for me.
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You do know that the scene with Percy Helton was screenwriter Bezzerides’ tribute to himself, right? Richard Conte does the same thing to the same actor (Helton) in Thieves’ Highway, which Bezzerides adapted from his own novel. Nothing in the movie aside from the girl running down the highway in the opening was in Spillane’s novel.
Saying the reverse title sequence aniticipates Star Wars suggests that Aldrich and Lucas, or their title artists came up independently with the same idea, but it was, in fact, stolen from Kiss Me Deadly.
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Richard Conte smashed Lee J. Cobb’s hand with the back of the hatchet in Percy Hilton’s bar in Thieves’ Highway, but I didn’t realize the Bezzerides wrote both movies.
I used ‘anticipate’ on purpose describing the credit sequence, so as to not come off too accusatory toward Lucas, but you’re probably right.
I should make a correction – it’s Velda not Velma.
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I haven’t seen Thieves’ Highway in ages, but the supplements with the Blu-ray talked about Helton’s hand, not cobb’s. At least they got right that Helotn was in the film.
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I watched it, but I don’t have time at present to post my thoughts.
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I didn’t have time to watch Kiss Me Deadly this month. I can join in next month.
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I might as well go in the hope that this actually starts a discussion otherwise I might as well talk to myself.
I first saw Kiss Me Deadly when it was released to home video in the early 1990s.
The film had been virtually dismissed by critics when first released in 1955. The New York Times, according to liner notes by the Village Voice’s J. Hoberman attached to the Blu-ray release, didn’t even bother to review it. Over time, however, it had developed a cult following. The initial home video release restored the original ending. As seen in 1955, the film ended with the explosion, leaving audiences to assume that everyone in the house had died.
Watching it for the first time since, I recalled the famous first scene with Cloris Leachman running down the highway with nothing on but a raincoat and Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer stopping his car short of hitting her. I also recalled many of the nasty deaths in the film and, of course, the ending. What I had forgotten was how little screen time most of the supporting players had. Second billed Albert Dekker, for instance, only comes on screen for a few minutes just before the end.
The film made a big deal of “introuducing” three new actresses, of whom only Leachman has had a sustained career. Maxine Cooper, who played Hammer’s secretary, his mistress in the film, virtually disappeared. Gaby Rodgers, who played Leachman’s “roommate” married composer Jerry Leiber, who passed away last month, and retired. It’s just as well. If this film is any indication they were both lousy actresses.
The film completely guts Mickey Spillane’s novel which was about stolen drugs, not what is revelaed in the film. Spillane’s Mike Hammer is downgraded in the film to a “divorce dick” and as mentiuoned, his loyal secretary is now his mistress. The location was also changed from New York to Los Angeles. Screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides hated the novel. Spillane, to no one’s surprise, hated the movie.
Robert Aldrich, who directed, was the black sheep of his prominent political family – his grandfather had been a U.S. Senator, his cousin was future Vice President Nelson Rockefeller. He made this film between the Hollywood expose, The Big Knife, and the classic war film, Attack! He would go on to make What Ever Hapened to Baby Jane? and The Dirty Dozen among others. Something tells me his own life story would be more fascinting than anything he put on screen.
I give Kiss Me Deadly ***1/2 out of ****, which is how I rate most of Aldrich’s work.
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Are people just slow in responding or has this club died after only one month?
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