Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

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

Director:

Robert Aldrich

Writers:

Mickey Spillane (novel), A.I. Bezzerides (screenplay)

Stars:

Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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 (as Marion Carr)
Marjorie Bennett	...	Manager
Mort Marshall	...	Ray Diker
Fortunio Bonanova	...	Carmen Trivago
Strother Martin	...	Harvey Wallace
Mady Comfort	...	Nightclub Singer (as Madi Comfort)
James McCallion	...	Horace
Robert Cornthwaite	...	FBI Agent
Silvio Minciotti	...	Mover
Nick Dennis	...	Nick Va Va Voom

Storyline

A frightened woman is running barefoot on a highway, trying desperately to flag a car. After several cars pass her by, the woman sees another car approaching, and to make sure either the car stops, or, she's killed, she stands in the path of the oncoming car. Private Investigator Mike Hammer is the one at the wheel, and after almost hitting the woman, he tells her to get in. The woman's name is Christina Bailey. She is obviously on the run, being barefoot and wearing nothing but a trench coat, and the scent of fear. Whoever was after her eventually catches up with them. Christina has information they want, but dies while being questioned. The killers fake an accident by pushing Hammer's car off the road, but he survives, waking up in hospital two weeks later. As Mike starts to investigate Christina's death, he's told by the police to stay out of it, but, the hard-nosed private investigator proceeds anyways. Little did he know that Christina's secret would lead to death and destruction.

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Plot Keywords:

macguffin | mike hammer | femme fatale | radiation burn | car accident | 

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Taglines:

Blood red kisses! White hot thrills! Mickey Spillane's latest H-bomb!

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Genres:

Crime | Film-Noir | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian Spanish

Release Date:

28 April 1955 (USA)

Also Known As:

Mickey Spillane's Kiss Me Deadly

Filming Locations:

The Castle - 325 Bunker Hill Avenue, Bunker Hill, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$410,000 (estimated)

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$7,178

Company Credits

Production Co:

Parklane Pictures Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min 104 min (original)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Glen Glenn Sound)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Although Victor Saville is credited as Executive Producer and Director Robert Aldrich is credited only as Producer, in reality, Aldrich had it written into his contract that he had complete control over the picture, and it would be made the way he wanted it, specifically stipulating that his decisions could not be overruled by any studio representative.

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Goofs

Obvious mannequin dummy when Gabrielle goes up in flames after opening the radioactive box at the end of the film.

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Quotes

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

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Crazy Credits

Opening credits scroll backwards (down instead of up).

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Alternate Versions

Until 1997, all known copies in circulation of "Kiss Me Deadly" ended rather abruptly: we see the wounded Mike Hammer stumbling through the beach house looking for his partner Velda, and then there's a couple of brief shots of the house exploding and burning, with "The End" superimposed on the final shot. The music is cut off instead of fading out and the screen turns black: it looks like Mike and Velda died in the blaze.

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Connections

Featured in Notre musique (2004)

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Soundtracks

Etude, Opus 10, No. 12: Revolutionary
(uncredited)
Music by Frédéric Chopin

User Reviews

"Kiss Me Deadly" revealed the developed of Aldrich style…

"Kiss Me Deadly" had few similarities with Spillane's story about a gang of dope traffickers… Instead Aldrich reworks the plot so that the criminals are mixed up in the theft of priceless and high1y dangerous radioactive material which they are planning to smuggle to an unnamed power… The complicated story begins with Hammer picking up a scared girl on a lonely road at night and continues through the girl's subsequent death, a kidnapping and a series of very brutal killings…

Spillane's Mike Hammer remains the ultimate in violent private eyes… The killings seem to matter less than the sadism… One scene in which Hammer deliberately breaks the irreplaceable records of an Italian opera lover in order to get the information he wants is more repellent than any of the murders in the film…

Furious but stylish, "Kiss Me Deadly" is a film of great power and stays unique for its mixing of art and pulp fiction…