DVD of the Week: Kiss Me Deadly: Criterion Collection

After the classy film noirs of the 1940’s, Robert Aldrich’s adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s hardboiled crime novel Kiss Me Deadly (1955) was as tough and uncompromising as its protagonist Mike Hammer. The film reflects the Cold War paranoia that was rampant during the 1950’s and fuses it with an apocalyptic science fiction climax that still packs a powerful punch after all these years. Aldrich worked for RKO in 1941 as an assistant director and got his solo start on the anti-American film Apache (1954) and the cynical western Vera Cruz (1954). The edgy Kiss Me Deadly ran afoul of the MPAA during the script stages for its depiction of drugs and violence. Aldrich removed the drugs but the violence remained and upon its release he defended it in the press.


The film begins with a barefooted woman (Cloris Leachman) running breathlessly along a stretch of highway road at night. Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) nearly runs her over. He picks her up and it’s a decision he will regret later. Even though Hammer gives her a hard time he lies for her at a police roadblock when he finds out she’s escaped from a mental hospital. However, they are run off the road by three unidentified men and over the soundtrack we hear the woman’s terrified screams which carry over to the next scene where she’s being tortured but all we see are her dangling feet, leaving the rest to our imagination.

The men attempt to get rid of Hammer and the woman by staging a car accident that he somehow survives. Once he gets out of the hospital, government officials unsuccessfully grill him. Why? And who was the mysterious woman and why was she killed? Intrigued and understandably pissed off at almost being killed, Hammer decides to get some answers – ones that lead to something bigger than he could have possible imagined.

Kiss Me Deadly is saturated with a paranoia vibe, like when Hammer comes home from the hospital and carefully checks out his apartment for intruders. Later on, his secretary, Velda (Maxine Cooper), warns him to stay away from the windows because “somebody might blow you a kiss,” which implies that someone is trying to kill him. Aldrich employs shots of Hammer talking to people as if he’s being spied on by someone and this keeps the viewer on edge. Later on, things get serious when Hammer finds dynamite and a bomb rigged to blow up his car. Aldrich also doesn’t skimp on the violence, which must’ve been shocking for its time. Hammer viciously beats a man who tries to kill him with a switchblade by punching him down a flight of steps. In another scene, Hammer disables a henchman so quickly and efficiently that he scares off his cohort.

Ralph Meeker anchors the film with his uncompromising performance. Hammer is a crude, sexist man with a deep distrust of authority, anticipating Dirty Harry by several years as a righteous avenger with his own brand of justice. Meeker is a good-looking tough guy that does a fantastic job of portraying Spillane’s protagonist.

Kiss Me Deadly features a smart, cynical screenplay by A.I. Bezzerides who tweaked the book’s setting and removed the first person voiceover, but retained the hardboiled attitude. Aldrich’s film takes us on a journey through the seedy underbelly of Los Angeles culminating in an explosive finale that would influence the likes of Repo Man (1984) and Pulp Fiction (1994). It came out around the time that other grim, bleak noirs, like Pickup on the South Street (1953), were starting to appear, and anticipated films like Touch of Evil (1958) Don Siegel’s The Killers (1964).

Special Features:

There is an audio commentary by film noir experts Alain Silver and James Ursini. They talk about how Kiss Me Deadly is a commentary on the 1950’s. They point out innovative things for the time, like how it begins in the middle of the action before any opening credits, which play over the film backwards like a road sign. They point out that Aldrich wanted to turn the source novel on its head and use the female characters to comment on and critique Hammer. In addition to the excellent analysis, Silver and Ursini provide biographical and production information on this solid track.

“Director Alex Cox on Kiss Me Deadly” features the English director praising the film and talking about how radically it differs from Spillane’s book. He describes Aldrich as a “bold and radical” filmmaker.

“Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane” is a condensed cut of a 1998 documentary about the author’s life and career in which he also agreed to participate. Fellow writers and admirers speak highly of the man and the innovations he pioneered in crime fiction. Fascinatingly, Spillane wrote for comic books in their early days along with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. This is a fantastic primer on Spillane and his work.

“The Long Haul of A.I. Bezzerides” features excerpts from this 2007 documentary where writers Barry Gifford, George Belecanos, Spillane and Bezzerides talk about the film version of Kiss Me Deadly. Spillane criticizes the script as “lousy,” while Gifford calls the film a classic. Bezzerides says that he changed what he didn’t like about the novel and wrote his own version, “fixing” it.

“Bunker Hill, Los Angeles” features writer and L.A. film buff Jim Dawson talking about some of the film’s locations. We learn about the rise and decline of the Bunker Hill neighborhood. Dawson points out where in the city key scenes were shot in this fascinating tour.

“Altered Ending” shows the truncated ending which offers a much different fate for Hammer. A minute of footage was cut out from the film and finally restored in 1997, which is the version of the film that is on this DVD.

Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.

 

DVD of the Week: Paths of Glory: Criterion Collection

The subject of war was one that fascinated Stanley Kubrick for much of his career. His first film, Fear and Desire (1953), was an allegorical war picture and with Dr. Strangelove (1964), he made a scathingly satirical anti-war film. Full Metal Jacket (1987) depicted war as a waking nightmare bordering on madness. It could be argued that Paths of Glory (1957) is his most straightforward take on warfare but this doesn’t make it lesser than any of Kubrick’s other war films. Much like Full Metal Jacket, Paths of Glory presents combat in the battlefield as dirty, noisy and chaotic – in other words, dehumanizing. Whereas Full Metal Jacket depicted the prelude to war and then actual warfare, Paths of Glory’s focus is primarily on warfare and then its aftermath, shown with unflinching honesty. Made early in his career, this film established Kubrick as a cinematic force to be reckoned with – a self-taught filmmaker who would go on to re-define every genre he tried his hand at.


It is France, 1916 and the country is mired in World War I against Germany. It is literally a series of battles for inches with each side trying to get every bit of real estate that it can. Two French generals (Adolphe Menjou and George Macready) debate about taking a piece of land known as the Anthill. The one wants the other’s soldiers to take it in an unrealistic amount of time but is convinced to do so anyway. Kubrick soon immerses us in the trenches and we see the appalling living conditions – mud, cramped quarters and the sounds of gunfire and bombs all around. We see the wounded and even one soldier suffering from shellshock.

The soldiers, led by Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas), are given a suicide mission: take the Anthill with no support and with severely depleted numbers with conservative losses estimated at half their forces in the ensuing battle. Kubrick’s depiction of the battleground itself is that of a desolate area of dirt decorated with large craters created by bombing. Wreckage and dead bodies litter the landscape. The battle sequence where Dax and his men attempt to take the Anthill is as harrowing and realistic as the D-Day sequence in Saving Private Ryan (1998) only with less money and many years before. Three soldiers (Ralph Meeker, Timothy Carey and Joseph Turkel) are selected from the battalion that failed to take the hill, put on trial for cowardice and sentenced to be executed by a firing squad. In the hearing, Dax defends the men against the pompous General Mireau (Macready).

Kubrick does a fantastic job showing the vast disconnect between the generals and the soldiers in the trenches. It becomes readily apparent that the military leaders have no idea what is going on in the battlefield and expect the impossible from their soldiers. The director has crafted a fascinating anti-war film with a trademark intense performance from Kirk Douglas. This is an angry film that rails against the hubris and arrogance of military leadership and how disposable the average foot soldier is in their eyes. It is a theme that is sadly relevant today. Paths of Glory juxtaposes the brutality of war with the farce that is the subsequent court case with Dax as the lone voice of reason in an unfair world. Kubrick is often described as a cold and calculating filmmaker but what stands out in this film is the humanity of the three soldiers doomed to be executed for completely arbitrary reasons. Kubrick ends the film on an emotional and poignant moment that is incredibly moving and lingers long after the end credits.

Special Features:

There is an audio commentary by film critic Gary Giddins, author of Warning Shadows: Home Alone with Classic Cinema. He points out that Kirk Douglas was at the peak of his popularity and he was responsible for getting Paths of Glory made. Giddins balances analysis with production information while also pointing out brief biographical details on key cast and crew members. He touches upon the differences between the source novel and the film. Giddins delivers an eloquent and informative track.

There is a brief audio interview conducted with Stanley Kubrick from 1966 about the origins of the film.

Also included is a television interview with Kirk Douglas on the popular British talk show Parkinson in February 1979. The actor speaks with his usual candor and enthusiasm, proving to be quite a lively subject. He talks about his career and, of course, Paths of Glory.

There is an interview with producer James B. Harris and he talks about the film and working with Kubrick. He also speaks about how the film came together, done independently and then presented to a studio to back financially. Harris provides fascinating detail on the genesis of the film as well as various other aspects of production.

Also included is an interview with Kubrick’s wife, Christiane. She talks about how meeting Kubrick for the first time and being cast in the film. She actually picked the song she sung in the film. Christiane offers her impressions on her husband’s directing style.

There is an interview with Kubrick’s long-time executive producer Jan Harlan. He talks about the themes in Paths of Glory and in Kubrick’s films in general.

Also included is an excerpt from a French news program about World War I French soldier Theophile Maupas whose tragic story partly inspired Kubrick’s film.

Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.