Wonderland Burlesque's
Let's All Go To The Movies:
It's In His Kiss
Part XII
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 The Blood Off My Hands
(1948)
AKA: The Unafraid, Blood On My Hands
Bill Saunders, disturbed ex-soldier, kills a man in a postwar London pub brawl. Fleeing, he hides out in the apartment of lonely nurse Jane Wharton. Later, despite misgivings about his violent nature, Jane falls in love with Bill, who resolves to reform. She gets him a job driving a medical supplies truck. But racketeer Harry Carter, who witnessed the killing, wants to use Bill's talents for crime.
Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Gerald Butler, this American noir-thriller was directed by Norman Foster and stars Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, and Robert Newton.
The film was the first production by Lancaster and his agent Harold Hecht's new film production company, Norma Productions. was financed and distributed through a one-picture deal with Universal-International Pictures, in exchange for Lancaster appearing in the studio's production of All My Sons (1948).
The original film rights to the source novel were purchased by Eagle-Lion Productions and the main role was intended for Robert Donat, but Eagle-Lion let the option expire. The working title for this film was The Unafraid. In 1948, Dell Publications released a new paperback edition of Gerald Butler's source novel retitled The Unafraid.
A million dollar lawsuit brought by producer Charles K. Feldman nearly derailed filming. Feldman, who was sore at Lancaster for turning down his film Red River (1948) (the role went to Montgomery Clift), claimed to have bought the rights for Kiss The Blood Off My Hands directly from the author. A judge thought otherwise, the lawsuit was dismissed and filming went on as scheduled.
Filming was done on thirty blocks of London's East End waterfront district created by the art directors and set decorators on Universal-International Pictures' Sound Stage 21. This included wharves, cobblestone streets, old buildings exteriors, a court, a pool hall, two apartments, a train with passenger wagons and a prison with multiple rooms and cells, interchangeable through a monorail crane on rollers. One setting was used to arrange the opening twenty-nine block chase sequence. The film is set in London, England but was shot almost entirely at Universal-International Pictures' Sound Stage 21 from March to May 1948. Some exterior scenes were shot on location at Los Angeles's Griffith Park Zoo and Hollywood Park Racetrack.
Lila Leeds was originally the producer's first choice as the female lead. However, Joan Fontaine replaced her, as Fontaine was already under contract with Universal-International.
The film marked British actor Robert Newton's American film debut.
Burt Lancaster was known as an athletic performer and he wanted to perform the cat o'nine tails whipping scene in the movie as authentically as possible. He urged actor Harold Goodwin (playing the role of the whipper) to "really lay it on him." A split leather belt replaced the actual leaded cat o' nine tails but, even so, the next day, due to welts, Lancaster was unable to wear a shirt.
In promotion of the film, Lancaster embarked on a tour performing a trapeze and acrobatic vaudeville act with his partner Nick Cravat. Some of the pair's stunts would be recreated and filmed for Norma Productions' next picture, the swashbuckler The Flame and the Arrow.
Due to suffering morning sickness caused by her just-announced pregnancy, Joan Fontaine missed twelve days of shooting and was unable to promote the film.
Oscar-winner cinematographer Gregg Toland was originally hired as the director of photography. But, after two weeks of shooting, Toland was replaced by Russell Metty.
Penicillin only recently had been introduced, proving to be a life-saving drug in WW2. In postwar Europe, the continent was still in shambles, with a huge black market for everyday necessities, including medicine - thus the plot for this film.
The film faced minor opposition from fundamentalist groups in the United States and the Commonwealth, with regard to its gory title. In some markets, the film was released under the alternate titles The Unafraid (in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and smaller towns in the United States) or Blood on My Hands (in the United Kingdom). The film's title changes and adult ratings hoopla only benefited Norma Productions with additional publicity, generating more interest from movie-goers, as the critics continued to describe the film inexplicably as a romantic drama.
The film did fairly well at the box office for an independent production and was driven by Lancaster's quick rise to fame. At the time, Lancaster was considered a sound investment, guaranteed for at least $1,000,000 in box office revenue - and sure enough - the film had earned $1.6 million during its first rollout to major cities in the US - it is unknown how much in addition it earned when it later rolled out to smaller communities.
Critic from The New York Times wrote: "The process of humanizing Burt Lancaster obviously is not going to be easy and it is going to take time. Mr. Lancaster is handy with his fists and speaks most eloquently when using them. But to develop fully as an actor and to come over to the right side of society he will have to make a break someday, for there are only so many variations on the theme of being misunderstood and Mr. Lancaster has just about exhausted them all. In Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, which opened yesterday at Loew's Criterion. Mr. Lancaster is again fighting an uphill battle against society and "forces" which pressure him into a mood of sullen belligerency. Notwithstanding its gruesome title, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands is not a lurid crime picture. It is, rather, a thoughtful, sombre drama of an ill-starred couple and their plaintive struggle for happiness. It is a conventional drama, but a surprisingly interesting one that builds steadily toward a third-act climax (something few films do these days). Leonardo Bercovici has written an orderly screen play, though his central character is not sharply defined. ...Were it not for the restraint and intelligence that Joan Fontaine brings to the role of Jane Wharton the drama no doubt would come apart at the seams. ... Norman Foster has directed Kiss the Blood Off My Hands with keen appreciation for the story's emotional content and he has handled the scenes of violence with striking sharpness. The long chase that starts the film on its way, with Lancaster desperately racing through winding streets and alleyways of the London waterfront, vaulting fences and scrambling up on roofs, is high-tension excitement. Mr. Lancaster's performance is good, but he would do well to drop some of his tenseness and get more flexibility into his acting. Robert Newton, as a cockney schemer who witnessed the killing and attempts to blackmail Saunders, is somewhat flamboyant but still he gets over an effective characterization. Kiss the Blood Off My Hands represents a good beginning for the new producing firm of Harold Hecht-Norma (Mr. Lancaster) Productions".
Joan Fontaine, was an English-American actress best known for her roles in Hollywood films during the Golden Age of Hollywood. Fontaine appeared in more than 45 films in a career that spanned five decades. She was the younger sister of actress Olivia de Havilland. Their rivalry was well-documented in the media at the height of Fontaine's career and the stuff of legend. Her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), marked the first of three nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actress. The following year, she won that award for her role in Hitchcock's Suspicion (1941). A third nomination came with The Constant Nymph (1943). Her Academy Award for Suspicion makes Fontaine the only actress to have won an Oscar for acting in a Hitchcock film. She and her sister Olivia remain the only siblings to have won lead-acting Academy Awards.
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Killer's Kiss
(1955)
Prize-fighter Davey Gordon intervenes when private dancer Gloria Price is being attacked by her employer and lover Vincent Raphello. This brings the two together and they get involved with each other, which displeases Raphello. He sends men out to kill Davey, but they instead kill his manager. Gloria is soon kidnapped by Raphello and his men, and it is up to Davey to save her.
With the original title of Kiss Me, Kill Me, this American independently produced crime film noir directed by Stanley Kubrick and stars Jamie Smith, Irene Kane, and Frank Silvera.
When one uncle won't, the other will! One of Kubrick's uncles backed his first film and never saw a penny of the $40K invested. So, when Kubrick came to him to finance this film, it was no-go. Fortunately, Kubrick had more than one uncle. Another uncle coughed up $75K for this feature - which Kubrick was able to sell to United Artists for $100K. United Artists were also ready to back a third film, making this the last film Kubrick ever had to worry about when it came to money.
Kubrick was on welfare during the making of this film. Working with practically no budget and largely without on-location filming permits, Stanley Kubrick had to remain unnoticed while shooting in the nation's busiest city, using hand-held cameras and sometimes secretly shooting from a nearby vehicle. Many scenes were photographed with a spring-wound Eyemo camera, which holds 100-foot loads of film. The Eyemo was borrowed from Max Glenn and was subsequently stolen from Stanley Kubrick's car. For many tracking shots, Kubrick and company used the back of a pickup truck in place of a dolly. To shoot the scene in which the fight manager is murdered in an East Side alley, Stanley Kubrick had to first negotiate with five transients who had set up a makeshift home in the alley and were unwilling to relinquish their turf.
The climax in a mannequin factory took two weeks to shoot and destroyed $15,000 worth of mannequins - a small fortune at the time. United Artists and the censor board had some concerns over the nudity of the mannequins in the climax.
Stanley Kubrick's wife at the time, Ruth Sobotka, was art director on the film as well as for Kubrick's next, The Killing (1956). As a former ballerina, she also performed a long dance solo, playing the role of Iris. The couple later divorced.
Stanley Kubrick was unable to record the film's dialogue on-set due to technical problems. Veteran soundman Nathan Boxer had been hired to record sound, but his boom mike and pole created many shadows. The inexperienced Kubrick was forced to fire him and his sound crew, then post-sync all of the film's dialogue and sound effects. Irene Kane was unavailable to add her dialogue later, so radio actress Peggy Lobbin voiced her role.
Much to Stanley Kubrick's frustration, United Artists insisted on a happy ending. Although Kubrick hated the idea, he couldn't turn down the $100,000 that UA was prepared to pay for the film and indeed his next film, The Killing (1956).
Although he rated this film higher than his first, Fear and Desire (1952), Stanley Kubrick nevertheless thought that it was at a "student level of filmmaking."
Reviews of Killer's Kiss (1955) were mixed, although most commented on Stanley Kubrick's unique and energetic approach to filmmaking. Variety stated: "His was a nice try at taking on most of the major chores, but this picture attests anew the hazards of such an attempt." Another reviewer asserted: "The most unusual aspect of this somewhat trite melodrama is the fact that it was virtually put together by one man... In each of these directions Kubrick shows some promise of talents that deserve encouragement."
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A Kiss Before Dying
(1956)
Student Bud Corliss is wooing Dorothy Kingship purely for her father's mining fortune. When he finds she is pregnant he realises she is likely to be disinherited, so cleverly stages her suicide. After a couple of months her sister back home finds evidence to question the suicide verdict, but by then has a new boyfriend of her own.
Based on Ira Levin's 1953 novel of the same name (which won the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel), this American color film noir was directed by Gerd Oswald and stars Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Mary Astor and Joanne Woodward.
The film rights to the novel were won in a bidding war among several studios in August of 1953 by Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox. It was announced that studio contract player Robert Wagner would star in the film and that Martin Milner would play Dwight Powell. Milner had to bow out due to a scheduling conflict. In 1955 Zanuck assigned the product to Crown Productions and producer Robert L. Jacks, his son-in-law. However, for reasons that remain unknown, the film ended up being released by United Artists, despite the presence of a number of Fox contract players on both sides of the camera. Wagner, Joanne Woodward, and Jeffrey Hunter were borrowed from 20th Century Fox for this film.
The producers had to fight the Production Code office, or what was left of it by this time, to get the word 'pregnant' into the film. Even then, the word was deleted in some parts of the country by local censors. The novel was further bowdlerized by having no discussion in the film between Bud and Dorothy about the possibility of her having an abortion, and the pills Bud gives her are said by him to be vitamins and are in fact simply poison to kill her - whereas in the novel they are intended to induce a termination of pregnancy.
This served as director Gerd Oswald's directorial debut and is an early film of Joanne Woodward. , Joanne Woodward once stated that she not only considers this the worst of her movies, but the worst Hollywood movie ever made.
Robert Wagner recalled what it was like to work with Oswald who some regard as unfairly neglected by film critics: "We rehearsed a lot, but when it was set, it was pretty well set. There was not a lot of improvisation. Gerd was very loyal to the story, but was always looking for ways to make it better. He was a very creative man, into texture, backlighting."
Critic Philip K. Scheuer of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "I felt offended, even outraged; and ever since, I have been trying to figure out why. What bothered me so, I have decided, was the mental cruelty involved. And this is something rather new in pictures; the calculated, drawn-out, gloatingly sadistic torture of the mind. [M]ost moviemakers have sensed instinctively where to 'draw the line'. I cannot define 'the line' precisely, but it has to do with using the art of suggestion - the 'cutting away' to something else - to convey what should not be shown, and with the difference between good taste and bad taste. But what, precisely, should not be shown? You have your breaking point, I have mine. I only know that those two sequences in A Kiss Before Dying struck me personally as being beyond the pale and, in my capacity of reviewer, as being potentially harmful and pernicious for indiscriminate general viewing, particularly by teen-agers. But why single out this film? I think perhaps because the situations depicted, especially the first, were so real, so intimate, and involved such clean-cut American types. I think that I - and others - can take most of the other kinds of 'suspense' in our stride, provided that they are conceived in: (1) the objective newsreel or documentary technique or (2) as frankly 'horror' stories. The distinction is a fine one, but it is there."
The Boston Globe critic Cyrus Durgin wrote: "It seems to me that director Oswald, though he has his own notions of camera angles and scene detail, never got as much out of his competent actors as he ought to have done. None of the characters strikes me as real, none has much human warmth. It is as if they were suspended in a vacuum of unreality." While reviewer Mildred Martin of The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: "Endless gabble coupled with slow-motion directing dissipate whatever suspense might ordinarily be suspected. By the time arsenic fails and the girl gets pushed off the roof of a 12-story building, all one can do is settle down to an endurance test. For dullness gives way to the idiotically preposterous."
Thirty-five years later a remake, A Kiss Before Dying (1991), was made in 1990 starring Matt Dillon and Sean Young. Called "insanely inept" and "bereft of suspense" by Entertainment Weekly, the film earned two Razzie awards.
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Kiss For a Killer
(1957)
Betty Farnwell, a rich widow living in Nice, decides to marry Philippe, a good-looking but self-interested man. Shortly after marrying, he meets bewitching young Eve, Betty's niece, and falls for her. Eve becomes his lover but trouble follows, for Eve happens to be as calculating as Philippe. She suddenly announces plans to marry a rich young man. Philippe, though bound by the ties of marriage, can't stand the thought of Eve marrying another and decides, with the help of Eve, to murder Betty!
Based on the 1954 novel The Sucker Punch by James Hadley Chase, this French mystery drama was directed by Henri Verneuil and stars Henri Vidal, Mylène Demongeot and Isa Miranda.
It was shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice. The film's sets were designed by the art director Jean d'Eaubonne.
According to Mylène Demongeot in her biography, Henri Vidal behaved like a crazy womanizer during the shooting of this movie, despite the fact he was married to famed French film actress Michèle Morgan.
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Kiss of a Dead Woman
(1974)
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And that's all for now, folks!
Tune in next time...
Same place, same channel.
Kiss The Blood Off My Hands - Movie Trailer
(1948)
A Kiss Before Dying - Movie Trailer
(1956)
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