Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Director: Robert Aldrich
Movie review
From Time Out London
Condemned on its release as harmful to minors, Robert Aldrich’s late contribution to the B-noir tradition, by way of Mickey Spillane, couldn’t quite find its audience in 1955. But it now stands as a crucial influence on what would become the French new wave, an irresistibly seedy trip through the Los Angeles underworld, and a valuable artifact of Cold War anxiety. After a mysterious woman (debutante actress Cloris Leachman) flags down Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) on a highway and is subsequently murdered, the downmarket private dick reads this chance encounter as his ticket to the big time, and he sniffs out a trail of intrigue through many a gutter and back alley to an unbelievable secret. Cold, calculating, even downright nasty, the antihero Hammer would be focus-grouped right out of existence if he were screenwritten today. And with its delectable period detail and the magnificent compositions and rich depth of field achieved by Aldrich and his cinematographer, Ernest Laszlo, ‘Kiss Me Deadly’ demands to be seen on the big screen. Go now.Author: Jessica Winter
Time Out London Issue 1869: June 14-21 2006
Cast & crew
Director: Robert Aldrich
Producer: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Maxine Cooper, Paul Stewart, Gaby Rodgers, Cloris Leachman, Jack Lambert, Wesley Addy, Nick Dennis, Marian Carr, Jack Elam full cast
Genre(s): Film Noir
Duration: 106 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
To the letter
Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.
Mind over matter
David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.
Fool's gold
Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.
We are the championed
Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."
A history of violence
Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.
True romantic
James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.
Playing in the dark
MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.
Junk bonds
Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.
What do you think?
Post your review now