Kiss me deadly movie#

So, as I said above, I wanted to talk a little about the end of the film, which I feel may be one of the most incredible movie endings ever made.

PLEASE DON’T CONTINUE IF YOU PLAN TO SEE THE FILM! Here’s my humble take on the film, which I originally presented here… Oh, and if you recall the “glowing suitcase” from the Quentin Tarantino film Pulp Fiction and wondered what inspired that scene, look no further than Kiss Me Deadly. I don’t want to get into too much more, but suffice it to say that Kiss Me Deadly is a must see, a film that in my opinion deserves its place among the very best film noir classics.

Murphy tells Hammer he’s in “over his head”, it may be a cliche line, but boy oh boy is it accurate. Pat Murphy ( Wesley Addy, another standout). Through the course of the movie, Hammer confronts many unsavory characters and has to deal with the law in the form of Lt. Hammer, not one for sentiment, realizes whatever the murder victim was involved in was big, and he intends to cash in on whatever it was. He uses his secretary, Velda to seduce those he is working against -and get incriminating information on them- and actor Maxine Cooper is another standout as the movie’s conscience, despite the sleazy things she does for her boss.īefore we get to her, Hammer reluctantly aids the stranded and terrified woman (played by Cloris Leachman in her screen debut) only to then have the two attacked and the woman tortured and murdered. He drives a gaudy car, wears elegant clothing, but is a sleazy P.I. She sees a car’s lights in the distance and steps into the middle of the road, causing the car’s driver, Mike Hammer ( Ralph Meeker, in what is perhaps his all time best role), to hit the brakes and nearly crash while avoiding her. The story: A lone woman runs desperately alongside a deserted highway at night, out of breath and clearly frightened. Loosely based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer novel of the same name, this movie, in my humble opinion, is a total home run, a searing, sleazy detective movie that presents an incredible story and an even more incredible conclusion, which I will get to in a moment. The Robert Aldrich directed Kiss Me Deadly is an extraordinary feature, one that I would easily recommend to any fans of film noir or detectives or mystery. That’s not the case with the film I’m reviewing here. Films you enjoy, even recommend, that you nonetheless feel don’t quite go that extra mile, don’t have the extra “juice”, to make them an extraordinary feature.

There are many, many films that can be summed up like that. (Sweatheart’s) a very good film, but not quite a great one. The other day I reviewed the film Sweetheart (2019) ( you can read it here).