dormantbae Movies like "Kiss Me Deadly" are reassuring that there's more to each genre than meets the eye. "Kiss Me Deadly" is part hard-boiled detective story & part apocalyptic sci-fi horror film. The movie suspects its own plots and its conventions are ludicrous. The result is a highly inventive film with a ridiculous but highly enjoyable storyline and comically fascinating characters.The basic plot, loosely adapted from Mickey Spillane's bestselling novel,is: after private-eye Mike Hammer picks up a hitchhiker who is later murdered, he becomes determined to learn the truth about her death. Although the plot becomes more and more insane, it's highly interesting. There are no empty twists, as each one leads to something larger and more confounding.I've never had more fun with a film noir character than the aptly named character of Mike Hammer. He isn't intimidated by any man and denies the world's hottest women. If he holds the upper hand in a situation, he seems virtually impenetrable. This characteristic leads to the ever-prevalent theme in film noirs of men vs. women and their places in relationships and society.The film is a masterpiece of cinematography, exhibited in the disorienting camera angles and unique and unconventional compositions of Ernest Laszlo. In fact, Ernesto Laszlo's cinematography is so apt with the film's randomness that it made me giddy.One of the most distinctive aspects of Kiss Me Deadly is the outrageousness of its final few seconds: the movie doesn't conclude, it detonates. In the hands of the director Robert Aldrich, the film becomes a starting point for a delirious expression of 1950s anxiety and paranoia, starting with opening credits that run backwards and ending with an atomic explosion.

Sven-Erik Palmbring Based on a novel by Mickey Spillane in atomic shape this is a great thriller to watch. The story is build up around the search for the great "whatsit". The tempo is high in this dark and intriguing story. Ralph Meeker does a high class performance as Spillane's tough private eye, Mike Hammer. Add to that a wonderful lineup of great character-actors like: Albert Dekker, Strother Martin, Percy Helton, Jack Elam and Paul Stewart. There are also some amazing cars and beautiful women. Great entertainment, directed by one of the true masters of the trade: Robert Aldrich. As a bonus we can hear the man with the velvet voice, the unforgettable Nat Kong Cole sing.

poe426 Early on in his writing career, Mickey Spillane wrote comic books. It shows in KISS ME DEADLY: despite director Robert Aldrich at the helm, this one comes off like one of the pre-Comics Code horror comics (and it goes "all the way," too, with an ending straight out of all-too-many of the sci-fi comics of the period). (Updated observation: The ending was courtesy of Aldrich, himself, apparently. But Mickey Spillane DID write comic books...) Ralph Meeker, I've always thought, was an under-utilized actor who rated better than he got- but not this time around; KISS ME DEADLY as a whole simply isn't as good as the sum of its parts. If you're one of those die-hard Noir fans who feels compelled to put this one high up on your list of must-see movies, do yourself a favor and go and hunt down some of the current reprints of pre-Comics Code horror comics; you'll LOVE 'em.

xisca-pap What makes this film really special is the direction and the characters. The plot itself is not that interesting per se. I have not read the novel but the story in the film is not very coherent and the involvement of the various characters in the plot is not clear at all. Curiously, though, the director does not seem to be interested in clarifying it. Instead, he builds on the ambiguity to create a universe that revolves around something that everyone thinks so important as to sacrifice their life or that of those around them for it, but no one understands what it is.In terms of the superb direction, I think it is worth pointing out that a few ideas and styles in this film seem to have been of great influence to the work of David Lynch. On the superficial side the opening credits immediately bring to my mind the Lost Highway. The mix of noir and such high levels of ambiguity, often with allusions to the supernatural, characterises the best of Lynch's work. I even found the amalgam of Cristina and Lily/Gabriel to be a prototype to Dorothy Vallens.