What classics did you see last week ? (23 Feb - 29 Feb 2020)

Kiss Me Deadly / Robert Aldrich (1955). Parklane Productions. Cinematography by Ernest Laszlo. An essential in the film noir canon. Some writers consider it one of the finest movies of the 1950s. It is certainly a contender. Nominally based on Mickey Spillane’s novel of the same name, it is really a different story. Spillane is known for his striking opening chapters and shockeroo endings, sometimes held to the last sentence of the book. The movie follows that pattern as well as both having the killer go up in a conflagration. Ralph Meeker, playing Mike Hammer as a sociopath only in for himself instead of a righteous vengeful vigilante, is driving his sporty foreign convertible along a dark and mostly deserted highway. (One writer has identified Hammer’s car as an MG, but it is a 1951 Jaguar XK 120. Photo below.). He has to brake fast and run off the road when a woman, Christina (Cloris Leachman, very impressive in a small role), naked but for a trench coat, runs into the road in front of him. Hammer agrees to drive her to a bus stop but, in a sudden switch, jaggedly edited, he is run off the road again, drugged, his passenger beaten to death, and Hammer pushed off a cliff in his own car. Well, he is not going to lie still for this. After being warned off the case by several people, he just plows ahead. It seems Christina had a “whatsit” (the equivalent of Sam Spade’s “dingus” and Hitchcock’s McGuffin) that everyone wants and who will kill and torture to get it. The shocking ending, still very powerful, taps into ’50s atomic paranoia. It will rock your world.



Cloris Leachman




Mike Hammer in his Jaguar XK 120 at a roadblock