El beso del asesino

This film, directed by Stanley Kubrik, is not seen often these days. It was a surprise that it was shown recently on cable as it gave all of Mr. Kubrik's fans the opportunity to watch one of his early works.

The copy that was shown is amazing in that it has been kept, or probably restored, with great care. Stanley Kubrik was a genius; he probably knew more about movies than many other of his contemporaries. Yet, his legacy is somehow meager, only sixteen full length features in almost fifty years as a director.

Killer's Kiss shows the Manhattan of 1955 like it has never been seen in other movies made in the city. Mr. Kubrik's attention to detail and style overshadows the story. The main problem is his screen play, it never involves the viewer in what he is seeing. This is exacerbated by the voice over one hears over the action. We never know what makes these people tick, much less what's going on in their heads at any given moment.

The story is told in a flashback. We see Davy waiting at the old Pennsylvania Station for the train that is to take him to Seattle. He had planned to leave with Gloria, but she seems never to appear; for all we know, he might be waiting in vain.

The streets of Manhattan come alive in the brilliant black and white cinematography by Mr. Kubrik, himself. That old New York that is no longer around, is captured by Mr. Kubrik in such brilliant detail that we mourn the fact those buildings and institutions are not around any more. The night scenes around Times Square, especially the stairway leading to the dance hall have a style that brings some of Edward Hooper's work to mind. Mr. Kubrik deserves credit for filming on location and never making it feel as though those scenes have been fixed to give that effect. In fact, that's where Kubrik's genius comes into play, we realize he had an eye for making things real.

The acting is not the main focus of this film. Frank Silvera makes a menacing Vincent, the mobster and dance hall owner. Jamie Smith and Irene Kane, go through the paces, but they don't convey to the viewer the passion that is supposed to be going on between them.

This movie should be seen by the serious moviegoer as it shows Mr. Kubrik's tremendous talent. It might be a minor film, in comparison to his best work, but being one of his first movies, one can clearly see what will come later.

"Killer's Kiss" (1955), acclaimed director Stanley Kubrick's second feature film, starred Jamie Smith, Irene Kane and Frank Silvera.

The story looks like it was partly inspired by Robert Siodmak's The Killers (1946): A boxer called on the slide Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), is awakened from a dream (a stunning piece of surrealism, it's only fault being that it is too short) by the screams of Gloria Price (Irene Kane), who lives on the other side of his apartment block, as her lecherous boss Vincent Rapallo (Frank Silvera) forces himself on her. Gordon goes to her help, but Rapallo escapes. He falls in love with Gloria, a "dancer" at a nightclub run by Rapallo, but in doing so, he faces Rapallo's wrath and his deadly vengeance.

While the plot may be slightly run-on-the-mill stuff, the movie as a whole is certainly not. Shot on the streets of New York by Kubrick himself, the picture benefits enormously by this "breathing" quality, making the story more believable as it's set and shot in a real place, a rare practice at the time (one wonders if Kubrick did this for purely aesthetic reasons: the budget of the movie was only $40,000 or so, extremely cheap even then for a movie). The camera-work is very high contrast black and white, all the automobiles surfaces gleaming and enabling the tower blocks Gordon rushes past during the final look dark and foreboding. He also inserts a few stylistic shots like Gordon looking through a fish-bowl; but Kubrick uses these sparingly so they always look unexpected. Along with the beautiful cinematography, the action is the highlight of this motion picture: a violent and ruthless boxing match early on, shot with a hand-held camera is exciting and brutal; capturing what the sport is really like. Another set piece is justifiably famous: a climatic fight between Gordon and Rapallo in a mannequin store house with fire-axes.

But there are flaws, flaws than cannot be overlooked even if one is kind to the young Stanley Kubrick and very lenient. First and foremost is the acting: Irene Kane as the woman who sparks off all the trouble is desperately weak and is hard to see why a Rapallo lust after her and Gordon falls in love with her so quickly. Silvera is excellent as our villain and Smith, while nothing special, is good enough for his part, but because Kubrick opted to film the movie "silent" and then put in the sounds in post-production, not only do you have errors like cars driving in the background but no noise issuing forth from them, but the performances are made rather stilted and the dialogue spoken doesn't always match up to their lips. The motion picture is in (a needless) flashback, so we are given a redundant voice-over and the ending in the train-station is overly-sentimental and it is not only alien to the world of noir, but alien also to Kubrick. Despites these flaws, the movie reminds an enjoyable, at times very exciting, film noir that isn't just for Kubrick buffs.

It's just over an hour long and even so we have the trademark Kubrick opening, where he takes his own sweet time in letting us know what the film is about but somehow draws us in all the same. Look: it's an hour long, and it's a slight, hour-long kind of story. Don't expect anything more. I think there's also rather clearly a moment when Kubrick realised that he didn't know how he was going to end it all - to be honest, I have a sneaking suspicion that a similar thing happened on "2001", "Eyes Wide Shut" and even "Dr. Strangelove". In each of these cases it was the prompt for a daring and unconventional conclusion. I wish I could say that was the case here.

This doesn't prevent it from being involving while it lasts. Kubrick once again demonstrates the he could point a camera at anything at all and make it interesting - the images are amazing, yet entirely functional. If you have ever loved any black-and-white camera work you'll love this. It's also a masterpiece of violence-without-violence, if you know what I mean. It deserves to be more well-known than it is.

A severely underrated film-noir that turned out to be far more engaging than expected, Killer's Kiss is no masterpiece in my opinion but it did serve its purpose well as a warm up feature for director Stanley Kubrick's talents before he started churning out one masterpiece after another until the very end of his legendary film career & is as experimental as his other features.

The story revolves around Davey Gordon; a 29-year old boxer well past his prime, who's waiting at the train station for his girl and in an extended flashback recounts the happenings of his recent past. Filmed on a shoe-string budget, it presents Stanley Kubrick in charge of the responsibilities of director, cinematographer & editor all by himself, at which he impresses greatly.

The film employs many unconventional & new tricks of shooting a picture from start to finish and exhibits the remarkable eye for detail Kubrick has when it comes to camera placement & lighting. Editing also never lets the uncertainty go out of the story & music manages to fit its accompanying sequences rather well. Performance by the cast isn't anything special but every one chipped in fine in their given roles.

On an overall scale, Killer's Kiss is a very well crafted & firmly composed film which over the years has influenced cinema in a number of ways with its narrative structure & inventive use of camera angles. But since Kubrick went on to achieve even greater prominence in his later films, Killer's Kiss seems to be faced with no choice but to accept a rank provided at the back. Don't miss it.

Few have captured the glitter and grub of a cityscape better than this 70-minutes of neon and alleyways. The plot's all over the place, along with choppy editing and so-so acting. Thus, the storyline leaves a lot to be desired. Nonetheless, the visuals are consistently striking, from crowded dancehall to jagged rooftop. Clearly, Kubrick's sense of compositional artistry has already kicked in. And judging from the slick flashback of The Killing (1956), a lot was learned from this project. Sure the movie's done on the cheap and Kubrick has to do everything but cater the food. Still, the imagination is rich and pervasive at a time when Hollywood was arguably most straitjacketed. Despite the many flaws (god-awful musical scoring), this slender film put Kubrick on the movie-making map. Not surprisingly, his next film The Killing would provide a lot more to work with. All in all, the production remains a treat for the eye, if not for the ear; that is, if you believe urban dour can be made compelling.