Review of Killer's Kiss (1955) by Steven C — 13 Aug 2011

"It's crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense; and yet not be able to think about anything else." - Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith) in Killer's Kiss.

Like all great directors, Stanley Kubrick had to start somewhere. After being a photographer for Look Magazine, the young Kubrick began to quench his thirst for filmmaking with two short films. One of them is the very rare to find Fear and Desire (1953), the other is the slightly less rare to find Killer's Kiss made in 1955 by a 26-year -old Kubrick. Though he wouldn't gain any widespread commercial acclaim until 1956's heist feature, The Killing, Killer's Kiss is certainly even more early evidence of Stanley Kubrick's incomparable future genius.

The plot of Killer's Kiss is relatively simple and takes in the tradition of the classic American film noir. The opening credits show the lead, a veteran boxer named Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith) pacing around a train station, eventually kicking the film off with a voiceover hinting that a story's about to unfold. Davey then goes on, on flashback mode, to recount the tale of how he fell in love with a night club dancer (Irene Kane), and faced the wrath of her corrupt boss (Frank Silvera) whose wrath derives from being smitten and insane.

While the screenplay of Killer's Kiss is clean cut noir, the pace can be a bit meandering for a film so short (67 minutes). There are scenes of the mundane that seem to go on much too long, sort of like in Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey with just about everything, but this time these mundane activities aren't transpiring in space. Despite these lingering moments, Kubrick still oozes with apparent technique and some innovative shots, especially when he uses mirrors.

The better part of Stanley Kubrick's filmography is incredibly surrealistic but Killer's Kiss, on its shoestring budget, doesn't capture the same surrealism Kubrick's fans value so highly. This, again, does not mean Killer's Kiss is not a fascinating watch, the sole distinction that is in fact a Kubrick envisioned film is a cinematic treasure in and of itself, but it certainly isn't the quintessential Kubrick picture. There is one standout scene in the movie that is haunting and iconic in a way only a great director could muster. The climactic battle between Rapallo and Gordon would be a run of the mill fight scene; if it wasn't in a choicely gothic mannequin warehouse. It also wouldn't be the last time Kubrick would shoot a madman swinging an axe.

Kubrick, always the perfectionist, never wanted the film's ending to be happy and he was completely right in this fact, but artistically raped by the big studio. While a non-Hollywood ending would have made the Killer's Kiss a tad more memorable, cinematic history is much better off with a successful Kubrick rather than an unfulfilled one. Fans of Kubrick's work will adore Killer's Kiss as a film equivalent of a B-side curio by a favorite band and bask in the foreshadowing of the director's future glory.

Grade: C+.

Reviewed by Ben Pieper on August 18th 2011.