IMDb > Killer's Kiss (1955)
Killer's Kiss
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Killer's Kiss (1955) More at IMDbPro »


Overview

User Rating:
6.7/10   5,995 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
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Director:
Writer:
Contact:
View company contact information for Killer's Kiss on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
1 October 1955 (USA) more
Tagline:
Her Soft Mouth Was the Road to Sin-Smeared Violence!
Plot:
As a man waits at a train station for his girl, he tells us about the recent past and we segue into a long flashback. full summary | full synopsis
Awards:
1 win more
NewsDesk:
(2 articles)
'Killer's Kiss' Still Has Punch
 (From New York Post. 17 June 2009, 11:27 PM, PDT)

Lots of horrific screenings around the U.S. and UK!
 (From Fangoria. 8 May 2009, 1:54 PM, PDT)

User Comments:
Urban loneliness more (73 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Frank Silvera ... Vincent Rapallo
Jamie Smith ... Davey Gordon
Irene Kane ... Gloria Price
Jerry Jarrett ... Albert (the fight manager)
Mike Dana ... Gangster
Felice Orlandi ... Gangster
Shaun O'Brien
Barbara Brand
Skippy Adelman ... Mannequin factory owner (as Julius Adelman)
David Vaughan ... Conventioneer
Alec Rubin ... Conventioneer

Ralph Roberts ... Gangster
Phil Stevenson ... Gangster
Arthur Feldman
Bill Funaro
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Kiss Me, Kill Me (USA) (working title)
more
Runtime:
67 min | Japan:43 min
Country:
Language:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
To shoot the scene in which the fight manager is murdered in an East Side alley, Stanley Kubrick had to first negotiate with five transients who had set up a makeshift home in the alley and were unwilling to relinquish their turf. more
Goofs:
Miscellaneous: When Dave is reading the letter on the subway, the narration of the letter obviously very different from what is written on the page. more
Quotes:
Davy Gordon: It's crazy how you can get yourself in a mess sometimes and not even be able to think about it with any sense-and yet not be able to think about anything else. You get so you're no good for anything or anybody. Maybe it begins by taking life too serious. Anyway, I think that's the way it began for me. Just before my fight with Rodriguez three days ago... more
Movie Connections:
References La regina di Saba (1952) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
12 out of 14 people found the following comment useful.
Urban loneliness, 15 September 2007
Author: tieman64 from United Kingdom

Note- these edited comments are based on the new Killer's Kiss DVD. The TCM television print does no justice to the film's cinematography and sound design.

A director's first film is usually how he sees himself. With his first feature, "Fear and Desire", Kubrick clearly saw himself as a serious, intellectual film-maker. He styled himself after the classical Russian masters (albeit a modernist) who only dared tackle the most weighty and serious of subjects. But of course that film bombed and Kubrick felt very embarrassed with his "pretentious little war film".

There's nothing hugely wrong with "Fear and Desire". It's simply too big a film to come from someone, who was at the time, so small and inexperienced. As such, it felt wrong for audiences. It felt pretentious and arty because it wasn't perceived as coming from an established, validated artist. Of course in hindsight, things look differently.

Kubrick always knew exactly what kind of films he wanted to make. And he knew, from an early age, that he was capable of doing so. But he needed to prove himself to others first. He needed to work his way up the ladder, gradually gaining the kind of clout and technical talent needed to make such a picture work.

So he goes back to the drawing board and quickly writes (it took 2 weeks) a trashy exploitation flick. Gone are the allegorical narratives, the metaphors and the little flairs of expressionism. This is straight up guerrilla film-making. It's cinéma vérité, as close to documentary as a narrative film can get.

Kubrick gives us gritty street scenes, lots of rough dialogue, stolen shots of Time Square and edgy scenes hastily shot on real life locations and populated sidewalks. As a whole, the film feels very similar in mood to Scorsese's "Mean Streets". Kubrick gives us little shots of wet pavements, street dancers, vendors, posters and flyers blowing in the wind. He creates a superb sense of place and a lot of the close-up shots of billboards and posters reminded me strongly of Scorsese's "Raging Bull".

Throughout the film, the cinematography is brilliant. The lighting and compositions are stark yet beautiful, and the New York cityscape is captured as I've never seen before. We've seen 1950's New York in countless film noirs, but never has it felt so beautiful, so real, yet so harsh and lonely. The new DVD transfer really does do the cinematography justice.

There are some other Kubrick touches as well. Kubrick's compositions emphasise the notion of the noir "cage." He pans us around a boxer's room as if saying "this is his prison". He then frames the poor guy in a giant fishbowl to emphasise the entrapment. Whether it be a boxing ring, a window, a room or a door frame, Kubrick constantly has his "hero" in a visual trap.

Through the boxer's window, in a scene reminiscent of Hitchcock, lies another window in which a woman lives. Kubrick shows the audience her cage as well, and will spend the rest of the film carefully inter-cutting the rituals of both boxer and woman. For example, his fights are inter-cut with her fights, his job is inter-cut with her job, his preparations are inter-cut with her preparations.

In his first film (Fear and Desire), Kubrick hid in the forests and worked privately in a secluded environment. This is how he'd work from Dr Strangelove onwards. Secluded environments over which he had total control.

But with "Killers Kiss", Kubrick forced himself to go naked. He played against all his instincts. Gone are all the narrative tricks, the metaphors and pretentious stylings. In their place is straight-up commercial storytelling. Romance, violence and lots of grit.

I was surprised how much more I enjoyed "Killer's Kiss" upon second viewing. It has several memorable scenes, a nice sense of urban loneliness and the cinematography is brilliant throughout. Kubrick puts you in 1950's New York. You can smell the smog and taste the concrete. The structure of the film is also interesting. It's told in a series of flashbacks within flashbacks, the story unfolding as the narrator takes us through his thoughts. Even here, early in his career, Kubrick had a disdain for standard narrative.

8/10 - I give this film an extra point for accomplishing so much with such a tiny budget. It's better than Chris Nolan's "Following" and Afronosky's "Pi", two other black and white "noirs" made under similar conditions.

Some nice documentary-like visuals and some stark action sequences make up for a simple but affecting script. The use of music and ambient sound is brilliant. A very good film, undeservedly suppressed by Kubrick. Note the dream sequence which foreshadows the Stargate sequence in 2001 and numerous other Kubrickian corridor shots.

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