Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

I love this movie so much

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Based on a Mickey Spillane novel a private detective Mike Hammer picks up a girl on the highway which leads him into danger and murder. It is a B movie but a better made B movie than some and although claims have been made for its political and social resonances it is really a film that enjoys more the violence and sex of pulp fiction. Ralph Meeker is a stolid and dull Mike Hammer and it gets rather hilarious when several over heated young women come on to him all the time. There are some good actors like Albert Dekker, Juano Hernandez, Paul Stewart, Jack Lambert, Jack Elam and Cloris Leachman but they don't have much to do. Wesley Addy as Lt. Pat Murphy comes off the best. , Director Robert Aldrich made several very much better films. One wonders what attracted him to this Spillane pot-boiler. There are a few good scenes but am not sure it is the classic with which it has been labelled.The best thing is the location photography around Los Angeles. You do get a real feeling for the city.

A private detective picks up a disturbed hitchhiker and sucks himself into a devilish plot ...Hugely pretentious noir, with very stylish direction but mostly plodding dialogue. The overall feel is of the East coast brought to the West coast, before it was the '60s. Ballet in leotards, Schubert played over the radio with a warm corpse in the room, a let-me-tell-you-how-I-did-it speech phrased in perfect classical mythology. A big flaw is the slow pace, which lets you dwell on the plot holes - fatal in the weird world of noir.The lead actor is brutish, and the females are dowdy. But the performances are solid, and there are plenty of good scenes - the stand out is at the pool-side, with the gangster bookies.Overall: I liked it, but the writing doesn't match the ambition.

Tough private detective Mike Hammer (superbly played with unflinching ferocity and steely resolve by Ralph Meeker) stumbles onto a nefarious plot that puts his life in great danger when he decides to investigate the mysterious death of doomed hitchhiker Christina Bailey (Cloris Leachman in her fine film debut).Director Robert Aldrich astutely nails the pervasive paranoia of the 50's Cold War era, offers a vivid depiction of a harsh world that's largely populated by deadly and hostile people (ironically, ostensible "hero" Hammer in particular comes across as one real nasty and selfish bastard), delivers several startling moments of savage violence, and maintains an unsparingly bleak, gritty, and amoral tone throughout. The hard-hitting script by A.J. Bezzerides provides plenty of spot-on stinging commentary on mankind's self-destructive nature. The sterling acting from a topflight cast keeps this movie humming: Albert Dekker as elusive scientist Dr. G.E. Soberin, Patrick Stewart as shifty bigwig Carl Evello, Maxine Cooper as Hammer's loyal secretary Velda, Nick Dennis as jolly mechanic Nick, Gaby Rodgers as ditsy dame Gabrielle, and Wesley Addy as the browbeating Lt. Pat Murphy. Moreover, there are memorable bits by Jack Lambert and Jack Elam as a pair of vicious goons, Juano Hernandez as streetwise boxing manager Eddie Yaeger, Strother Martin as antsy truck driver Harvey Wallace, Marion Carr as the flirtatious Friday, and Percy Helton as sniveling worm coroner Doc Kennedy. Gorgeously shot in moody black and white by Ernest Laszlo, with a brooding score by Fran De Vol, and a complete doozy of a nightmarish apocalyptic ending, this honey rates highly as one of the best film noirs from the 1950's.

Before you hear the title Kiss Me Deadly and begin to enthusiastically sing the chorus of Lita Ford's super-de-duper 1980s hit of the same name, consider that the film Kiss Me Deadly is not soaked with hairspray, musical production echoes, or unironic leather. It's not a cringeworthy exercise in sweaty nostalgia; it's a fundamental work of film noir. I throw the term "film noir" around in reviews quite often, sometimes seriously and sometimes comparatively. But Kiss Me Deadly is not slight nor an imitation of the genre: along with The Big Sleep, Raw Deal, and The Third Man, it is one of the defining films of the era. Yet it subverts conformity like the plague. Sleazy private eyes and gun-toting broads are fun and all, but what if you suddenly want to embark on a wildcard journey into what resembles an abstract Lichtenstein painting? Don't listen to the crowd; just do it.The film opens in typical noir fashion. The setting is a kettle-black road in the middle of nowhere, cars zooming in-and-out with the frequency of a moviegoer seeking out Sylvester Stallone's newest movie. But cracking the deadly calm of the shot is a frantic blonde, barefoot, dressed only in a white trenchcoat. Desperate for someone to hitch her out of the nightmare she's living, she lunges in front of a speeding convertible. Inside this convertible is Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker), a detective. The woman, Christina (Cloris Leachman), has just escaped from a local mental institution; but being caught by her doctors seems to be the last of her worries. Someone, or something, is bothering her.But her worries become a reality when a group of thugs block the road, knocking out Hammer and brutally murdering his passenger. The next day, he awakens in a hospital bed; paramedics discovered him, his car, and Christina's body residing on a rocky cliff in the early hours of the morning. Despite almost being killed in the violent series of events, though, Hammer is intrigued. Christina, it seems, was part of something bigger, something more threatening. Without hesitation, he takes the case. But as it develops, it becomes quite clear that it isn't going to pass by with the sinfully simple workings of the divorce cases Hammer usually supervises.Kiss Me Deadly has all the usual noir touches, but there's something compellingly, and unusually, artificial about the atmosphere. Everything looks as though it's part of a set (most likely due to the film's microscopic budget), but its cheapness, purposeful or not, establishes the tone even more than the material. Unlike other film noirs of the time, Kiss Me Deadly doesn't take itself seriously (even if the characters hardly ever crack a smile). It exists in the same universe as a comic strip that stars a Man with X-Ray Eyes or a bloodthirsty Martian disguised as a sex goddess. The film is distinctly fantastical; while The Big Sleep slithers by with witty dialogue and lethal underbellies, Kiss Me Deadly seems to have more in common with Attack of the 50-Foot Woman. This shouldn't suggest that it's a shoddy film; it should suggest that it's in love with itself, fond of its penny dreadful exterior, and isn't afraid to push much of its mystery onto a strange box that kills every person who opens it.When I watched Kiss Me Deadly for the first time, I didn't understand its critical acclaim. Yes, it's good, but what does it have to offer that other run-of-the-mill film noirs couldn't? Years later, my appreciation has risen by several miles. It isn't so much that Kiss Me Deadly is of superior quality; it's that it is just so, so, so ... otherworldly. Not otherworldly like the mansion Jesus probably lives in up in Heaven or Margot Robbie's beauty, but otherworldly like the realm you might find yourself in if a mirror was a door. The film is of scrumptious pulp quality, unmatched by its peers. Every scene looks like a comic book frame, every character is stock (but not quite). The poster promises "blood-red kisses!" and "white-hot thrills!" And with its campy priorities in mind, it delivers those promises with a wink and a healthy serving of idiosyncrasy.