Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's All Go To The Movies:
It's In His Kiss
Part VII
It's in his kiss.
Isn't that where it all begins?
A caress of the lips. A deep longing. Sharing a single breath?
On the silver screen such a kiss can be captured forever, frozen in time.
Or so these films would have us believe.
So, let's kiss and tell and spill the beans on these everlasting smacks, smooches, and snogs.
Yes, things can get pretty heated.
Chapstick exists for a reason, you know!
Grab a seat on the aisle.
Popcorn at the ready.
Pucker up and roll film!
- uptonking from Wonderland Burlesque
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Kiss of Death
(1916)
This Swedish silent drama was directed by Victor Sjöström and stars Victor Sjöström, Albin Lavén, Mathias Taube, Wanda Rothgardt, and Jenny Tschernichin-Larsson.
In 1918 French critic Louis Delluc praised the film, and film historian Georges Sadoul writes about its complex narrative technique in his 1952 Histoire général du Cinéma.
Approximately 30 minutes of the film survives in the Cinémathèque française film archive.
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The Death Kiss
(1932)
While filming the closing scene of The Death Kiss, leading man Myles Brent is actually killed. Having fooled around with, or been married to, most of the women connected with the movie studio, there are lots of suspects. When leading lady Marcia Lane is arrested for the killing, her suiter, a studio writer, starts to investigate the killing in order to prove her innocence.
Based on the novel The Death Kiss by Madelon St. Dennis, this American pre-Code mystery was directed by Edwin L. Marin and stars David Manners as a crusading studio writer, Adrienne Ames as an actress, and Bela Lugosi as a studio manager.
This film features much of the principal cast of the previous year's wildly profitable and successful Dracula (1931), including David Manners, Edward Van Sloan and Bela Lugosi. The studio sought to emphasize this connection to Dracula, most notably by giving Lugosi top billing despite his small supporting role.
The Death Kiss was originally scheduled for a national release on December 25, 1932. However, the release was delayed by the addition of tinted sequences to the film, and was instead released on January 8, 1933.
During the screening of the stage actor's death, the filmed evidence bursts into flame in the projector. In this black-and-white movie, the screen turns orange and obscures the murderer details. The projection booth smoke is also red and orange. This cinema effect was achieved by hand-painting frame by frame, an inexpensive but impressive effect. When the film was first screened in preview, the response to the color sequence was so strong that the producers delayed the release for several weeks, to allow for every print in distribution to be hand-tinted.
This film was produced at the California Tiffany Studios, a 'Poverty Row' studio. MGM purchased Tiffany's nitrate original film negative library and burned the entire collection during the burning of Atlanta sequence in Gone with the Wind (1939), including the original print of this film.
This film is in the public domain. It can be viewed in its entirety for free on YouTube.
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Kiss of Death
(1947)
Small-time crook Nick Bianco gets caught in a jewel heist and despite urgings from well-meaning district attorney D'Angelo, refuses to rat on his partners and goes to jail, assured that his wife and children will be taken care of. Learning that his depressed wife has killed herself, Nick informs on his ex-pals and is paroled. Nick remarries, gets a job and begins leading a happy life when he learns one of the men he informed on, psychopathic killer Tommy Udo, has been released from custody and is out for revenge against Nick and his family.
Based on a story by Eleazar Lipsky, a former Manhattan Asst. District Attorney, this film noir crime drama was directed by Henry Hathaway and stars Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, Coleen Gray, Richard Widmark, and Mildred Natwick.
According to a contemporary article in the Los Angeles Times, Richard Conte was originally cast in the role of Tommy.
A deleted scene involving Nick's wife Maria (who was played by Patricia Morison) was cut from the film. In this scene, a gangster (played by Henry Brandon) who is supposed to look out for her while Nick is in prison rapes her. Afterwards, Maria commits suicide by sticking her head in the kitchen oven and turning on the gas.Both scenes were cut from the original print at the insistence of the censors, who wanted no depiction of either a rape or a suicide, so although Morison's name appears in the credits, she does not appear in the film at all.
According to Richard Widmark, he worked only 13 days on the picture but had to go out to California for three or four days when a new ending was shot because Patricia Morison's character--Nick's wife--was cut out. Originally, Nick was supposed to die after he allowed Tommy Udo to shoot him repeatedly, so Udo could be prosecuted for his murder. However, it was decided that it was too depressing to have Nick die, so in the narration by Nick's wife, Nettie, she says that Nick survives.
Henry Hathaway wasn't happy with the choice of Richard Widmark as the villain and wanted him removed from the picture. When Darryl F. Zanuck overruled him, he tried to make the shoot as uncomfortable for Widmark as possible. Widmark decided this wasn't for him and decided to quit one lunchtime. Hathaway persuaded him to stay and they completed the movie with a new respect for each other. They would go on to make another five movies together and Widmark was a pallbearer at Hathaway's funeral.
Twentieth Century-Fox bought the film rights in November 1946 as a vehicle specifically for Victor Mature. Although James Cagney was originally signed to play Nick Bianco, the role eventually went to Victor Mature. This film has often been cited as Victor Mature's best work. Hathaway later said he "loved the picture because I liked working outside. It was exciting to maneuver things and get work done without people on the streets knowing that you were filming." He said the only problem was Victor Mature. "He was carousing all the time and up all night and sleeping all day on the set. He was dirty. I bought him a couple of new suits, and I found him in the men's toilet, lying on the floor asleep in one of the new suits I'd bought him. But he was a good actor."
Hathaway said the idea to push the lady in the wheelchair down the stairs came from writer Ben Hecht. He wanted the villain Tommy Udo to be a "hophead" as a point of difference and because "they're so unpredictable. They'll shoot you or stab you, they'll do anything." According to Richard Widmark, there were pads on the bottom of the stairs during Mildred Dunnock's scene as well as men to catch her, but the cameraman forgot to rack the film and the scene had to be shot a second time.
Temple Texas, who appears in one scene as Tommy Udo's girlfriend, was dating Victor Mature at the time.
Richard Widmark won a Golden Globe for his work on this film. Widmark was also nominated for an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor for his performance in this film. Eleazar Lipsky was also nominated for Best Original Story.
Critic James Agee wrote in Time in 1947, "Kiss of Death... in its own way it, too, is a clean knockout. None of its criminals is glamorous, nor does anyone piously point out that crime does not pay. Nobody has to. The whole picture amply demonstrates the fact. The fright and suspense of the closing sequences depend largely on the conception of the pathological Udo and on Richard Widmark's remarkable performance of the role. He is a rather frail fellow with maniacal eyes, who uses a sinister kind of falsetto baby talk laced with tittering laughter. It is clear that murder is one of the kindest things he is capable of."
Bosley Crowther of the New York Times wrote about Richard Widmark's performance: "His timing and tension are perfect and the timbre of his voice is that of filthy water going down a sewer."
Kiss Me Deadly
(1955)
Based on the 1952 crime novel Kiss Me, Deadly by Mickey Spillane, this American film noir was produced and directed by Robert Aldrich and stars Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, Strother Martin, and Wesley Addy and features Maxine Cooper, Cloris Leachman, Gaby Rodgers and Marion Carr.
Although Victor Saville is credited as Executive Producer and director Robert Aldrich is credited only as Producer, in reality, Aldrich had it written into his contract that he had complete control over the picture, and it would be made the way he wanted it, specifically stipulating that his decisions could not be overruled by any studio representative. This was the first of two Mickey Spillane movies Aldrich would direct for Saville. The other one is 1957's My Gun Is Quick.
In the Spillane novel upon which this film is based, the illicit substance was narcotics and the criminal group was the Mafia - not radioactive material and supposed communists as depicted in this film. This film was made quite specifically to attack the novel it was based on and the far-right ethos it represented; director Robert Aldrich also described it to one interviewer as "anti-McCarthy and anti-Macarthur".
Screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides wrote of the script: "I wrote it fast because I had contempt for it... I tell you Spillane didn't like what I did with his book. I ran into him at a restaurant and, boy, he didn't like me". He also said of the script, "I was having fun with it. I wanted to make every scene, every character, interesting."
Filmed in less than three weeks. In this film's files at the AMPAS Library, director Robert Aldrich had numerous communications with the Production Code Office with them wanting to tone down the sex and violence in the script - which was finally approved in November 1954 and shooting began at the end of that month. However in April of 1955 the Catholic Legion of Decency submitted over thirty objections to the film, but eventually gave it a "B" rating, and not the dreaded "C" (or Condemmed) rating.
The original ending of the American release of the film shows Hammer and Velda escaping from the burning house, staggering into the ocean as the words "The End" come over them on the screen. Sometime after its first release, the ending was altered on the film's negative, removing 82 seconds of footage showing the escape, and instead superimposing "The End" over the burning house. This implied that Hammer and Velda perished in the blaze, which some have interpreted as an apocalyptic ending. In 1997, the original ending was restored after the missing footage was discovered in the vaults of the Directors Guild by Glenn Erickson.
Cloris Leachman's Maxine Cooper's first theatrical film roles.
Memo from United Artists: Mickey Spillane's name must be above the title and in the same type style as appears on the Kiss Me Deadly Signet book jacket.
Please note: Images of the women in this film - Maxine Cooper, Cloris Leachman, Gaby Rodgers and Marion Carr - were endlessly exploited by this film's distributor's publicity department, and yet, none of them received billing of any kind on any posters associated with the film.
The Kefauver Commission, a federal unit dedicated to investigating corrupting influences in the 1950s, singled this film out as 1955's number one menace to American youth. Because of this, Robert Aldrich felt compelled to conduct a writing campaign for the free speech rights of independent filmmakers.
Kiss Me Deadly grossed $726,000 in the United States and $226,000 overseas. The film received the condemnation of the United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, which accused it of being "designed to ruin young viewers", a verdict that director Aldrich protested. Despite initial critical disapproval, it is considered one of the most important and influential film noirs of all time.
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The Kiss of Death
(1974)
Countess Elena Rambaldi's brother, Alfonso, is asked to leave the Rambaldi estate by Count Rambaldi and take up quarters elsewhere. Alfonso plots to usurp the Rambaldi estate.
This Italian historical drama was directed by Mario Lanfranchi and stars Maurizio Bonuglia, Eleonora Giorgi and Martine Beswick.
he character of Madame Blixen, played by Valentina Cortese, is based on the infamous Belle Epoque eccentric and patron of the arts, the Marchesa Luisa Casati (1881-1957)
This film was shot at the Elios Film Studios in Rome and on location in Venice.
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And that's all for now, folks!
Tune in next time...
Same place, same channel.
Kiss Of Death - Movie Trailer
(1947)
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