...OK, people!! Let's get it right out there, and state the obvious...or rather, what will
be the obvious, depending upon whoever has or hasn't seen this subtle and captivating potboiler...this invariably explosive powerhouse of a film, or at the very least, are aware of it's influence on a certain film director, amongst others. Ahem!! (...insert a clearing of the throat, and a rolling of the eyes) Yes, people...this
is, without a doubt, one of many poignant and noteworthy films, which influenced eclectic cult film director Quentin Tarantino. Just
how this film proves juxtapositioned as being influential...well, we'll get to that, as we move along here...
...now, how this curiously unseen film came to this unwary viewer's attention...as well as having since given cause for this dunderhead of a claimed seasoned and knowledgeable film fan to (...once again) kick himself in the buttocks, repeatedly, for having missed this one (...amongst others), all these years...well, those familiar with the nostalgic, over-the-airwaves digital broadcast channel, Antenna TV, may well be aware that in the quiet, star-studded wee hours of the morning, on Saturday and Sunday, this channel...a sort of TV Land wannabee, which during the waking hours, broadcasts the best of TV sitcoms and drama, from the '50's through the '80's...instead reels out the best of selected titles from the MGM and Columbia Pictures film archives, and...uh, hey Mr. Peabody!! Set the wayback machine to some weeks ago, when this viewer rose from the covers, knuckled the sleep from his eyes, switched on the tube, and caught a rather strikingly familiar sight...which culminated with a most explosively cataclysmic, 'what-the-f***' film ending. Or better yet, let's just throw in a little more fantasy, pressed an imagined 'rewind' button, and kicked things into gear, right from the beginning, 'kay??.....
...private detective Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) ain't exactly in the best of moods, right now; but them, he finds himself quite hard pressed to remember the
last time he was in a good mood. Right now, that's besides the point; huffingly and irritatingly awaiting a local gas station attendant, who is giving Mike's car...a sleek Jaguar convertible...a good once over, Mike mentally paws over the events of the past hour or so. Speeding down a pitch-dark, unlit highway...minding his own business. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a crazed-looking young woman (Cloris Leachman, in her inaugural film role), appearingly dressed only in a trenchcoat, runs out in the middle of the road, causing Mike to dangerously swerve off the road, barely missing her. An outraged tongue-lashing, followed by an irritated, albeit more subdued ride invitation, and Mike...with the girl in tow, saddled beside him...barrels down the highway, on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Irritated, though nonetheless intrigued...as might be expected from someone of his vocation...Mike tries to get the frantic young girl, to tell her story...even going as far as to feign his way through a police roadblock, reportedly set up to find and subdue a recently escaped female insane asylum inmate...which, of course, raises more intrigue and red flags, in Mike's inquisitive mind...
...to Mike's dismay, such intrigue and red flags find themselves, at present, taking precedence over his survival instincts, as he is forced off the road, once again, and knocked cold by a cadre of darkly dressed, unknown attackers...
...the sound of blood-curdling screams brings Mike back to a very groggy level of consciousness; he finds himself in a barren and rickety looking room, laid out onto squeaky bare bedsprings. To his horror, in looking around, he sees his captors...still unrecognizable...attending to the woman, who he had taken into his care; she is now naked, having been tied up and left hanging in the nearby closet...and their captors, muttering demands upon the girl, are imposing their will upon her, with the help of a deftly applied pair of pliers. Looking over to Mike, the clearly sadistic captors go over, and kick him to the splintered wooden floor of the room, rendering him unconscious again. Soon after, the gangsters load up Mike and the girl into Mike's car, and without a second thought, direct and push the vehicle off a highway cliff, during which time the car bursts into flames and explodes...seemingly incinerating the two unconscious passengers.....
...three days later, Mike drifts back to consciousness, and...'What the...Where am I'...finds himself looking into the faces of...'Is that a nurse'...his secretary, Velda, and police detective Pat Murphy, one of Mike's closets law enforcement confidants. Seems that inexplicably, Mike finds himself a resident of a local L.A. hospital, with no explanation as to where he's been, how he got here, and why he has nary a scratch or injury on him. Upon his release, Mike is immediately directed towards the local city's crime commission, who unrelentingly grill him on his covert and unscrupulous brand of private investigating (...Mike specializes in coercing adulterous husbands into revealing themselves and their nefarious activity, through blackmail and under-the-table payoffs, instigated by the suspecting spouses, and in the process, plays both sides, financially). However, still at a total loss, with regards to his unexplained 'resurrection', Mike becomes further suspicious at the line of questioning, instinctively suspecting that his superiors are looking for information, much more underlining...even diabolical.....
...However, one thing clearly sticking in Mike's craw: the crazed woman, whom he had picked up on the highway; clearly, she was associated with something big...something inexplicably, albeit compellingly mysterious, and clearly dangerous. Driven by the irresistibly captivating mystery and intrigue, associated with the waywardly unknown woman, whom he had encountered...as well as the self-demandant eagerness for some retributive payback, Mike delves further into his freelance investigation of the heinous situation. And finding further intrigue and clues only serves to drive Mike further into the quagmire of mystery, laid out before him...an insatiable drive, which only serves to bring out further strange and nefarious characters, some of whom are criminally, even homicidally determined to know what Mike knows...to stop him in his tracks, if necessary...
...and this compelling labyrinth of mystery and intrigue eventually culminates in the discovery and identification of a mysterious and deadly 'whatzit', contained in an equally mysterious and carefully concealed leather case.....
...and just what about that case, huh?? The contents of which are never truly revealed, but when...at minimal, sporadic moments in the film...the box is opened, the hapless opener of the box is awashed in a blinding, unearthly light. Sound familiar?? Why, of course...it seems that we are in the negligibly-poignant-and-indirectly-unrelated-to-the-story-but-still-quite-strikingly-visual-and-memorable plot device, known quaintly as the 'MacGuffin', and in the case of "Kiss Me Deadly", this classic, and...well, quite effective 'MacGuffin' clearly inspired filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's similarly rendered 'MacGuffin', in 1994's "Pulp Fiction"...an obvious reference, but for one of lessor suggestion, one might even consider the inexplicably 'white hot' Malibu car trunk, in 1984's surreal sci-fi/comedy, "Repo Man".....
...and much like the mysterious and contents-undivulged briefcase in "Pulp Fiction", the 'MacGuffin' in "Kiss Me Deadly" harbors it's own cache of suspected and underlining meanings. Is the deadly case, a poignant allegory, reflective of something not dissimilar to that of the classic story of Pandora's Box?? Or perhaps a parallel reflection of the classically biblical Sodom and Gomorrah story, whereby the wife of traveler & God's messenger, Lot, was transformed into a pillar of salt, when she looked back upon the city of Sodom, which was soon to be devastated?? Or quite possibly, the case is the protagonistic instigator, or catalyst, in suggesting that the whole film itself, is a complex, symbolic and intertwining narrative, synonymous with the historical paranoia of the time, regarding the Cold War, and the horrors of nuclear Armageddon?? Least to say, after all these years, the 'jury' remains at an impasse, as far as the film's true and absolute meaning...which makes the film's engaging and mysterious proceedings, all the more compelling and intriguing...
...but 'that's not all, folks', as countless TV infomercials often re-soundly and alluringly reiterate. Character-wise, "Kiss Me Deadly" has afforded yet further inspiration for the Tarantino camp. And with that, we really must consider the 'according to Hoyle' definition of 'bad-ass'...in not so much the word-for-word meaning of the term, but more how it might be explicitly and dynamically expressed. That is a poignant axiom most deftly applicable to the characters of "Kiss Me Deadly", as it seems like the movie exists in an alternate world where just about
everyone is a bad-ass. Indeed, such a thing in a film of this ilk, might well be anticipated in flatfoot, gumshoe cop and/or detective characters, as well as the opposing criminal and/or gangster personae; however, as unprecedented as it might look...heck, even the women in this film, come off as bad-asses. And again, not so much 'bad-ass' as the definition of the term might suggest, but more on how the way that it's expressed; for this viewer, the best expression of the term which comes to mind, as might be applied to "Kiss Me Deadly", would be how actor Gary Oldman's 'Drexel' character, in 1993's "True Romance", expresses the word...not just bad-ass, but
bad-ass (...or in the case of 'Drexel', 'bad (-ass) muther f***er')...
...actor Ralph Meeker not only assumes and embraces the classically noir-ish role, as Mickey Spillane's rough 'n' rugged, hard-nosed private detective, Mike Hammer, he quite literally captivates, as far as his performance. Let's face it, folks: although the often adapted literary detective role has been adapted and rendered as pretty much the 'hero', in most...if not all of author Spillane's stories, featuring the character...in essence, Hammer really isn't a very nice guy. Adeptly physical, and yet imperfect and flawed, Hammer is not one to be reckoned with, with regards to bullshit...and especially, with regards to anyone who crosses him; he'd just as soon beat and physically coerce the information out of his quarry...even if it's someone of the female persuasion...than to pussy-foot around, and play nicey-nice with them...
...the character of Velda Wickman, as portrayed by actress Maxine Cooper, also seems like a somewhat unlikable character, despite how strikingly alluring she most assuredly is, and yet, much like Hammer, her persona is compelling and rich in intrigue, in the sense that she quite literally volunteers herself to the abusive whims of Hammer, while acting in the capacity of his secretary, his co-conspirator, his 'right-hand' lady...and occasionally, should the mood as well as the convenience suit him, his intimate 'main squeeze'. And the name of actor Albert Dekker, here in the revelational role of Dr. Soberin...a shady sort of a scientist, who seems to be the only person, herein these foreboding and mysterious events, who knows what 'the big secret' is... struck a familiar cord with this viewer, though seeing him in this film, hardly aided in that sense of familiarity. A quick check with the actor's filmography, and...Well, I'll be damned!!! Why, it's Dr. Thorkel...yes, ol' "Dr. Cyclops", himself...from the 1940 Universal horror classic of the same name.....
...director Robert Aldrich affords film viewers a blunt, hard-edged and fast-paced glimpse of inner-city crime and film noir, and yet, deftly unfolds a subtle, sci-fi-flavored potboiler of a mystery...not unlike an extended episode of 'The Twilight Zone'...which affords viewers just enough information to keep the mysterious proceedings slow to come, but compelling, nonetheless...kind of like being on the receiving end of a funnel, with all of the 'good stuff' in the bowl, but the contents are being forced, at a trickle pace, through the lower orifice...enough to intrigue and interest, but always left measurably wanting.....
...with a cross-genre presentation approach, which once again might well remind viewers of the similarly eclectic stylings of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, "Kiss Me Deadly" is a most fascinating and intriguing creature of multiple facets, as well as a cleverly complex instigator of multiple interpretations, left with the unwary viewer...flavorfully accented with the best of L.A.'s classic inner-city locations (...the L.A. Boxing Club, Wilshire Boulevard, the Hillcrest Hotel, the Hollywood Athletic Club, etc.), as well as with a rogue's gallery of characters, probably best not to encounter, or get caught up with...and yet, still irresistible to watch, nonetheless. "Kiss Me Deadly" uniquely takes what was best about the classic film noir genre...during a time when film noir was becoming passe...and melds it with a poignant (...for it's time) atomic-age fervor, and an accompanying, albeit underlining feeling of desperation and paranoia...all culminating into an explosive and prophetically cataclysmic finale, not to be forgotten.....
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