Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Regista:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Mickey Spillane (novel)
A.I. Bezzerides (writer)

Data di uscita:

18 maggio 1955 (USA)

Genere:

Thriller | Film-Noir | Crime

Slogan:

"I don't care what you do to me, Mike - just do it fast!"

Plot:

A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit."

Plot Keywords:

Ballet Dancer | Crime Commission | Overdose | Pacific Coast Highway | Cadillac

Premi:

1 win

Recensioni degli utenti:

One of the greatest detective thrillers ever made.

Cast

Ralph Meeker	...	Mike Hammer
Albert Dekker	...	Dr. G.E. Soberin
Paul Stewart	...	Carl Evello
Juano Hernandez	...	Eddie Yeager
Wesley Addy	...	Lt. Pat Murphy
Marian Carr	...	Friday
Maxine Cooper	...	Velda
Cloris Leachman	...	Christina Bailey
Gaby Rodgers	...	Gabrielle
Nick Dennis	...	Nick
Jack Lambert	...	Sugar Smallhouse
Jack Elam	...	Charlie Max
Jerry Zinneman	...	Sammy
Leigh Snowden	...	Cheesecake
Percy Helton	...	Doc Kennedy

Alias:

Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly (USA)
Bacio e una pistola, Un (Italy) [it]

Durata:

106 min | USA:104 min (original version)

Nazionalità:

USA

Lingua:

Inglese

Colore:

Bianco e nero

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sonoro:

Mono (Glen Glenn Sound)

Divieti:

West Germany:18 (nf) | Australia:M | Canada:PG (video rating) | Finland:(Banned) | Finland:K-16 (re-rating) | Germany:18 (DVD rating) | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | UK:A (original rating) | UK:12 (video rating)

Luoghi delle riprese:

Angel's Flight Railway, Bunker Hill, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Parklane Pictures Inc.

Curiosità:

Memo from United Artists: Mickey Spillane's name must be above the title and in the same type style as appears on the "Kiss Me Deadly" Signet Book Jacket.

Errori:

Personale o equipaggiamento visibile: When Nick discovers Hammer's Corvette, a crew member's reflection is visible in the driver-side door.

Citazioni:

[first lines]
Mike Hammer: You almost wrecked my car! Well? Get in!

Movie Connections:

Citato in Southland Tales (2006)

Colonna sonora:

RATHER HAVE THE BLUES

One of the greatest detective thrillers ever made.

If The Maltese Falcon (1941) was the definitive true detective movie, The Big Sleep (1946) the definitive glamourized detective movie, and Chinatown (1974) the definitive allegorical detective movie, then Kiss Me Deadly is the definitive sleazy detective movie.

Mickey Spillane's sadistic private eye Mike Hammer, turned from successful private eye to sleazy bedroom dick, is the quintessential anti-hero, doing just about anything and everything wrong to get a piece of the pie that the characters call "The Big What's-it."

The movie survives by giving the usual Spillane buckets-of-blood story and its protagonist new dimensions. Right from the electric opening scene and the audacious opening credit sequence, the audience is drawn into Hammer's seedy world, where morality is suspended, and the credo of the end justifying the means dominates Hammer's actions. His reckless abandonment is almost never questionned and the film seems to understand his brutality as what he must do to get the job done in an equally brutal world.

Director Robert Aldrich observes all of it with an objective eye that neither glorifies nor condemns the action on-screen, letting the audience draw its own conclusions--even where the plot is concerned. The pace is unrelentless and the plot turns are never fully explained, forcing the audience to participate willingly in all that Hammer does to, hopefully, see the story through to its ending.

And what an ending! I'd de damned to a special place in Hell if I elaborated, so I'll just say that it's one of the greatest I've ever seen. That goes same for the movie itself, which is one of the most stylish, jarring and truly entertaining movies of its genre.