Cheap Killer's Kiss (DVD) (Frank Silvera, Irene Kane) (Stanley Kubrick) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Killer's Kiss

"Killer's Kiss" is the so-so film noir tale of a boxer who loses a fight and is ready to return to his home, where his family is, until he gets entangled with the dark life of a dance-hall girl. Through falling in love with this girl, he gets caught up with her jealous ex-lover, a crime king-pin. The story and the dialogue here are weak, but the film is redeemed by its own quirkyness and the beautiful black-and-white camera work.

The DVD of "Killer's Kiss" has only one extra feature... A trailer of the film. It's nothing special, but it is somewhat interesting for historical purposes. The redeeming quality of this DVD ends up being the clarity of the picture, which, I feel is very good for an obscure 1955 film.

It all really comes down to don't buy the "Killer's Kiss" DVD unless you love Kubrick, or have seen the movie and know you like it. You really have to wonder if this was the "Pi" or "Being John Malkovich" of its day.

Picture By The Director As A Young Man
"Killer's Kiss" would most assuredly be relegated to the dustbin of history, repository of a thousand and one [less expensive] noir knock-offs, if it hadn't been directed by a 25-year old Brooklyn-born novice filmmaker who grew up to be Stanley Kubrick. Still, save for the novelty of a few directorial flourishes and motifs that would pop up in Kubrick's later films, "Killer's Kiss" is little more than light entertainment. It's not an important film. Which is fine, because it was never intended to be. Kubrick intended it as a calling card to Hollywood, and on this level, ultimately, it is a success.

Davy Gordon (Jamie Smith) is a prizefighter, once fraught with potential, but now saddled with a reputation for a glass jaw and bad luck in important fights. He's fed up with New York City, and is thinking about going to live on his Aunt and Uncle's horse ranch in Seattle. After another defeat, alone in his apartment, he sees that a woman (Irene Kane) in the next building is being threatened by a much older gentleman (Frank Silvera). Ever the do-gooder, Davy runs to her aid. It is this choice, to get involved in the affairs of a stranger, which propels the film down its perilous path.

Gordon is a very laid-back presence. He has not the usual angst of the film noir hero. Instead, he relies on an affable, but brooding, charm to get through the picture. Silvera does little more with his creepy dance-hall manager than sweat and stammer and try his best to look menacing. Even his touches of philosophical cynicism ("Can happiness buy money?" he asks at one point) don't really work as well as they should. He's also not a very intimidating presence, which hurts the film some. Kane, I have mixed feelings about. Upon first seeing the film I thought she was a revelation, bringing some sorrow and depth to the role of a dime-a-dance girl with a past. She may not have much in terms of acting chops, but she does have promise. Add to that the fact that she has Audrey Hepburn-esque beauty (a grand statement to make, I know, but she won me over on first glance), and you'd think she'd be a star for a long time. Alas, fate conspires against her, for due to a problem with his soundman, Kubrick had to redo the actors' voices in post-production. Kane, a stubborn girl who later became a respected journalist, refused to do any more work on the picture, so her voice was dubbed by someone else.

Kubrick, even in his nascent period, was still a force behind the camera. A rooftop chase scene is exciting even though the only sounds we hear are a moody, atmospheric percussion score (the rest of the film fluctuates between aggressive jazz, and soaring, melodramatic strings). The sight of shadowy figures, racing in the dusk of day across a New York skyline, is wondrous to behold. He handles the scenes set in Time's Square with aplomb, made even more impressive by the knowledge that he had no permits to film there. Often, his camera had to be hidden in the back of a car. The director's more oddball touches are also all over the film. Besides the dream sequence that foreshadows "2001", a shot in negative of a drive down a narrow alleyway, he does a lot of weird work with windows and mirrors. One shot is set up from the bottom of a fishbowl. Another gets the point-of-view of a picture frame, moments before it is shattered by a shoe. There's also a boxing scene early on that appears to be shot from every angle possible. I'll have to look again to make sure, but I believe we even get a glove's-eye-view. It's a rather manic approach to capturing the sweet science on celluloid ("Raging Bull" it isn't). But Kubrick does come up with something visceral, giving the audience a taste for being in the ring.

The final duel takes place in a mannequin warehouse. The two combatants begin fighting over a girl, then, using stray limbs lying around, end up fighting *with* girls. It's unintentionally comic, a little surreal, and a tad overlong. It would have become a classic film scene if: 1) "Killer's Kiss" had been a success; or 2) the fighter's had been less inept with their weapons (even armed with an axe and a spear, it takes forever for someone to draw blood).

"All my life I've really spoiled the things that meant the most to me," says Silvera's Vincent at one point. It's a startling confession, coming from a film noir stock character. These people aren't supposed to have any self-awareness -- for they are little more than pawns on a cinematic chessboard -- and yet here's Vincent acting as his own psychologist. It's flourishes like this, along with Gloria's monologue about why she chose the profession she did (played as the voice over of a scene showing a single dancer performing a moody ballet), that somehow elevate "Killer's Kiss" over similar pulp fare. Look at me go on and on. I was going to give this film 3-stars (which it probably deserves if you aren't a Kubrick completist), but I appear to have talked myself into a better rating. Kubrick, ever the effective polemicist, strikes again.

DESPITE ITS NON-KUBRICK ENDING, A BRILLIANT FILM
I doubt most self-confessed Kubrick fans have seen this movie.

It's just over an hour long and even so we have the trademark Kubrick opening, where he takes his own sweet time in letting us know what the film is about but somehow draws us in all the same. The denouement is famously infamous for being a tad hollow, but this doesn't prevent it from being involving while it lasts.

Kubrick once again demonstrated the he could point a camera at anything at all and make it interesting - the images are amazing, yet entirely functional. The movie is B&W, which I am not usually a fan of, but you'll love this on DVD. It's also a masterpiece of violence-without-violence, if you know what I mean.

Give it a try, it's a brilliant piece of cinema. Kubrick in his element even in 1955.