--- kevinburtonsmith > Nope, not at all. By 1955, when
KISS ME DEADLY came
> out, the conventions of noir had
> more or less already been codified. I can't think
of
> any "essential aspects of the style" that
> KISS ME DEADLY invented.
>
> Care to give us an example? Any example?
****************************************************** The
fat scrolling credits at the beginning used effectively later
by Star Wars. The repeating stair angels which may have been
borrowed from Hitchcock but certainly not used as heavily as
in KISS ME DEADLY. Here they're used like the venitian blinds
and fan shadows were in Curtiz' CASABLANCA. They're also very
reminiscent of Escher's art work. Watching the villian
through his shoes was used by Hitchcock again in STRANGERS ON
A TRAIN, but here it's used to put the viewer in the position
of Hammer in a drugged and beaten state and it continues
right up until the pool party where we begin to see their
faces. KISS ME DEADLY is full of fine noir camera angles and
very effective use of black & white. Velda is also
depicted in a powerful way. Hammer is almost pimping her.
There's no whore/angel thing here as there is with Jane Greer
in OUT OF THE PAST. Velda is a broad in broad strokes. The
scene of her dance pactice is a very expressive touch of how
she sees herself. That we can see the sweat on her is really
effective.
> And personally, I'm not even sure KISS ME
DEADLY
> qualifies as essential noir, or even a
> particularly effective example of the genre. To
me,
> it seems dated and clumsy in a way
> much older -- and better -- film noirs don't.
I
> always think of it more as a Cold War
> paranoia film more than a crime film.
**************************************************** Well, it
is clumsy and dated just as Spillane's work is clumsy and
dated. It is not a faithful adaptation of Spillane's
quintessential novel, but in some ways it's much better. The
beginning with Cloris Leachman barefoote and naked but for a
trechcoat is not only faithful to the novel, but we meet her
first in headlights and we feel for her Christina much more
than we do for the desperately slutty Berga Torn in the
novel. That little cameo is a tour de force for Leachman. She
says 'remember me,' which Torn never said, and we do. We
understand why Hammer is so determined to find out what
happened to her.
Sure, OUT OF THE PAST, THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, DOUBLE
INDEMNITY, CASABLANCA, THE MALTESE FALCON are better movies
than KISS ME DEADLY, still not many modern noir films come
close to capturing KISS ME DEADLY's essential persepctive
even though their stories may be better and their casts more
accomplished.
Patrick King
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