A terrific film noir full of skewed camera angles and mysterious whose-shoes-are-those shots, Kiss Me Deadly is about as dark and exciting as noir gets. A young woman (Cloris Leachman) in bare feet and a trench coat throws herself into the traffic to flag down help and the car she stops belongs to detective Mike Hammer. Not even 15 minutes into the film and there's already been a murder, a mysterious letter, an attempt to kill Hammer and, of course, a warning to stay out of it. Hammer, tired of lowlife divorce cases, smells something big and can't let it go. Mike... Hammer is a detective so cool he can win a fight with nothing more than a box of popcorn as a weapon; he knows his opera singers as well as his amateur prize-fighters and he makes the ladies swoon--but he's far from a conventional hero. In fact, he's emphatically not a nice guy; Hammer happily whores out his secretary-girlfriend Velma to cinch up those divorce cases and has a penchant for slamming other people's fingers in drawers. Even the bad guys know he's a sleazebag ("What's it worth to you to turn your considerable talents back to the gutter you crawled out of?"). Ralph Meeker plays Hammer's ambivalence brilliantly, swinging easily between sexy and just plain mean. --Ali Davis [show more]
Robert Aldrich's incendiary and seminal noir masterpiece is finally uncut and presented in a decent transfer on this MGM DVD. Aldrich has deconstructed the typical noir hero, Mike Hammer, in order to reveal the codes of misogyny, selfishness, and political conservatism underpinning such "heroes." Hammer is in fact an intensely unlikeable hero, his actions motivated almost solely by bald self-interest and a stubborn refusal to think about consequences. In this case, his blindness to other options and other people leads the world to the brink of nuclear apocalypse, a stunning fate for the hero that leads the viewer to inevitably question the very nature of Hollywood heroism. The DVD has a smattering of minor special features, but the only really important treat is the presence of the long-cut original ending, censored back in the 50s and for many years not even known about. Absolutely essential for any noir fan.
We will publish your review of Kiss Me Deadly [1955] on DVD within a few days as long as it meets our guidelines.
None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.
Please note this is a region 2 DVD and will require a region 2 (Europe) or region Free DVD Player in order to play. Detective Mike Hammer picks up a female hitchhiker, only to be run off the road by a pursuing car; when Hammer comes to, the girl is dead, and his investigation leads him to a mysterious briefcase and a deadly web of conspiracy... A brilliant film noir classic based on Mickey Spillane's best-seller, Robert Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly has not been seen in its entirety since its initial theatrical release. Missing for nearly half a century, the original ending - containing over a minute of crucial footage that clarifies decades of false interpretations - has been found and is featured in this DVD edition. In order to illustrate the vastly different impressions left by each version, the altered/shortened ending has been included as well. Actors Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Cloris Leachman, Nick Dennis, Paul Stewart, Wesley Addy & Jack Elam Director Robert Aldrich Certificate 12 years and over Year 1955 Screen Widescreen 1.66:1 Languages English ; French ; German ; Italian ; Spanish - Dolby Digital (1.0) Mono Subtitles Dutch ; English for the hearing impaired ; French ; German for the hearing impaired ; Greek ; Italian ; Spanish
Robert Aldrich's brutal film-noir featuring Mickey Spillane's infamous private eye Mike Hammer. Stopping to pick up a semi-naked woman running down the highway, Mike (Ralph Meeker) wakes up to find the woman dead and himself in deep trouble. The FBI tell Mike to leave it alone, so he does just the opposite, beating and bullying his way into the conspiracy which surrounds a criminal group's efforts to reclaim a mysterious black container. This version includes recently rediscovered footage clarifying the film's famously enigmatic ending.
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy
