Événement

NOIR CITY 17: 1955: KISS ME DEADLY / KILLER'S KISS

Tuesday, January 29: 1955

7:30
KISS ME DEADLY
(1955, United Artists [Park Circus]. 106 min.)

Scr. A. I. Bezzerides, from the novel by Mickey Spillane. Dir. Robert Aldrich

America's anti-Communist crusaders found their superhero in crime writer Mickey Spillane's private-eye hero, Mike Hammer, who enjoyed a flurry of film adaptations in the '50s. But in this one, screenwriter Bezzerides pulled the rug out from under Hammer, slyly subverting his "heroics" and replacing Spillane's routine crime plot with a jaw-dropping doomsday scenario. Ralph Meeker is uncomfortably attractive as Hammer: sexy, sadistic, and terminally stupid. Aldrich directs the twisted plot with a bust-out verve that heralded both the end of traditional film noir and the start of a new, more aggressive style of cinema. Presented as it was released in 1955: in 35mm, courtesy of Park Circus
Cast: Ralph Meeker (Mike Hammer), Albert Dekker (Dr. Soberin), Paul Stewart (Carl Evello), Maxine Cooper (Velda), Gaby Rodgers (Lily Carver), Cloris Leachman (Christina Bailey), Juano Hernandez (Eddie Yeager), Wesley Addy (Lt. Pat Murphy), Jack Lambert (Sugar Smallhouse), Jack Elam (Charlie Max), Marian Carr (Friday)

9:40
KILLER'S KISS
(1955, United Artists [Park Circus]. 67 min.)

Scr. Stanley Kubrick and Harold O. Sackler. Dir. Stanley Kubrick

Made for a minuscule $75,000 (mostly borrowed from a family friend), Killer's Kiss was 27-year-old Stanley Kubrick's first distributed film--an inventive and kinetic tribute to film noir and his hometown, Manhattan. The simple story--a boxer's affair with a mobster's woman puts them both in peril--is a springboard for the young director to show off his remarkable skills as a director, cameraman, and editor. Using a largely amateur cast, shooting without sync sound, and limited to 100-foot rolls of film in his portable Eyemo camera, Kubrick made the first amateur feature to receive international distribution. The rest is history. Presented in 35mm courtesy of Park Circus
Cast: Frank Silvera (Vincent Rapallo), Jamie Smith (Davey Gordon), Irene Kane (Gloria Price), Jerry Jarrett (Albert, the fight manager), Mike Dana (gangster)