Kiss Me Deadly -- What Makes This Movie Great? (Episode 31)
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- Опубліковано 10 лют 2025
- It's time for a lesson in film noir. It's time for "Kiss Me Deadly"!
Kiss Me Deadly is a mid-1950s movie based on the wildly popular books by Mickey Spillane, featuring the nasty L.A. detective Mike Hammer. When Hammer stumbles into an underground world of horrible people who are trying to keep a major secret, he's going to find out what that secret is, at all costs.
This video discusses why Kiss Me Deadly is a great example of American film noir. Weird angles, shadows, labyrinthine staircases, femme fatales, fatalistic plots, a world of sin and depravity -- this movie has all this and more.
See joshmatthews.org for more great movie criticism.
I love this movie! Ralph Meeker IS Mike Hammer!
Nobody else ever came close.
yes. in the video, I think I said that Meeker is underrated and missed his true era, which would've been the 1980s-90s, when he would've been perfect for so many roles.
@LearningaboutMovies That is true. While I watched it I felt he was acting like he was from a future decade.
Meeker definetely nailed this character, including the sadistic side of Hammer. I mean, a nice guy like Gregory Peck may have had tons of charisma, you don't want to see him slam someone's fingers with a bit more enthousiasm than really necessary for the purpose in the drawer of a desk. But Meeker, yes, he could do just that, and get away with such frivolous intermezzo's. He's very plausible in it, and I wouldn't have mind at all see him in 12 Mike Hammer movies of this quality. Another believable "sadist" was Lee Van Cleef, but he wouldn't have been a credible clean cut Hammer. Dan Duryea was unbeatable in another category as bad guy, that of the oily scemer. Absolutely loved him in Too late for tears, when he meets not just a match, but far more than he bargained for. Film Noir is an absolutely fascinating landscape for those born after the 1950's to explore ! It's as exciting as Africa must have been for Stanley.
I don't know if I'd use this movie as an introduction to Film Noir. I would probably use "Double Indemnity" or "The Third Man". I agree with the commenter that "Kiss Me Deadly" pretty much killed noir, with that last gasp of "Touch of Evil." For modern noir, I'd look at "Chinatown" and "Blood Simple" for starters.
Lovely to find this! I knew very little about film noir when I first saw Kiss Me Deadly, but it still blew me away. It was so clean in its presentation of the story and intense in the way he spiralled into danger.
Another one that blew me away was The Big Sleep as it was SO HARD to follow! 1000% one that requires more than one viewing.
Meeker owned Mike Hammer like Connery owned James Bond. He should have done more Hammer movies.
My mom took me to the show to see this before I was in the first grade. decades later I came across it again. This was. Probably the earliest movie I saw the greatest character actor of all time, Strother Martin. We also saw Psycho but I slept through it until the dead mother appeared at the end with that swinging light bulb and scary soundtrack. It was pretty cool.
I saw this movie years ago and knew nothing about it before I watched it. It freaked me out but in a good way, i love this unique film.
I dunno much about the actual production of this but I think it's a shame we didn't get more stories with Mike Hammer from this team. They had plenty material to work with even if it's not entirely like the books the film is based on.
yes, for sure. Ralph Meeker is great.
They painted themselves into a corner with the end of the movie being a nuclear apocalypse.
The thing in the box that could never be put back once the box was fully opened scared the pants off me when I was a kid...
heh.
Wow, thank you for such a video. Surely helped me a lot trying to figure out the "what did I just watch" phase.
you're welcome. glad to help!
A movie that was ahead of it's time and even more relevant today. Meeker's character reminds me of roles played by Gere and Schwarzenegger.
I think I said this in the video: Meeker would've had more success in the 1990s, much more, than in the 1950s.
@@LearningaboutMovies Or even in the 80s
@@LearningaboutMovies it could have done with a better script ..some of the dialogue is hamfisted ...
Nicely said.
I hadn't figured the Biblical angle. I don't remember Doc Soberin's Jesus quote. I'll have to think on that. Hammer is actually resurrected twice. Once in the hospital, then after he's shot near the end. And of course, there's the Apocalypse angle.
Soberin calls Carver "Gabrielle," but she's certainly no angel! She was my favorite character though, followed by Mike and then Mr. Evello. Percy Helton always gets my attention. Then, there's "Friday."
thank you.
Mickey Spillane hated this film (mostly) because of the decision to make Mike Hammer smooth, even somewhat sophisticated. Instead of wearing old worn out clothes and sleeping in his office, Meeker’s Hammer lives in a state-of-the-art condo and drives a sports car. And the Spillane Hammer had a code of ethics that this Hammer doesn’t. So if you just consider this a sort of alternate reality Mike Hammer…For me, that’s the best way to look at it. And it’s interesting that the major female characters (apart from his assistant) are lesbians who seem almost like twins.
And when I say Meeker is suave or sophisticated, I don’t mean his personality, which is truly nasty. I mean that Spillane purposely made his Hammer as rumpled and seedy as possible, not a guy who could pass for a Hollywood playboy. Which is one of the main reasons Spillane hated this film. Even so, it’s one of the best latter-day Noir pictures, and it’s also Cloris Leachman’s screen debut
For my money Ralph Mecker is the best Mike Hammer!
I read a few of Mickey Splains books and saw this movie on it's original release. What is interesting is Phylis Diller was the womab on the highway in the overcoat. This is long before she went for being an ugly woman comedian. But Mickey Spilain really hated women and often mad 3:37 e them into killers/evil monsters the Mike Hammer often had to kill. His anti women in the books was a turn off. But some movies and a good TV series with Stacey Keech made the detective just a tough goog guy.
Phyllis Diller? That's not Phyllis Diller, that's Cloris Leachman. Now, Cloris Leachman went on to play a character named "Phyllis" on the Mary Tyler Moore show. Maybe that's where your confusion comes in.
I think Ralph Meeker was my favorite Mike Hammer.
yes, massive Meeker enthusiast here. Wish he had a more prominent career.
@@LearningaboutMovies He was great in Kubrick's "Paths of Glory"
One step removed from Richard Stark's Parker.
tangent: it's remarkable that Mickey Spillane sold millions of books in the 1950s.
Do you collect Criterions?
sort of. I might have 50. They are expensive, and I can get any I would like from libraries. Plus, the Criterion Channel has a vast selection. If you are ever going to buy Criterion, wait for their 50% off sales. they seem to have those 2-3 times a year.
Great film indeed, and my favorite Spillane adaption. Great description.
The Great Gabby Rodgers
she wasn't in much besides this, movie-wise.
@@LearningaboutMovies yeah, but she's. Memorable in this one, also with Clloris passing away this year is only one still alive
wow, didn't know that. thank you.
I was quite taken with her and was surprised to find that she only appeared in two films and had a very interesting story.
I found the acting frankly bad, but compelling. As if I was watching real people enacting poorly something that actually happened to them. Bizarre feeling 😂. I found the film quite good and surprising also. The tone and the way the characters act don't match a movie from the 50s at all. Rather a film form the 70s. Quite an experience 😅
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...but no one ever seems to figure this out. The Well-Spoken Killer is the guy with the box who won't shut up about classical comparisons(Albert Dekker, I think?) who the Second Blonde shoots.
Not that this explains what exactly they're wanting with the nuke material. I don't think that's ever really explained, or what the girls had to do with it.
right, yeah, aren't they just wanting to sell it? Black market, or for uranium (I think there was a uranium craze at this point in the 50s).
@@LearningaboutMovies I assume so. But they never really explain it very much. classical references guy before he dies tries to tell her where to take it so I'm guessing that yes he was going to sell it
The movie has a villain with too many details to create a sense of mystery but they make it too rambling, and the femme fatale doesn't leave any mark. What do you think ?
I still think this is in the top 30 noirs ever, and that's after watching several dozen I hadn't seen, recently.
I agree with Ruthless Reviews (www.ruthlessreviews.com/12337/kiss-me-deadly/) that this film was so extreme that it pretty much killed film noir dead, leaving Orson Wells' _Touch of Evil_ to pretty up the corpse for an open-casket funeral three years after the fact. I think it's telling that Aldrich and screenwriter A. I. Bezzerides found Spillane's source novel to be contemptible and therefor portrayed the action as an incoherent mess and "hero" Mike Hammer (with, I think Ralph Meeker's full participation) as "a dumb asshole." This is one of my favorite movies, in part because it's so incredibly sleazy that I can't see it as anything but a parody, .albeit one that revels in portraying the sadism it ridicules.
To me, maybe the simpler explanation is by the early 1950s, the fad of noir was going away, being replaced by cheap sci-fi for B-movies. Very good comment -- thank you.
For these reasons I disagree that someone should start with this film as an intro to film noir. This is baroque film noir. I would start with Out of the Past.
@@kylec2761 Why not start with one of the first and arguably the best, The Maltese Falcon? But Kiss Me Deadly is definitely in the top 10 for me, and I can see why he would start with this film.
I had a lot of problems with this flick except for Ralph Meeker. He's always cool. He makes it worth watching. Very low budget. Sound is terrible.
thanks.