O Beijo Amargo

This noir film dealt openly with topics that generally weren't dealt with at all (e.g., pedophilia) or only peripherally (e.g., prostitution, procuring)in 1964. It is the only film noir I know of in which a woman is the lead. Rather than being an adjunct or adversary to the hero, Kelly carries the film from beginning to end, and the twists and turns of the plot will surprise throughout. What mars it somewhat is some bad acting in the smaller roles.

If Sam Fuller is the father of Independent film then this is the point where the history of the Indie film begins. However, unlike most of Fuller's work this is not overtly shocking or wordy. In fact its best sequences are those which have no words. The acting, by mostly B actors is terrific, and the dialogue is well done. It tackled an issue that no film had before, and perhaps has not done so well since. A teriffic work.

The Naked Kiss (1964)

Constance Towers is fresh off of Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor the previous year, and she is perfectly adroit at the saint/sinner, prostitute/angel dichotomy at the core of it. This is a crazy movie to take seriously, yet there are so many serious parts to it, not the least of which is child molesting. For a 1964 movie that's daring stuff. Throw in a corrupt lovable cop, sweet children with physical disabilities, tinkly fairy tale music that comes out of nowhere when she is looking at a bedroom to stay in, and some good old female fist fights. Out comes a Fuller masterwork, of sort.

It's flawed enough to make some people run, but edgy enough to glue others to their seats. If the movie industry was looking for ways to break out of the doldrums of the late 1950s and early 1960s (there are some terrible high budget films from these years), it overlooked the breakthroughs coming from the fringes. The directness and everyday nasty material here would be the bedrock of movies in just two or three years, as violence, frank sexual content, and flawed people became the norm.

You may as well admit, too, that the best parts of this movie are terrific, including some hard edged, sharp, black and white photography. The Criterion DVD is as close to great as you can get, even though there is some confusion about the way even this famed company handled the release. The movie was actually shot in 4:3 format, in so called "flat" 35mm shooting (no anamorphic lens used). It was then cropped along the top and bottom to create a wide screen format for theatrical release. The "fullscreen" version is formatted full (and I don't know if any of the fullscreen ones show the whole original "open matte" formatting, or are further cropped from the widescreen cropping). Either way, it was intended to be seen with wide screen composition, so get the Criterion. It's beautiful.

How fascinating an artist is Samuel Fuller? So fascinating that the responses on IMDb for this film range from "brilliant, devastating masterpiece" to "pulpy, campy fun" to "Ed Wood-like crap." Of course, being Fuller, this film is ALL those things. There are sequences that are amazing as anything. There are moments of just brilliant insight and meaning -- creepy and poignant in their nightmarish beauty. And then there are just plan crappy B movie moments that are unintentionally funny. Bad acting and annoying preachy moralizing. It's a hodgepodge. But it is also a totally unique experience to watch. Noir. Melodrama. Crap. Art. This is pure Fuller! Gotta love it!!!!! A must see for people who love their aesthetics with a kick.

Samuel Fuller could make whacked-out movies like no other, and "The Naked Kiss" was his most whacked out of all.

Constance Towers plays Kelly, a hooker who we see in the film's opening sequence shaved completely bald and beating up her pimp. She takes $75 dollars from him or, as she makes sure to point out to him, "exactly what I've got coming to me," and then proceeds to put on her wig and makeup while seductive music plays and the opening credits roll. From that moment on, we know we're in Fuller-land.

Kelly arrives in the quiet suburban idyll of Grantville, and hooks up with her first and last trick, the town's police captain. After that, she decides to wipe her slate clean, and she becomes a nurse in a children's hospital. But she can't escape her past. When she's accused of killing her fiancée, the town's founder, golden boy and Korean war hero, in a fit of rage after finding him molesting a young girl, Kelly's reliability and reputation is called into question, and her life hangs in the balance.

Along with her pimp, Kelly will pound around on a couple of other people before the film is over -- notably a whore house madame who tries to seduce one of Kelly's co-worker friends into a life of prostitution -- but Kelly is basically a good and decent person who believes in justice stripped of any sentimental or phony pretensions. Her fiancée's status and privilege don't prevent her from seeing the pervert underneath, and her love for the children and her young, naive co-workers is fierce but rough; she'll just as soon slap some sense into someone as she will hug some sense into him. The character of Kelly is a refreshing creation, and both she and Constance Towers, who brings her to life, hold this film together when it otherwise might have been a mess. I think Fuller's weakness was as a writer; parts of "The Naked Kiss" are hampered by ridiculous, overheated dialogue and melodrama of the most maudlin order. But he was such a striking visionary that his films always work on the strength of style alone, and that, coupled with Towers' performance, make "The Naked Kiss" something fascinating to behold.

Fuller was always interested in the outcasts and misfits of society. You can tell he didn't have much use for the civilized mainstream. In "The Naked Kiss," his camera lingers lovingly on the crippled children in shots that intentionally evoke impressions of war veteran hospitals. And Kelly leaves Grantville at the film's end, not because the town shuns her -- on the contrary, once they realize she was telling the truth, she's the new town hero -- but because its hypocrisy disgusts her. The implication is that she'd rather remain an outcast than be accepted by a society that she abhors.

"The Naked Kiss" is crazy, frenzied and trippy. It's deliriously nonsensical yet makes a pointed statement in that unique way that only Samuel Fuller could pull off. Check it out.

Grade: A