Kiss Me Deadly
Kiss Me Deadly is a fantastic film. I went in knowing almost nothing about it, except that it was a quintessential film noir and was also the inspiration for the famous Glowing Briefcase in Pulp Fiction. It begins with standard fare, Private Eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker), picks up a hitchhiker (Cloris Leachman in her debut role) who says she escaped from a mental hospital. Eventually, thugs catch up to them and when Mike wakes up, the hitchhiker is dead and he's been in the hospital for quite some time. Being a private eye, Mike can't help but try to solve the mystery of why those men were after her, despite the trouble it starts costing those around him.
The film surprised me in just how exciting it ended up being. What began as a normal noir tale ended in one of the more thrilling endings I've seen from a movie released in the 1950s. Similar to Hitchcock's Notorious from a decade early, it takes a basic thriller plot and blends it with the current fears of nuclear attacks. Only Kiss Me Deadly takes it a few wonderful steps further by making it more of a science fiction yarn than just basic bad guys out to make atomic bombs. I highly recommend checking this out.
You're Welcome,
Dave
Valuable Life Lesson Learned: Never open the box.
Upcoming Titles:
- Carlito's Way
- To Catch a Thief
- Body Double
- Battle Royale
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