Killer’s Kiss Movie Review
Can the discerning eye spot Stanley Kubrick in 1955’s “Killer’s Kiss?” This low budget B-film noir marked Kubricks second filmmaking effort and his first readily available (if it ain’t on Netflix, it must not exist!). Kubrick wore many hats on this production as he wrote shot edited, and directed the piece. The results are fairly satisfying, though ultimately only noteworthy for being an early effort of Kubrick. The story is pure noir 101. The film starts at the end, with voice over. It’s the story of a washed up New York boxer who gets mixed up with his dance hall girl neighbor-and her jealous Gangster pimp boyfriend just as he is about to leave town. That’s a noir mouthful. At just over an hour this thing barely qualifies as a feature but on the upside is a quick moving piece, and anything much longer would have stretched the acting and plot a little thin. The budget on this piece had to be extremely low; it features a lot of handheld, very bad sound, hammy acting and strange cuts. I imagine that Kubrick was not able to instill his torturous multi-take style of directing. But the positive-the on location photography, arty editing, the quick pacing, and a truly Kubrickian climax that takes place in a mannequin factory (the other piece that says Kubrick is a broken mirror surprise, part aueterish part amateurish show off photography). Kubrick does capture the city; tiny pieces makes up the whole-exquisite wides of the whole damn city (un-doubt ably un-permitted) as well as montaged bits separate this extreme low budget piece from being an amateur film. Instead, at an hour that feels like twenty minutes, we have a classic noir story with perhaps too happy of a cheat ending…guess Kubrick wanted to subvert the genre here.
Story: Down on his luck has been boxer, on his way to the farm life, gets mixed up with gangsters defending his beautiful neighbor. B -
Acting: Not the best, but I imagine Kubrick wasn’t doing ten thousand takes quite yet. C -
Visuals: Low budget, but at times some real innovation. B
Originality/Innovation: See visuals. See independent film with a do everything auteur. But all that is stretching a bit. C+
Enjoyability Grade: For a student of film, a fan of Kubrick, and a lover of noir, there aren’t many better ways to spend an hour! B
Overall Grade: B -
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