KISS ME DEADLY (1955)

Director: Robert Aldrich

Writers: A. I. Bezzerides, Robert Aldrich (uncredited), based on the novel Kiss Me, Deadly by Mickey Spillane

Producer: Robert Aldrich

Cast: Ralph Meeker, Maxine Cooper. Gaby Rodgers, Cloris Leachman, Nick Dennis, Paul Stewart, Marian Carr (as Marion Carr), Wesley Addy, Albert Dekker, Jack Elam, Jack Lambert, Juano Hernandez, Leigh Snowden, Percy Helton, Strother Martin, Paul Richards, Fortunio Bonanova, Kitty White 

Shortly after Los Angeles private eye Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) picks up a hitchhiker named Christina (Cloris Leachman), they are run off the road and abducted. While Hammer is unconscious, Christina is tortured to death. Hammer is put back into his auto with Christina’s corpse and the vehicle is pushed off the road into a deep ravine. After weeks in the hospital, Hammer recovers. Sensing that there is a very important motive behind Christina’s death that he could profit from, Hammer is determined to find out who killed Christina and why.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

Introduced in the 1947 novel I, the Jury, Mickey Spillane’s iconic character of private detective Mike Hammer was a transformative influence on mystery fiction and paperback publishing. Spillane’s hard-hitting prose full of sex and violence featured a hero as ruthless as the villains he stalked. This content made Spillane and his Mike Hammer novels incredibly popular and very controversial. As with rock ‘n’ roll music and comic books, Spillane’s fiction became another scapegoat for the rise in America’s juvenile delinquency. However, in the post World War II era, the public was primed for just this kind of fiction. After the long years of the Great Depression and war, many were still left apprehensive about the next big threats that seemed to loom ahead: the spread of Soviet Union communism and the potential for nuclear Armageddon. Desiring security, yet still bracing for the next calamity, many readers welcomed the opportunity to vent their anxieties with Spillane’s ferocious mysteries.

It was inevitable that a character as popular as Mike Hammer would be adapted for other media. He was featured in radio, television, comic strips, and movies. Oddly, while Kiss Me Deadly is the most revered of the Mike Hammer film adaptations, it is also the most irreverent of its hero’s prose origins. Well, that is until the lousy 1994 TV-movie Come Die with Me. 

Producer-director Robert Aldrich and writer A. I. Bezzerides capture all the Spillane prose nastiness while refuting his hero’s righteousness. The plot of the original novel is greatly altered, and the setting is moved from New York City to Los Angeles, as if to declare that the values and intent of the filmmakers is as far removed from Mickey Spillane’s literary universe as possible. 

Nowhere is Aldrich’s and Bezzerides’ criticism of their source material more pointed than in the antihero they provide us as the protagonist of Kiss Me Deadly. The Mike Hammer character they portray demonstrates their disdain for the violent macho idealism and conservative individualism embodied in Spillane’s private eye. The Hammer that Ralph Meeker plays is a selfish opportunist. His detective racket is primarily concerned with divorce cases. Both he and his secretary Velda (Maxine Cooper) manage to coerce their clients into compromising positions that can be used against them by their spouses. This film’s version of Mike Hammer retains all of the brutality of his prose origins but none of those values. Aldrich and Bezzerides seem to believe that those behaving as Spillane’s Hammer does would be self-serving barbarians and not heroes that would save society as they defy its rules. 

It is interesting to note that this film’s sleazy Mike Hammer is not just a one-note jerk anymore than he is a noble hero. Despite his brutality and selfishness, he can express an occasional and surprising bit of sentiment and knows emotional pain when those close to him suffer. In contrast to his apparent success, he mingles with the common man. He lives in a posh apartment and drives expensive sports cars afforded him by his apparently successful detective business, yet he associates with an auto mechanic, a shady prizefighter manager, and a bartender. Surprisingly in the very segregated '50s, he is a white man perfectly at home as a regular in a jazz club that is otherwise populated entirely by African Americans. He also will extend favors large and small to those common people that he associates with. However, it could be argued that the favors he extends are only meant to help him gain information to assist him in his current investigation. He is just as likely to throw some cash at someone to get answers or, if that fails, start beating them up. This apparent hero of the story is shown to be a rather unsavory character, yet one having some positive qualities. This makes the audience relate to Hammer and ponder the ethics of his character and their own. 

It is also made clear to Hammer and the audience that his selfish individualism brings harm to himself and his friends. This may bring about a change in Hammer’s character and give him a chance to redeem himself, though that is never made clear. During the course of his investigation, he mentions the desire to avenge the deaths of two people. At the climax of the story, Hammer seems to be motivated solely in trying to rescue someone close to him. 

Ralph Meeker is perfect as the Mike Hammer that director Aldrich and screenwriter Bezzerides want us to pass judgment on. He has the easy confidence, strength, and aggressiveness that many Americans admire; yet these attributes do not make him a worthwhile human being. We may appreciate his ability to defend himself against attacking thugs, but he will also slap around decent people half his size to get information. We may envy him when sexy women throw their selves at him, but he exploits the woman most devoted to him as a tool for sexual blackmail. This Hammer’s nice apartment, fine clothes, and fast cars are the fancy wrappings around a very empty soul. 

Cloris Leachman makes an unforgettable feature film debut. Wearing only a trench coat, she opens the film running barefoot down a deserted highway at night. As the doomed Christina, she quickly sums up the shallowness of the American male ideal that Hammer represents. 

Nick Dennis plays Nick, the little, Greek dynamo of an auto mechanic. You can’t help but smile every time he makes an appearance. With this fun and energetic character being Hammer’s friend, we are given a bit of hope that maybe the antihero Hammer has some redeeming qualities.

There are plenty of other fine performances in roles large and small throughout the film. However, I must make special mention of Marian (Marion) Carr in her fun and sexy role as Friday, the gangster’s half-sister that flirts with Hammer. She provides a bit of saucy levity in her all too brief scene. I had already fallen for her in the sci-fi horror film Indestructible Man (1956). 

Kiss Me Deadly is one of the most paranoid films ever made. This is evident in the behavior of almost every character. Almost no one can simply state clearly and directly what they mean. If they are not lying, then they all seem to be conditioned to only hint at meanings. People never seem able to agree to communicate. Hammer twice makes the point that even the simple words “yes” and “no” do not have clear meanings. The paranoia of the times seems to have rendered human language a liability. Even the deadly prize of this mystery that so many people are searching for can’t be clearly explained by the characters that know exactly what they are dealing with. There is a common dread of the sought after object, and of the criminal and government forces seeking it, that seems to oppress all of civilization. This breakdown of honest and clear communication is the gravest threat to humanity.