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.

PWNYCNY The Maltese Falcon and Kiss Me Deadly are similar in that both movies open with a young, attractive, and mysterious young woman randomly entering the life of the main protagonist which triggers a series of events revolving around a McGuffin. But whereas The Maltese Falcon can be taken seriously, the same cannot be said for Kiss Me Deadly. Kiss Me Deadly is pure camp. In this movie, the caricature of the aggressive, pushy, anti-law, anti-hero, no-nonsense, amoral tough guy is perfected. Mike Hammer is "one of those self-indulgent males who thinks about nothing but his clothes, his car, himself." Ralph Meeker's performance as Hammer must be rated as one of the greatest performances in the history of film noir. Meeker sets the standard for this type of role. The film's screenwriter, A. I. Bezzerides, wrote the script for fun. Bezzerides said, "People ask me about the hidden meanings in the script, about the A-bomb, about McCarthyism, what does the poetry mean, and so on. And I can only say that I didn't think about it when I wrote it . . . I was having fun with it." The idea of a medical doctor lugging around a box containing a mysterious and dangerous thing that is "hot", or of a harried, disheveled gumshoe repeatedly screwing up, or of the same gumshoe barging into a health club and demanding to look inside some guy's locker, or of the gumshoe possessing what may be the single largest and gaudiest personal telephone answering machine in history, or of the gumshoe having a girlfriend that's part-secretary, part-confidante, part-lover and completely a whore, or of the gumshoe's best friend being an auto mechanic who looks, sounds, and acts like Jerry Colonna, or of the gumshoe driving around in expensive sports cars had to be written for laughs. It is virtually impossible to take such scenes or props seriously. If this movie has any message, it is to sit back, relax, watch it and enjoy it.