Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

Robert Aldrich’s dark and oppressive Kiss Me Deadly is one of the most renowned film noirs of the 1950s. For me personally it was a case of renting it having heard the name, but not much else which is always a situation I enjoy with a film I can watch with no expectations or prior knowledge. The film starts in familiar fashion, a damsel in distress, a hardboiled private detective and a mystery he finds himself drawn to, but where it goes from there is often unexpected and frequently disturbing in a way that seems atypical for films of the time.
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Ralph Meeker’s Mike Hammer is not an upstanding hero, instead he comes across as a reckless and morally dubious anti-hero who enjoys causing pain as much as he does hiring out his girlfriend / secretary to seduce divorcing men on behalf of their wives. Despite this though he remains a compelling character, and what really starts to separate the film as it goes on is the unsettling atmosphere that managed to pervade every corner of the film. After a while it becomes clear that whatever it is Hammer is after, is dangerous, yet we share his dogged persistence to get to the bottom of the puzzle.

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The ending of the film is both strange and unexpected, but on reflection also totally fitting. This isn’t a film afraid to go big and weird and that twist actually adds a real edge that separates it from more traditional noir. With some expertly crafted scenes, top notch black and white photography and some charismatic performances Kiss Me Deadly is a great little thriller, its anachronisms easy to overcome even today and a great example of a classic film genre with a twist.