THE GIRL HUNTERS (1963)

Director: Roy Rowland

Writers: Mickey Spillane (adapting his novel), Robert Fellows, Roy Rowland

Producer: Robert Fellows

Cast: Mickey Spillane, Shirley Eaton, Lloyd Nolan, Scott Peters, Hy Gardner (as himself), Guy Kingsley Poynter, Larry Taylor, Kim Tracy, Charles Farrell, Murray Kash, Benny Lee, Bill Nagy, Hal Gilili, Clive Endersby, Larry Cross, Ricardo Montez, Robert Gallico, Tony Arpino, Nellie Hanham, Michael Brennan, Grant Holden, Frances Napier, (and uncredited cast) Pauline Chamberlain, Charles Adcock, George Holdcroft, Jim O’Brady

New York City private detective Mike Hammer (Mickey Spillane) has been a “drunken bum” for seven years. Hammer was devastated by the abduction and disappearance of his beloved secretary Velda while she was assisting on one of his cases. His former friend, Police Captain Pat Chambers (Scott Peters), brings in Hammer to get information from a dying sailor named Richie Cole (Murray Kash). Chambers wants Cole to identify who shot him because ballistics determined that the same gun also recently killed Senator Knapp, but Cole will only speak privately to Hammer. Cole tells Hammer an assassin called “the Dragon” shot him and that the killer’s next target is Velda. This shocks Hammer into sobriety and leaves him determined to find Velda before the killer does.

The Flashback Fanatic movie review

By 1963 writer Mickey Spillane’s bestselling hero, private eye Mike Hammer, had already been portrayed in various films and television programs. Much to the irritation of Spillane, these productions never portrayed his character and stories faithfully, but that all changed with Spillane’s involvement in the film The Girl Hunters. Spillane himself stars as Hammer and wrote the script based on his recent novel.

This story takes place at the height of the Cold War and deals with concerns about communism. As in many of Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels, we see how the broadest threats can intrude into the life of one man who will react in the most direct and violent manner possible. This bold individualism is what appeals to the Mike Hammer fan and Hammer’s violence vents a lot of real world anxieties for Spillane’s readers.

In his stories Hammer is not only self-righteous and overbearing, but it seems that he could be a dangerously unstable individual. He certainly is dispensing lethal justice to the kind of fiends that really deserve it, yet there are times when Hammer himself seems unhinged. I actually think this is an effective ratcheting up of the kill-or-be-killed mindset that would probably be the result of anyone facing the dangers that Hammer often does. Although I suspect that Spillane himself would have denied it, it has been suggested that World War II veteran Mike Hammer may be suffering a form of shell shock.

I recall that the very first time I saw this film Spillane’s performance impressed me very much. I thought that the man was not acting. That is a true compliment. Spillane obviously knows his character inside and out; therefore, he does not need to affect any sort of pose or work to project an attitude. He has confidence in his performance because he has an intimate understanding of Mike Hammer. As the closing credits of The Girl Hunters state: “Mike Hammer is Mickey Spillane.”

The other most famous member of the cast would be the striking blonde Shirley Eaton as Laura Knapp, the widow of a senator killed by the same gun that shot Richie Cole. Despite Hammer’s devotion to the missing Velda, he is enticed by the all too present allure of Laura Knapp’s bikinied beauty. She combines class and carnality with a nice sense of humor. Whew! What more could any guy ask for? This was just one year before Shirley Eaton would achieve screen immortality as the “golden girl” in the James Bond epic Goldfinger (1964).

Lloyd Nolan provides great support as Rickerby, the federal agent that is pressuring Hammer to help him find Richie Cole’s killer. Rickerby has a personal vendetta to avenge Cole’s death just as Hammer also has a personal stake in finding the Dragon to save Velda. The two characters are initially rather antagonistic, but they soon develop an opportunistic respect for each other.

For those who have never read a Mike Hammer story, The Girl Hunters film gives them an absolutely faithful rendition of one. Many dialogue passages are presented on film word-for-word from the original novel. One great rant that is shortened in the film is Hammer’s mansplaining to Laura Knapp about the consequences of her careless firearm storage. Those lines are typical of the kind of brutal energy in Spillane’s prose. In this film Hammer is dressed and behaves exactly as Spillane envisioned him. Perhaps just as importantly, not only for Spillane but also for his readers, is that at long last Hammer is using his weapon of choice: a Colt .45 automatic.

One of the best bits in The Girl Hunters film was not in the novel but is a reenactment of a true incident in Mickey Spillane’s life. Spillane told director Roy Rowland about his encounter with an ice pick-wielding tough in a New York City bar. The director was so impressed that he insisted they use it in the film. It is one of the all-time greatest tough guy intimidation scenes.

There are those that think this film spends too much time in dialogue scenes. We see Hammer being interrogated or repeatedly meeting up with people to find out background and facts he needs to follow the trail he hopes will lead him to Velda. Impatient, modern-day movie viewers may refer to this condescendingly as exposition. To be sure, there is a lot of info traded back and forth to keep track of in order for Hammer to fit the pieces of this deadly puzzle together. That’s why it’s a mystery, folks. That may not seem dynamically cinematic, but it settles me into the reality of this world Hammer must travel in to find a killer and hopefully his lost love. Along the way there are plenty of brutal reminders of the dangers involved in Hammer’s quest.

In true Mickey Spillane fashion, The Girl Hunters has an absolutely uncompromising badass climax at the very last minute. Spillane always thought that the final page of the story should not only reward the readers for the effort they spent getting there, but that a socko finish would leave them eager for the next novel. The finish to The Girl Hunters is classic Spillane and one of the nastiest film finales ever.

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.