Kiss Me Deadly disorients the audience right from the start by plunging them into a bit of action and the introduction of a woman who’s running from unknown pursuers and a hero who seems utterly dispassionate towards her plight out of anything other than a professional interest in solving a mystery. It segues into the famous backward opening credits underscored by the film’s strongest use of music and consistent heavy gasping from the woman riding in the car. With her death comes a mystery Detective Mike Hammer feels compelled to unravel as he dodges attempts at his life only to find himself at the center of a deadly conspiracy. Robert Aldrich crafted an iconic film noir with his take on Kiss Me Deadly and he coached a swarthy apathetic performance from Ralph Meeker all while capitalizing on the film noir aesthetic and Cold War paranoia. The sum of it all is an entirely memorable mystery that will stick with you and become a standard in how you grade other entries in the genre.
Film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini say it best in the newly recorded Criterion Collection audio commentary for Kiss Me Deadly when they point out that the film has a homme fatale more than it could ever claim to have a femme fatale. The Mike Hammer seen here differs significantly from his previous and subsequent incarnations due to both Meeker’s performance and A. I. Bezzerides adaptation (in the loosest sense of the word) of Mickey Spillane’s now immortalized private detective. In this case, it’s Bezzerides’s script which deserves the most credit for altering the portrayal of Hammer from being the quintessential hardboiled detective who solves his problems with a mixture of charm and blunt force into one who foregoes the charm more often than not and jumps directly to force. Meeker’s Hammer is his own worst enemy in that respect; for every bit of information he beats out of unwilling accomplices, his assistant Velda (Maxine Cooper), under the spells of his seldom charms, coaxes out leads ultimately putting her in harm’s way.
Velda’s not the only woman to come out worse for wear after her run-in with Hammer, as his presence proves a bad luck charm for the well-being of every female character he meets save for one. Hammer’s interactions with the women may have an overt sensitivity to their needs, but his true sense of romance comes from violent encounters, and both Aldrich and Bezzerides bring this across through the continued metaphoric association of bullets and bombs with romance. The mysterious Christina Bailey (Cloris Leachman), who places herself between Hammer and an uneventful life, quickly becomes a brutalized corpse as Hammer lies unconscious before they’re both loaded into a car and pushed off a cliff. But before she dies, she’s sitting next to him in his car, wearing nothing but a trenchcoat, and his interest in her is akin to what a normal person has for an encyclopedia: she has a few interesting stories she can tell him, but he never sees her as an object of affection. It’s not until she’s dead that his interest in her really unfolds. When it does, it’s reflected onto Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers), Christina’s former roommate and perhaps the key to figuring out what got the mysterious woman killed.
The digital restoration by Criterion Collection does justice to the film’s place within the history of film noir. Robert Aldrich’s use of shadows increases as the film’s story becomes increasingly murky and in high-definition the blacks are deep and rich and contrast brilliantly with the otherwise sunny exteriors of LA’s Bunker Hill and the brightly lit interior of Hammer’s ultramodern apartment. The scenes of Bunker Hill, the ominously lit stairwells, and the symbolic obstruction of characters’ faces in shadows show Aldrich to be a master of the film noir aesthetic complementing the exceptional detective story he and Bezzerides have created here. Outside of the aforementioned opening credits, the score leaves a light impression on the film with a few accents here and there at the revelation of a shocking piece of information. The truly important aspect of the film’s audio is the diagetic sound, with one specific example having left a lasting impact on countless films afterward.
***SPOILER ALERT – READING THIS WILL RUIN THE STORY IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE FILM***
In modifying the script to increase the story’s relevance to the Cold War paranoia that pervaded the decade in which Kiss Me Deadly was filmed, the mysterious object that everyone sought turns out to be a case containing a nuclear device. Instead of attempting to cobble together some menacing, futuristic prop, Aldrich opted for a very simple approach: light and sound. With the opening of the box, bright light streams out and a grating hissing rings out similar to a boiling teapot with the mounting ferocity of a klaxon. The decision went on to influence the filmic portrayal of countless Pandora’s Box scenarios and it’s a brilliant lead-in to the film’s cataclysmic ending while simultaneously mirroring the disorienting opening sequence.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
The extras include an informative audio commentary track with Silver and Ursini. Of particular interest for Spillane fans, are excerpts from The Long Haul of A. I. Bezzerides, the documentary on the film’s writer which plays out like something of an argument between Bezzerides and Spillane about how the film dumps nearly everything but the book’s title and protagonist in favor of something more contemporary. The documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane chronicles the incredible success of the Mike Hammer author and how his legacy includes an 18-year starring role in Miller Lite commercials, playing his detective in a feature film, and lots of retrospective footage from those who have been involved in Spillane’s work. There’s a brief segment on the Bunker Hill neighborhood in LA where many of the exterior establishing shots were filmed and which helped to shape the tone of the film as a detective story in the rundown part of the city. A theatrical trailer and a slightly more fatalistic ending for the film (which was used as the ending until the more complete version was found) are also available. As far as packaging goes, a substantial liner booklet includes the essay “The Thriller of Tomorrow” by film critic J. Hoberman and a telling piece by Robert Aldrich titled “You Can’t Hang Up the Meet Hook” which gives a very clear representation of Aldrich’s cynical opinion of the world.
"Kiss Me Deadly (The Criterion Collection)" is on sale June 21, 2011 and is not rated. Crime, Film-Noir. Directed by Robert Aldrich. Written by A.I. Bezzerides. Starring Cloris Leachman, Ralph Meeker, Maxine Cooper, Gaby Rodgers.
