KISS ME DEADLY
Produced & Directed by Robert Aldrich
Written by A. I. Bezzerides, based on the book by Mickey Spillane
Released by Criterion Collection
USA. 106 min. Not Rated
With Ralph Meeker, Alber Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, Nick Dennis, Wesley Addy, Marion Carr, Maxine Cooper, Jack Elam & Cloris Leachman
Special Features: Audio commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver & James Ursini. New video tribute by director Alex Cox. Excerpts from The Long Haul of A.I. Bezzerides, a 2005 documentary on the Kiss Me Deadly screenwriter. Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, a 1998 Documentary about the life and work of the author; Video pieces on the film’s locations. Altered ending. Trailer. Booklet featuring an essay by critic J. Hoberman & a 1955 reprint by director Aldrich

A blond woman, dressed only in a trench coat, runs barefoot along a highway at night. She tries to stop a car to hitch a ride, and after two pass her by, she stands in the way of another, causing it to veer off the road. Once she gets inside, we find out her name is Christina (Cloris Leachman, in her feature film debut), and there’s a suggestion via a police checkpoint further down the road that she’s escaped from the local loony bin. But before private investigator Mike Hammer, the driver, can figure out what her deal is, they stop at a gas station (where she passes on a note to the attendant to mail—a bit of foreshadowing, of course). Once on the road again, she and Hammer are stopped again by another car blocking their way, forcing them out of the vehicle. We never see their captors above their knees, nor what exactly happens to Christina. Is she beaten/tortured/who knows what? An off-screen voice says creepily not to “resurrect her.” Hammer’s car is then pushed down a hillside, with Christina and the detective, both knocked out, in the passenger seats.

So starts one of the tightest and unreasonably entertaining of the old-school film noirs, with Mickey Spillane’s famous PI no less (though this adaptation does not quite follow the same drug dealing plotline of Spillane’s novel). In trying to find out why Christina was a marked woman, Hammer should know better than to go poking his nose where it don’t belong, but hey, then there wouldn’t be a doggone movie, would there? Very few people can be trusted—maybe Mickey’s buddy, the garage mechanic Nick. The worst of the lot, the person guarding Christina’s secret (the main bad guy, played by Alber Dekker) is never seen and only heard speaking cryptic dialogue that sounds less out of a crime drama and more out of a haunted house movie. Hammer’s even told by hoodlum Paul Stewart, the creepy butler from Citizen Kane, who is no less creepy here (maybe more so with age), that he should buzz off in no uncertain terms. This becomes a BIG case for Hammer, taking him into another realm, a la Raiders of the Lost Ark’s Ark and Pulp Fiction’s briefcase. (The cover of the DVD kinda gives the mystery away.)

Whatever changes the filmmakers made to Spillane’s book, they haven’t compromise the mood of it. On the contrary, this is such a movie of its time: the pacing the opening song crooned by Nat King Cole, and the snappy dialogue. Controversial at the time for its violence and sexuality, Kiss Me Deadly is still tough and has an attitude that sticks around some 56 years after its release. It also has a way about it because of what it doesn’t reveal. After Hammer gets tied up in a bed, he loosens an arm free while momentarily left alone. When the thugs reenter the room, the film cuts to a shot outside the door, and we don’t see what happens. Who cares? They’re “taken care of” as it were. We fill in the blanks. Aah! 

In interviews in the booklet accompanying the Criterion DVD, Aldrich criticized Hammer as a vigilante and amoral PI usually involved in unseemly divorce cases. The director also thought Hammer was a rash, crude figure, or “a cynical fascist.” This might explain Ralph Meeker’s performance, which is so raw and mean at times, yet cruelly and darkly humorous, as to give Glenn Ford, also a powerful film-noir star with unlikely screen appeal, a run for his money.

The Criterion DVD comes with, as usual, a perfect picture transfer with great audio clean up, even compared to the original MGM DVD release. An audio commentary by the writers of The Film Noir Reader, Alan Silver and James Ursisni, is completely thorough and fascinating on how Aldrich made the movie with his own personal stamp and the differences between the book and the film. In a strange video appreciation from filmmaker Alex Cox, Cox stares at the camera, rattles off minute facts until he gets to the actual story of the movie. In two interesting (if not mind-blowing) extras: one short doc on Spillane that goes into his career, mostly with an interview as he toots his own horn to no end and dumps on all of the film adaptations of his works (Deadly included, as he ponders why the French loved it so much); and another from 2005 on the unique career of screenwriter Bezzerides, who also wrote the film noir Thieves Highway. And an alternate ending for Deadly is included, which… well, if you have to ask, you’ll never discover on your own. Jack Gattanella
July 1, 2011