So you’re a fugitive from the laughing house
Today on Classic Movie Rev, we are taking on Kiss Me Deadly (1955).
Before I get going, I want to thank Bob H. for the list he sent to the show. I have seen this movie before, but I had honestly forgotten how good it really is. Thanks.
I also want to shout out to Evan B. Thanks for the excellent film conversation after the wedding.
It sounds like I’m sending coded messages. Wound my heart with a monotonous languor. Did you get the reference? If so, leave a comment with your answer.
I also want to remind you to follow the link in the show notes or from the site to visit our store. I have just added some new designs. You can get anything from tees to totes.
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) is a fantastic Film Noir. I was shocked at how good the movie was in its genre and all of the parts that have been clipped by modern directors. More about that at the end.
Kiss Me Deadly (1955) is only rated 7.6[1] on iMDB.com. This low number is a crime. It should at least be in the mid-eights. I know it is going to cause a renumbering of my Forty Essential Film Noir Classics list. On Rottentomatoes.com, this film has a 98 percent on the Tomatometer and 84 percent audience approval[2]. That is a little more in line. I could not locate any review from the time of the film’s release, but the internet is replete with modern takes.
We have many returning actors, and this is a long episode, so let’s get going.
Actors – Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
Returning
Wesley Addy played police Lt. Pat Murphy. Addy was first covered in the good Film Noir The Garment Jungle (1957).
Strother Martin has a tiny role as truck driver Harvey Wallace. This great-voiced actor was first covered in McLintock! (1963).
Albert Dekker plays a bad guy, Dr. G.E. Soberin. Decker was first covered in Illegal (1955).
Percy Helton played the double-dealing Doc Kennedy. Helton, another actor with a great voice, was first covered in Film Noir The Set-Up (1949).
The voice of Nat ‘King’ Cole was on the radio. This extraordinary singer was first covered in the Film Noir The Blue Gardenia (1953).
Marjorie Bennett had a bit as an apartment manager, and Kurt Russell’s father Bing was an uncredited police detective. Both actors were first covered in Billy the Kid Versus Dracula (1966).
New
Ralph Meeker played the role of private investigator Mike Hammer. Meeker was born in Minnesota in 1920. After high school, Meeker graduated from Northwestern University in 1942. Meeker majored in music and was active in theater.
Meeker moved to New York, where he studied acting and performed in stock theater. He joined the Navy but was discharged early because of an injury. He worked with the USO during the war entertaining troops overseas. Meeker began acting on Broadway in 1945. He was very successful in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and “Mister Roberts.” He made a couple of films in Europe: Teresa (1951) and Four in a Jeep (1951).
Meeker worked for MGM for a couple of years before returning to Broadway for “Picnic.” When “Picnic” was made into a movie, Meeker did not get the role, consigning him to primarily supporting roles.
The 1950s were pretty astonishing for Meeker as he worked in some great films. These films include Film Noirs Jeopardy (1953), norish western The Naked Spur (1953), the fantastic Film Noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955), and Paths of Glory (1957), where Meeker played a soldier randomly selected for execution. He was also in Run of the Arrow (1957) and The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957).
He was in the television series “Not for Hire”1959-1960. After his series was canceled, Meeker worked extensively as a guest on other shows. He also continued in films such as The Dirty Dozen (1967) and The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967). Meeker continued to make films in the following decades with movies like Brannigan (1975), The Food of the Gods (1976), and Winter Kills (1979). Meeker’s final credit was on “Sesame Street” 1989, recorded before his death in 1988.
Cloris Leachman played the mysterious Christina Bailey. Leachman was born in Iowa in 1926. Leachman graduated from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, before studying drama at Illinois State University and Northwestern University.
In 1946, Leachman won Miss Chicago as a part of the Miss America pageant. She acted in local theater before heading to New York. She started working on television in 1948 and spent most of her career in this medium.
Her first film was Kiss Me Deadly (1955), where she had a small but pivotal role. This film was followed by The Rack (1956), a post-Korean Conflict trial film. She appeared in two movies during the 1960s: The Chapman Report (1962) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969). In 1971, Leachman was in The Last Picture Show (1971), for which she won the Best-Supporting Actress Oscar.
From 1970-1977, Leachman was in 35-episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” as the sex-starved landlord. In a spin-off, Leachman got her own show, “Phyllis,” 1975-1977. She won a total of nine Emmys for her television work.
In 1974, she was incredible as Frau Blücher in Young Frankenstein (1974). She threw some lead in Crazy Mama (1975). Other great movies include High Anxiety (1977), The Muppet Movie (1979), and History of the World: Part I (1981). She was Granny in The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), uncredited as Granny in Bad Santa (2003), and was the mother in Spanglish (2004), which I believe is one of her greatest roles. This wonderful actress continued to work until her death in 2021 at the age of 94.
Maxine Cooper played assistant and girlfriend to Mike Hammer, Velda Wickman. Cooper was born in Illinois in 1924. Cooper attended Bennington College, where she began acting. Sometime in the mid-1940s, Cooper moved to California and studied at the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1946, she traveled with the USO and decided to live in England for almost five years. While in England, she worked on television and stage.
Cooper returned to America, where she worked in many popular television shows. Her first film was the great Film Noir Kiss Me Deadly (1955). She continued on television. Her other films include Autumn Leaves (1956) and Zero Hour! (1957) where she was a sick passenger. Cooper married and retired after making What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962). She focused on her family and made one television appearance in each of the next two decades. Cooper died in 2009.
Gaby Rodgers played the mysterious Lily Carver, aka Gabrielle. Rodgers was born in Germany in 1928. Rodgers is known for a few films, including The Big Break (1953), Suspense (1949), and Kiss Me Deadly (1955). Rogers continued to work on television until 1962. She is still alive but no longer works in film or television.
Story – Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
A barefoot woman named Christina Bailey (Cloris Leachman) is running down the middle of the highway. The blonde seems to be nude save for a trench coat. She is trying desperately to flag down any car. After a few cars pass her by, she stands with her arms up and her eyes closed, forcing the next car to swerve.
The open-top sports car that runs off the road is driven by Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker). He is mad as a hornet as she approaches. Christina is still breathing hard. He curtly tells her to get in the car. The radio in the sports car plays Nat King Cole’s “Rather Have the Blues.”
The credits roll on the screen. They are vertically slanted away from the viewer and are moving towards the viewer. We have seen this somewhere else, and I will talk about it in The Summary.
Christina continues to cry as they drive down the highway. Mike is still mad, and Christina keeps looking behind them. She says she is heading for Los Angeles. The police stop the car at a roadblock. They say a lady escaped from a mental hospital wearing a trench coat. Mike says his wife has been asleep, and the cops let them through.
Christina says they forced her into the hospital. She wants to tell her story. Mike drives the car into a gas station to have the wheel checked. The grease monkey pulls a branch out from beside the tire. Christina gives the grease monkey a letter to mail for her. Having just gotten a big tip from Mike, he is happy to do it.
Christina and Mike get back on the road. He is still a little crabby, but she begins to talk. She psychoanalyzes Mike as a person only concerned with himself. She asks about poetry and says she was named after poet Christina Rossetti. Christina says if they don’t make it to the bus station to “Remember Me.” He assures her that they will make it, just as a large black Cadillac cuts them off and stops Mike’s car.
Three pairs of men’s legs are shown exiting the car. Christina is heard screaming. The screaming continues, and Christina’s bare legs are shown flailing. Mike is out cold on a metal bed without a mattress. Finally, Christina’s legs stop moving, and the screaming stops. The man that was torturing her walks into the frame holding a pair of channel lock pliers. He tells the boss (the one with different shoes) that Christina is dead.
The three men load the dead Christina and the out cold Mike in his car and use the bumper on the car to push the two over a cliff. The car, like so many movie cars, explodes on the way down.
Mike wakes in the hospital, having been thrown clear of the car. A nurse is in the room, as is his secretary Velda Wickman (Maxine Cooper). The doctor enters and tells Lt. Pat Murphy (Wesley Addy) that he can only spend 10-minutes with Mike. Mike has been in the hospital for three days. Lt. Murphy asks for details, but Mike fades out.
Mike is picked up outside the hospital by agents of the Interstate Crime Commission. Mike is evasive and doesn’t want to be attacked again. They say that he is a private investigator and works primarily on divorce cases. He is slightly crooked as he and Velma bait couples to get divorce evidence.
Lt. Murphy is waiting for Mike outside. Mike wants to know why the FBI is interested in the case. He senses that Christina was into something big, and he thinks he can make some money.
Mike goes to see Nick, a friend who is a mechanic. Nick tells him his car is totaled. He tells Mike that some tough guys are looking for him. Two flat faces are outside of Mike’s building. But when he goes into his apartment, there is no mess and no one there. Mike searches the apartment and finds everything in place.
The phone rings, and his reel-to-reel recorder begins recording the message. When he hears it is Velda, he picks up the phone. She says she will be right over. Velda arrives, and they get all kissy face. During the kisses, he tells her to have Nick drop a car off for him. Mike asks Velda about a folder for Ray Diker (Mort Marshall) that she has brought with her.
There hear a knock on the door, and Lt. Murphy lets himself inside. Murphy revokes Mike’s P.I. license and gun permit. Mike asks Murphy about a former science reporter named Ray Diker. Mike knows that the law had questioned Diker.
After Murphy leaves, Mike wants Velda to compromise a client because the tape was lost. Velda gives Mike the information about the poet Christina Rossetti.
Later that night, in another open-top sports car, Mike drives to see Diker. There is a man (Paul Richards) waiting to follow Mike. Mike uses stops at street vendors to keep an eye on his tail. The tail opens a switchblade and goes in for the kill. But Mike is ready and beats the man down. Mike takes the knife, but the attacker steps in for another round. A punch from Mike sends him rolling down a flight of stairs.
Diker answers the door for Mike. Diker has been beaten to a pulp, and he makes Mike pretend to force his way inside. Diker is very scared but gives Christina’s last address. Mike goes to the address in Bunker Hills. Mike helps an old man that is carrying luggage. The boarding house managers are not too friendly. Mike says he wants to search Christina’s room.
The apartment is being packed up, but the manager gives lots of information. Christina’s roommate Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers) moved out even though there was a month left on the apartment. The manager also says that Lily let Christina’s bird die. On the nightstand by Christina’s bed, Mike finds a book of sonnets by Christina Rossetti. Outside, the moving man gives Mike the address of Lily Carver.
Mike goes to Lily’s apartment. Lily lets him in, but she has a gun trained on him. Lily is only wearing a housecoat. Lily says the birds singing reminded her of her friend. Lily talks about how frightened Christina was before the police took her away. Lily claims not to know why Christina was scared.
Mike goes back to his house with the book of sonnets. The phone rings, and the reel-to-reel picks up. An unidentified voice gives the complete chronology of events. Mike finally picks up the phone and is told that there will be a gift for him in the morning if he forgets Christina.
The following day, Nick comes to pick up the loaner car. Behind it is a convertible Corvette. Nick sees the car and title before deciding to give it a spin. Mike shows up and yells for Nick not to turn the key. He has Nick open the hood and remove three sticks of dynamite from beside the starter. The two men get in the car to drive to the garage. He then tells Nick that there is another bomb in the car. This time a pipe bomb was wired to the speedometer. Mike asks Nick to find out who fixed the car up.
Mike drives the new Vet to see Velda. She is exercising at a stretching bar. Mike tells her that they are out of the divorce business for a while and whatever Christina was involved with is a big deal. Diker has called and given two names, but it is really four: Leopold Kowolsky / Harvey Wallace and Nicholas Raymondo / Carmen Trivago. Mike says Kowolsky was a professional fighter, and both men are dead due to traffic accidents.
Harvey Wallace (Strother Martin) is the man that drove the truck that killed Kowolsky. Mike goes to interview Wallace. Wallace explains how the accident happened. Wallace says the guy came out of nowhere like he was pushed.
Mike then goes to a boxing gym where Kowolsky used to train. Mike is friends with Eddie Yeager (Juano Hernandez). When Mike finally asks about Kowolsky, Yeager gets strange. Yeager has been told to keep quiet about Kowolsky by Charlie Max (Jack Elam) and Sugar Smallhouse (Jack Lambert). The two men told Yeager that if he kept quiet, they would let him breathe.
Mike calls Lt. Murphy at the police station. He asks who is Charlie Max and Sugar Smallhouse boss. Murphy says that they work for Carl Evello (Paul Stewart).
Evello is playing cards by a swimming pool with Max and Smallhouse nearby. It’s either an early Playboy Mansion, or Evello is really rich. Mike pulls up to the mansion, and Friday (Marian Carr) Evello’s half-sister gives him a big kiss. They kiss some more. She then introduces herself. She is happy when Mike says he is not one of Evello’s friends.
Friday and Mike go into the house for a drink. The pair head down to the pool, and Evello recognizes Mike. Mike goes to the pool house to put on a swimming suit. Evello sends Max and Smallhouse to attack Mike. Mike puts down Smallhouse with an unshown move. Max goes back to his boss.
Evello tells Max to send Mike into the house. Evello is on the phone with someone that might be a senior partner. Mike asks about the bombs in the car, and Evello says that the move was crude. Evello tells Mike that he keeps underestimating him. Evello tries to bribe Mike but gets mad and withdraws any chance of a negotiated settlement.
Mike drives over to see small-time singer Carmen Trivago (Fortunio Bonanova). Mike walks into the room while Trivago sings. Trivago is scared like all of the other parties. He says he knows nothing. Mike starts breaking Trivago’s record collection. Trivago doesn’t tell much other than that Raymondo had a secret, and it was easy to hide.
That night Mike goes to Lily’s apartment. He finds her hiding in the stairway. Lily says that the men came again. She says she hid because they think she knows something about the case. She says she does not. Mike loads her in the car, and they speed away to Nick’s. Lily hides below the cowling and is not seen by Nick. Nick explains that he asked about the car but only found out that they were more interested in why he was asking questions about the car. Mike leaves to take Lily to a safe place. He tells Nick he will be back. When Nick is alone, a man’s shoes are shown approaching. The man does not speak but releases the floor jack, crushing and killing Nick under the car.
Mike takes Lily, who is still wearing only a terry cloth robe. She kisses and thanks him. Mike is a little off-putting. He tells her to wait and not answer the door or the phone. She calls to him to return as he walks away.
Back at the garage, Mike finds Sammy holding the hand of Nick, his now dead friend. With the sirens approaching, Mike leaves.
Mike arrives at Velda’s apartment and lets himself inside. She is happy to see him but soon asks what is wrong. He tells her that Nick is dead. Velda is nude except for a robe she puts on. Velda says she met with Diker, who in turn introduced her to an abstract art dealer. She drank with the man and got the name Dr. Soberin (Albert Dekker). Velda says she can get more information if she dates Soberin, but she really wants Mike to say, “Don’t do it. They plan to meet at a club the next day.
Mike goes to a nightclub and starts drinking while listening to a songbird. Mike is trying to drink away Nick’s death. Later, when the bar is closed, Mike is asleep on the bar. A man comes in and tells the bartender something. The bartender wakes Mike and tells him that the man said they have Velda. Mike walks outside and drives away.
Mike returns to the gas station, where he and Christina stopped before getting caught. Mike asks the grease monkey what the address on the letter Christina gave him was. The pump jockey says to a joker named Mike.
Mike drives to his office. In his drunken haze and rush to find the letter, Mike doesn’t see Max and Smallhouse sitting in the dark. The letter says, “Remember Me.” Smallhouse knocks Mike out with a blackjack. He says it was payback for when Mike hit him.
Max and Smallhouse use Mike’s car to drive him to a beach house. The groggy Mike makes a run for it, but the two cannons catch and beat him for trying to get away. The fight is finished in the surf.
When Mike wakes up, he is tied to a bed face down. A man comes in, but his face is not shown. He tells Mike he is going to die, but he can still save Velda. The man, presumably Dr. Soberin, asks Mike about “Remember Me.” The man then gives him a shot of sodium pentothal before leaving.
Mike mumbles under the effect of the drugs. Evello comes in later and repeatedly asks about “Remember Me.” They have no luck and eventually leave Mike alone. Mike slips one hand free and calls for help. Evello comes in, and Mike asks about Velda. He tricks Evello into coming near and gets the jump on him.
Mike calls for Smallhouse to come in and kill Mike because he has talked. Smallhouse kills his boss, who is now tied on the bed in the dark room. Mike then kills Smallhouse and escapes before Max can enter the room.
Mike goes back to his apartment, where Lily is still waiting. He is still hazy from drink and drugs. Lily is wearing some clothes that Velda brought to her. Mike has Lily read the sonnet “Remember Me.” Mike gets an idea and starts to leave. Lily gets to go along after saying they came to the door again last night.
Lily and Mike go to the coroner’s cold storage. Doc Kennedy (Percy Helton) lets them see the body. Mike figures that whatever it was, Christina swallowed, and Kennedy has the object. Mike has to pay off Kennedy. Kennedy wants more money than Mike can give. When Kennedy put the object back in the drawer, Mike smashed his fingers in the closed drawer. The key has HAC (Hollywood Athletic Club) stamped on it.
Mike leaves Lily in the car and goes inside. The attendant won’t help and won’t be bribed. Mike slaps the man into cooperation. The locker belongs to Raymondo. The two go to the locker. Inside is a leather-strapped case. Mike opens the leather case, and inside is a metal box. The metal box is hot to the touch. He opens it, and the wrath of God shines out. The light burns Mike’s wrist. Mike closes the locker and asks the attendant not to go near it.
When Mike goes outside, Lily is gone. He goes back to his apartment. When he gets there, Lt. Murphy and a squad of cops are waiting. Murphy wants the key Mike took from Doc Kennedy. Mike wants to save Velda. He tells Murphy that most of the people the cop has tried to protect have been murdered. Mike mentions Lily, and Murphy says she was found dead over a week prior. Murphy sees the burn on Mike’s wrist and is very concerned. Murphy says to Mike, Manhattan Project, Los Alamos, and Trinity. After hearing this, Mike gives the key to Murphy. Murphy doesn’t arrest Mike, but he gives him grief for his actions, including getting Velda kidnapped.
Mike calls the HAC, but there is no answer as the attendant is shown dead on the floor. Mike goes to Diker’s place again, but it is dark. A lite cigarette is in the ashtray. Mike leaves, and Dicker comes out of the shadows. Dicker gets scared and runs outside. He runs right into Mike, who dishes out a good slapping. Under the slapping, Diker says the modern art guy Velda met is named William Mist.
Mike goes to the art gallery and lets himself in. In his bedroom upstairs, Mist takes some pills that Dr. Soberin has prescribed. Even though Mike slaps the man, Mist quickly falls asleep. Mike finds Soberin’s number in Mist’s address book. Soberin’s answering service mentions that he may be at his beach cottage.
At the cottage, Soberin and Lily, now going by the name Gabrielle are standing near the box. She wants to know what is inside. Soberin won’t tell her. He references Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt. He says he is leaving without her. Gabrielle wants half the money, but Soberin doesn’t have it now, so she pulls a gun on him. Without remorse, she shoots him. Soberin says he will tell her where to take the box but begs her not to open it. He then falls dead.
Gabrielle begins taking the straps off the leather box just as Mike comes through the door. She calls Mike to come nearer and kiss her. As he gets close, she shoots him in the side. Gabrielle finds the inner metal box. It burns her fingers, but she decides to open it anyway. When she does, a bright light shines out, and she begins to scream. When the box is fully open, the radiation burns Gabrielle much like the wrath of God in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
Mike finds Velda locked in the next room. They help each other outside as the house is glowing, flashing, and burning. They make it a little way down the beach before the house explodes with the fires of hell. Mike and Velda watch from the surf.
I’ll be back with conclusions and World-Famous Short Summary following a word from our sponsors.
Summary – Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
I mentioned a couple of times what the women were wearing during the movie. I talked about the clothing because, as iMDB.com notes, all of the women appear before Mike wearing nothing but a robe or a coat. It is assumed they were otherwise naked. iMDB.com says that Christina is the good, Velda is the wise, and Lily is the evil. I like it.[3]
According to wikipedia.org Kiss Me Deadly (1955) is widely considered to be the most influential American Film Noir.[4] It is also a primary stylistic precursor to French New Wave cinema.
This movie is an investigation like The Big Sleep (1946). However, they never told where the stuff came from, who was involved, or how they got together. It simply shows Hammer trying to solve an unpaid case.
The box with the radioactive material was a MacGuffin, as it forces the story forward, but it didn’t really matter what was inside or why. The glowing light emitting from the case was used in Repo Man (1984), Ronin (1998), and Pulp Fiction (1994). I always wondered why the briefcase glowed in the diner scene in Pulp Fiction (1994).
However, this is not the only film element lifted from the film. The opening credit’s role on a slant and comes towards the audience. This credit movement was lifted for Star Wars (1977) and many of its reboots. But the most extensive lift is the opening of the box by Gabrielle, where she catches on fire and then burns alive. It is amazingly similar to the open of the Ark of the Covent in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).
World-Famous Short Summary – What’s in the box?
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048261/
[2] https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kiss_me_deadly
[3] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048261/trivia
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiss_Me_Deadly
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