Review of Kiss Me Deadly (1955) by Michael G — 06 Jan 2008

Unsettling and extremely cold noir. Kiss Me Deadly's got a very slick look to it, but it doesn't come at you with an attractive or even engaging or charismatic cast. Ralph Meeker's kind of a dopey (maybe that's the nature of Hammer--I don't know) Mike Hammer who makes all the wrong choices as he turns everything around him to shit.

Then there's the case of his doormat assistant you can't bring yourself to feel sorry for. The ending was kind of cool but it was a case of too little too late. If you're on a total film noir bender it's a great place to turn and it might even be considered essential viewing as far as the genre's concerned, but by no means typical.

I just wasn't blown away by it. Great opening (including a young Cloris Leachman) even if the titles were bad though.