Kiss Me Deadly
Short description
Robert Aldrich directed this 1955 crime mystery thriller, the third of the seventeen films he made as director, following Vera Cruz and preceding Attack. A. I. Bezzerides wrote the screenplay, and Aldrich also produced through Parklane Pictures, with United Artists handling release. Ralph Meeker plays private detective Mike Hammer, alongside Albert Dekker as Dr. G. E. Soberin, Paul Stewart as Carl Evello, Juano Hernández as Eddie Yeager, Wesley Addy as Lieutenant Pat Murphy and Marian Carr as Friday, among a credited cast of 36.
Late one night Hammer picks up Christina, a frightened young woman who has escaped from a psychiatric hospital. Their car is run off the road by thugs; Hammer is knocked out and wakes to hear Christina being tortured to death before he too is left for dead. Recovering, he sets out to learn who she was and why she was killed, and his private investigation draws him into a criminal network and a struggle over a container holding dangerous radioactive material. Hammer's secretary Velda and Christina's friend Lily Carver figure in the case.
The film runs 106 minutes and was released in April 1955. On IMDb it holds 7.5 out of 10 from roughly 24,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.2 from about 419. A critics' score of 8.7 from 41 reviews places it somewhat above those audience figures, indicating stronger approval from reviewers than from the wider viewing public.
What's left behind the scenes
- In 1999, the film was added to the National Film Registry.
- Filming took place in Los Angeles, and many of the neighborhoods and establishments that appeared in the film were already slated for demolition. Thus, the film can serve as a guide to the Californian metropolis at the intersection of different eras.
- The screenplay was based on Mickey Spillane's novel about detective Mike Hammer (1952). However, due to the novel's subject matter involving drugs, it was officially deemed unsuitable for adaptation. To circumvent this difficulty, screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides completely transformed the plot, saturating it with noir tropes and fears of the atomic age. He came up with the hot “nuclear briefcase” and the apocalyptic finale, and also moved the action from New York to California.
- The girl on the highway and the hero's secretary were played by debutantes.
- Before the film's release, Aldrich published an article in the New York Herald Tribune in which he attempted to reassure fans of Mike Hammer, who were alarmed by the careless attitude towards the literary source. The film's road to wide release was a thorny one. Guardians of public morality sent the director a petition demanding more than 30 changes to the film.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
