Kiss of Death
![Watch film Kiss of Death — Kiss of Death (1947) ORIGINAL TRAILER [HD 1080p]](https://www.acmodasi.in/amdb/images/posters/e/f/ePNRsZSMrt7N.webp)
Short description
Kiss of Death follows Nick Bianco, a New York criminal who is wounded and arrested while robbing a jewellery store with accomplices on Christmas Eve. Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo offers him a lighter sentence if he names the men who got away, but Bianco refuses and goes to prison, trusting that his lawyer and his partners will look after his wife and two daughters. When that trust proves misplaced, he agrees to cooperate with the authorities. His testimony puts him in the path of Tommy Udo, a violent criminal who becomes determined to settle the score, forcing Bianco to protect the people close to him.
Henry Hathaway directed the film from a screenplay by Charles Lederer and Ben Hecht, with Fred Kohlmar producing for 20th Century Fox. It was Hathaway's fourth film as director in chronological order, coming between The House on 92nd Street and The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel. Victor Mature plays Bianco, Brian Donlevy is D'Angelo, Coleen Gray is Nettie Cavallo and Richard Widmark is Udo; 74 cast members are credited.
Released in August 1947, the crime drama runs 99 minutes. It holds a 7.4 rating on IMDb from around 10,000 votes and a 7.1 on TMDB from a much smaller number. A critics' rating of 7.7 from 19 reviews is close to the audience scores on IMDb, indicating broad agreement about the film's quality.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film was shot in a real prison, which is why a toilet is visible in the cell of the character played by Victor Mature (1913-1999). Showing toilets on screen was prohibited until 1960, when Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) ended this taboo in his film “Psycho.”
- Director Henry Hathaway (1898-1985) was not thrilled that Richard Widmark (1914-2008) was cast as the villain. He wanted Widmark removed from the cast entirely. Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck opposed this, and Hathaway began making Widmark's life miserable in every way possible. When Widmark decided he had had enough and it was time to leave, it was Hathaway who convinced him to finish working on the film. He did so, and from that moment on, Hathaway and Widmark treated each other with pointed respect. After all this, Widmark appeared in five more of Hathaway's films and was one of the pallbearers at Hathaway's funeral.
- It was originally intended that Patricia Morrison (1915-2018) would play Victor Mature's (1913-1999) wife, and that she would be raped by one of the gangsters tasked with looking after her while her husband served his prison sentence. Following this, she was meant to commit suicide by putting her head in the oven and turning on the stove. At the insistence of censors, both scenes (the rape and the suicide) were cut from the film. Later in the movie, it is only briefly mentioned that the woman committed suicide.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
