Friday, November 20, 2020 at 6:08:00 P.M. EST
TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 and 10 a.m. ET is Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly (1955) with Ralph Meeker, Maxine Cooper, Paul Stewart, Gaby Rodgers, Wesley Addy, Jack Elam, Jack Lambert and Albert Dekker.
Film Noir Guide: “Hard-boiled author Mickey Spillane’s macho private eye, Mike Hammer (Meeker), picks up a nearly naked female hitchhiker who has just escaped from a mental institution. They’re kidnapped by bad guys Dekker, Elam, Lambert, and Stewart, who believe the girl is carrying the key to a mysterious object (‘the great whatsit’) they’re desperately searching for.
“After torturing the girl, they put her and Meeker back in their car and push it over an embankment, leaving them for dead. The girl dies but Meeker recovers and becomes obsessed with the dead woman and her secret. Cooper plays the P.I.’s secretary and lover, Rodgers is the hitchhiker’s strange roommate, and Addy is the police detective who warns Spillane to mind his own business.
“Meeker is sensational as the shady bedroom dick, whose specialty is the ‘big squeeze’ (playing husbands and wives against each other in divorce cases). He makes no bones about what he is—a remorseless opportunist seemingly unable to think before acting (perhaps as a result of all those knocks on the head). “Rodgers is excellent as the shorthaired, whiny-voiced sexpot, whose curiosity is her downfall.
“Despite its dated plot, the ultra-violent Kiss Me Deadly has gained a cult following over the years. It’s a wild roller coaster ride that can be enjoyed over and over. In fact, a second viewing might be necessary to follow the complicated storyline. The original, ambiguous ending has been slightly altered in the restored version, settling some, but not all, questions. See I, the Jury, and My Gun is Quick for more Mike Hammer noir.”
Film Noir Guide was pretty long-winded. In my opinion, Kiss Me Deadly is much overrated. The two films where Mike Hammer was close to the novels were I, the Jury, with Biff Elliot and The Girl Hunters (1964), when Spillane played Hammer himself (and had Shirley Eaton as femme fatale).
Most Hollywood directors and screenwriters heartily disliked Mike Hammer, as written by Mickey Spillane. Too “fascist and reactionary.” Kiss Me Deadly was no exception. Spillane hated the movie at the time, but warmed to it over the years when it became a “cult classic.”
I read the Mike Hammer books in high school. In those days they were on the paperback book rack at drug stores. I had to tear the covers off (which showed naked females), so my mother wouldn’t know what I was reading.
1 comment:
TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 and 10 am ET is Suspense (1946) with Barry Sullivan, Belita, Albert Dekker, Bonita Granville, directed by Frank Tuttle.
Film Noir Guide: "Sullivan plays an ambitious drifter who gets a job selling peanuts at an Ice Capades-type show. He's soon promoted by the producer (Dekker), whom he thanks for the career advancement by seducing his wife (Belita), the star of the show. Enter former girlfriend Granville. An avalanche and two murders do nothing to advance the lame plot, and several lengthy ice-skating numbers (designed especially for former ice-skating star Belita) only slow things down even more. Contrary to the title, the suspense is non-existent."
Although Suspense is a mediocre film, last week in his outro Eddie Muller exulted how much he likes it.
In his intro and outro last week for Kiss Me Deadly, Eddie told how left wing director Robert Aldrich hated Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer character (Aldrich considered it "fascist, McCarthyite") and subverted it, making Kiss Me Deadly the "best" version of Hammer. When released in 1955, it failed at the box office. But (naturally) critics ever since love it. What Eddie doesn't get is it was Spillane who was "subversive," not the left-wing film critics.
I first saw Kiss Me Deadly on the Late Show while in college. It didn't sustain the Hammer of the books. Ralph Meeker was a strong actor and would have made a good Mike Hammer with the right script.
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