Killer's Kiss (1955)

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

It's astonishing to know that Kubrick went from this amateurish freshman effort - bested by many film school projects - to become the director of a major Hollywood blockbuster (Spartacus) in only two films; The Killing and Paths of Glory. That, to me, is the only reason to watch this Killer's Kiss: to understand the breadth of Kubrick's genius.

Perhaps the most notable trick that Kubrick pulled off in this fledgling effort was to shoot several sequences in the 'city that never sleeps' and catch it napping. It was so disconcerting to see an almost deserted Times Square followed by first a car journey through totally empty streets and a chase across equally empty roof-tops with not even a distant sound of what had to be heavy traffic below. It was equally clear that Kubrick had dipped heavily into the oeurvre of William Irish/Cornell Woollrich and maybe even watched such low-key adaptations as Phantom Lady and The Window. It was equally clear the film was made for a stick of gum and couldn't run to even mediocre acting talent. It's probably fair to say that if it didn't have the name Kubrick attached it wouldn't have attracted the amount of ink it has. Watchable - barely.

This is Stanley Kubrick's second film, and it's significantly better then Fear and Desire, his first film. The plot revolves around Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith) a struggling boxer who meets Gloria Price (Irene Kane) when he saves her from gangster Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera). As Davey and Gloria's relationship blossoms, Rapallo gets angry and set's out for revenge. The film shows us these two struggling people and how they are both looking for better lives. The cinematography of this movie is excellent. If you've seen some of Kubrick's photos of New York when he was working for Look magazine, you'll see a lot of that imagery here. The film starts out slowly but escalates faster and faster as it goes. Killer's Kiss is a top notch film noir and it really works. I recommend it.

A severely underrated film-noir that turned out to be far more engaging than expected, Killer's Kiss is no masterpiece in my opinion but it did serve its purpose well as a warm up feature for director Stanley Kubrick's talents before he started churning out one masterpiece after another until the very end of his legendary film career & is as experimental as his other features.The story revolves around Davey Gordon; a 29-year old boxer well past his prime, who's waiting at the train station for his girl and in an extended flashback recounts the happenings of his recent past. Filmed on a shoe-string budget, it presents Stanley Kubrick in charge of the responsibilities of director, cinematographer & editor all by himself, at which he impresses greatly.The film employs many unconventional & new tricks of shooting a picture from start to finish and exhibits the remarkable eye for detail Kubrick has when it comes to camera placement & lighting. Editing also never lets the uncertainty go out of the story & music manages to fit its accompanying sequences rather well. Performance by the cast isn't anything special but every one chipped in fine in their given roles.On an overall scale, Killer's Kiss is a very well crafted & firmly composed film which over the years has influenced cinema in a number of ways with its narrative structure & inventive use of camera angles. But since Kubrick went on to achieve even greater prominence in his later films, Killer's Kiss seems to be faced with no choice but to accept a rank provided at the back. Don't miss it.