Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

RALPH MEEKER makes a credible Mike Hammer, even though there are times when I thought what a great role this would have been for either KIRK DOUGLAS or HUMPHREY BOGART. Meeker was a handsome actor who never quite made it in Hollywood after some stage work, notably as the drifter in PICNIC on Broadway in the role that went to William Holden in the film version.

From the very start, this is a fascinating film noir, beginning with the pick-up of CLORIS LEACHMAN (introduced in her film debut) and from there veering into a highly tense detective yarn, some of which is hard to follow when you start asking too many questions. Some pertinent explanations are missing, but the artful B&W photography around San Francisco, up winding alleys and high wooden staircases, keeps the eye fascinated while the story unwinds.

The story itself involves a rather "Pandora's Box" kind of solution--what is the thing that so many have been killed for? And when the solution does come, it's a shocker.

Summing up: Nice film noir, gritty performance by Ralph Meeker and some sharp direction by Robert Aldrich who once again uses Frank DeVol for the background score (as he did for "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte").

Trivia note: WESLEY ADDY has a key supporting role as a law officer, just as he would nine years later in Aldrich's HHSC. And the little man who played the creepy undertaker in that flick (PERCY HELTON), is a greedy morgue attendant here who gets his comeuppance from Hammer.

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