Review of Kiss Me Deadly (1955) by George M — 01 Dec 2010

This is a real punch in the gut, and one of the most extreme and ultimately shocking film noirs ever made. It's based on one of the many Mike Hammer stories by pulp writer Mickey Spillane, and indeed has lots of typical noir elements - guns, tough guys, booze, a mystery, etc.

But within that traditional framework the movie does some very unexpected things. I read somewhere that this movie was a big influence on the French New Wave directors (Truffaut, Godard, etc.), and I can definitely see it.

There's a lot of creative and interesting camerawork and lighting. The opening credit sequence, which runs upside down over a character's continuous heavy breathing, is very strange and experimental and deliberately uncomfortable for a 1950s movie.

I can also see how bits of this movie have been borrowed by Steven Spielberg and especially Quentin Tarantino. Ralph Meeker is excellent as tough-guy/jerk Mike Hammer, and he's surrounded by a very good cast of character actors.

This was also the debut movie of Cloris Leachman, whose part was brief but memorable. While this movie has a lot of strengths, it's really the ending that sells it to me. It's one hell of an ending, and I don't know how audiences in 1955 even dealt with it.

If you like noir even a little bit, you should see this unfortunately lesser-known classic.