bsmith5552 "Kiss of Death" is probably best remembered for the scene in which Richard Widmark's character, Tommy Udo pushes a wheelchair bound woman (Mildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs. But it is more than that.Shot on location in New York, Director Henry Hathaway use a documentary film noire style to give the film a reality not possible on a sound stage. He uses actual locations for the various prison scenes, buildings and offices which accentuates the realism of the story.The basic story line has small time crook Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) being arrested for a jewel robbery and being brought before Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo (Brian Donlevy). D'Angelo tries to get Nick to rat out his partners in crime. No go. Nick goes to prison with the promise from his lawyer Earl Howser (Taylor Holmes) that he'll get an early parole. On the way to prison he meets the sadistic giggling psychopathic killer Udo, a friendship doomed to failure.After a personal tragedy happens while he is in prison, Nick reverses his stand and decides to contact D'Angelo and turn states evidence. He testifies against Udo and thinks that it's all over. Not so.Along the way, Nick Strikes up a romance with Nettie (Coleen Gray) and eventually marries her.Hathaway seems to have slipped a couple of things past the censors. The fact that Nettie was Nick's former baby sitter suggests that she is quite a bit younger than he and that he may have had his eye on her as a budding teenager. And because Hathaway used real locations, one might almost miss Mature flicking a cigarette butt into a real toilet in a jail cell, a no-no in those days. But not to worry, Nick and Nettie sleep in twin beds.The ending is pure Hollywood and therefore unbelievable. I mean, count the number of slugs both Nick and Udo take at the film's climax, yet both survive.I had a problem with some of the time lines in the picture. For example, Nick meets Udo on the way to prison but we don't see him again for at least a third of the film and never in the prison. When Nick turns states evidence, we casually learn that he has been away for three years and in the interim, Udo somehow has been released. And Nettie appears out of nowhere and seems to be carrying a torch for Nick in spite of their age differences.Victor Mature was always, in my opinion, a much better actor than his "hunk" image allowed. In this film he gives a powerful performance as the tragic Nick. Widmark, in his breakthrough role, steals the picture with his over the top performance as the demented killer Udo. I can't say that I agree with his make up consisting of an exaggerated over bite and fright wig used to apparently enhance his animal like mannerisms.Others in the cast include Karl Malden and Millard Mitchell as cops and John Marley as a convict friend of Nick.

mark.waltz In the criminal world, a rat is a dirty word, and even in law enforcement, those who squeal on the criminals the police are desperate to catch are not always trusted or even liked. Paroled thief Victor Mature finds out that the best way to be a rat is to disappear, yet even that is not easy with the word of mouth spreading after he testifies against psychopathic murderer Richard Widmark, a trial that results in Widmark being acquitted because of his powerful defense. Widmark lies in waiting, like a hungry cat, waiting to pounce, playing with him like real felines do with their prey.This exciting New York City set film noir utilizes the beautiful Elmer Bernstein music "Street Scene" to unfold its story, showing the viewer what lead Mature to being imprisoned, his decisions to rat out fellow prisoner Widmark, and the impact it has on his family. Widmark, the most unforgettable film noir villain, possesses an evil laugh, which when it appears usually mean that a gun or some other method of murder will be appearing as well. This laugh becomes truly menacing in particular when he confronts the wheel-chair bound mother of another rat as to her son's whereabouts.Mature's character, while a crook, is certainly worthy of sympathy. His character witnessed the police killing of his father as a child, was forced by poverty into a life of crime, and his latest imprisonment was as a result of not being able to find a job because of his ex-con status. Then, there's his unseen wife, whom we find out can't take the pressures of poverty, the former baby sitter (Coleen Gray) who becomes Mature's new love interest, and the threat that Widmark imposes on them when his acquittal makes him a free man. This is where the suspense comes in, and a sequence where the sleepless Mature tiptoes around his house with concern for his two daughter's safety is like the ticking of the clock in "High Noon". The ending is unique in the sense that it leaves the viewer with a sense of both hope and justice.

Polaris_DiB 'm a fan of film noir like any other, but sometimes noir still manages to seethe into the darkest recesses of your soul and create a fearful world that's just a little hard to watch. This great little movie from 1947 features one of the most stunningly fearful monsters in all of cinema, Mr. Tommy Udo, psychopathic gangster that laughs like a hyena and glares like a demon from hell, foiled by our hero Mr. Nick Bianco, a down-on-his-luck ol' guy just trying to make ends meet in a life of crime and ending up nearly losing everything. Once Nick starts rebuilding his life, he ends up on the wrong side of Tommy, and then you're talking tension even much more famous noir didn't quite build up.For it's time, this is an extremely violent movie. For these times, it's still an extremely violent movie. There isn't quite as much of the whole "off-screen violence" thing that most movies of this era used to imply rather than show violence, in order to fit the production code. No, one scene in particular stands out a something more demented than you'd see in a Tarantino flick. The way the movie gets away with it, it seems, is that it has a very strong ethical fiber balancing the majority of the drama, and the nihilistic evil of Udo (seriously the 1940s version of Heath Ledger's Joker) is directly confronted by the everyman hero of Nick, who really is a sweety with his heart set in the right place. The voice-over narration too helps add gauze to the pain, especially with the not-quite-earned happy moralistic statement at the end. This movie would be yet another example of the genre where simply eliminated the voice-over narration would make a stunningly perfect movie, but we have what we have and it's some skillful storytelling despite itself.Calling it noir, as well, is a little iffy. It has the high-contrast lighting and the criminal underground ambiance, but the plot-structure is closer to melodrama and the social anxieties are relieved via sacrifice, getting the girl, and happy ending. However, in all other respects its a surprisingly formal early work in the genre that honestly stands out as one of the greatest examples of the form.--PolarisDiB

William Giesin I highly recommend this classic film noir story of a thief, Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) that is faced with the tough decision to turn "stool pigeon" and "rat out" a maniacal killer, Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark). Nick is a "two-time loser" and the only way he will ever get to see his orphaned kids is by "playing ball" with the cops (Brian Donlevy and Karl Malden). This film is magnificently directed by Henry Hathaway who directed such great films as True Grit, How The West Was Won, Rawhide, 13 Rue Madeleine, etc. I once read that Victor Mature was a close friend of Henry Hathaway, and that he was well aware of Hathaway's temper and reputation of mistreating actors on the set during the filming of his pictures. Consequently, Mature warned Hathaway going into the film that he "wouldn't put up with any temper tantrums or abuse during the filming". Hathaway complied in order to get Mature to agree to do the film. Richard Widmark remarked in an interview that "Kiss of Death" was his first film, and that contributed to that wonderful maniacal laugh he gave in many of the films most memorable scenes. The nervous laugh probably was also due to Hathaway's heavy handed direction. In any event, Hathaway threw a temper tantrum during the shooting that caused Mature to walk off the set and sit in a limousine for an hour or so until one of Hathaway's aides begged him to return. Mature's returned to the set on condition that Hathaway behave himself i.e. no more temper tantrums. Later during the filming when Hathaway once again started to go off into another outburst ... Mature politely raised his finger and said "Not even pantomime!". This is one of Victor Mature's best films...and newcomer Richard Widmark steals the show. Widmark was a very underrated actor and deserved a supporting actor Oscar for his performance!