Kiss Me Deadly

Story

A woman wearing a trench coat and nothing else, panting and breathing heavily, runs for her life down a dark highway. She stands in the middle of the road, hands outstretched, to stop a car. A convertible sports car swerves and stops. The driver angrily berates the woman, but he picks her up anyway. The opening credits scroll downward in reverse order as a torch song by Nat “King” Cole plays on the car radio. Aside from the sad song, the only sound is the woman’s labored breathing before brassy music enters. The woman, Christina (Cloris Leachman), is headed to Los Angeles. The driver, Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker), is a private eye. A policeman at a roadblock announces that a woman escaped from an asylum wearing a trench coat. They get by the roadblock, with Mike saying Christina is his wife.

Stopping at a service station because his car’s right front wheel is pulling, Christine exits the car to return, asking the service attendant to mail her letter. On the road again, Christina tries to psychoanalyze Hammer, basically saying he is only interested in himself. Christina stays once Hammer drops her at a bus stop: "Forget about me.” Christina says If we don’t make it, "Remember me.”

Suddenly, another vehicle with several passengers, seen only from the waist down, kidnaps Christina, screaming. In the next scene, her bare legs and feet are elevated, left dangling as she remains screaming. Hammer lies unconscious on a bed frame, just feet away from the tortured Christina. She soon falls unconscious, while Hammer is rolled to the floor. Hammer’s limp body and Cristina are transferred to his car, being pushed by another car off the side of the road into a canyon, burning. A menacing black sedan pulls away.

Mike is next seen in a hospital bed, two women surrounding him. One woman is his nurse, and the other is Velda (Maxine Cooper), his secretary (and much more). Mike tells Velda that she is never around when needed. Lt. Pat Murphy (Wesley Addy) enters the hospital room and assures Mike he’ll walk out of here in two weeks.

Time passes, and Velda and Mike leave the hospital only to be interrogated by a cop about the situation. The committee makes light of his profession and his relationship to Velda. The policemen let him go. Lt. Murphy waits for Mike as he exits. Murphy warns Hammer about taking the law into his own hands. Pat wants Mike to step away from the case.

Mike later pulls into a car garage, where the mechanic, Nick (Nick Dennis), is excited to see him. Hammer has hired him to pick up his sports car, but Nick tells him nothing was left to pick up. Nick tells Mike that some tough guys have been inquiring about him. After seeing the car wreckage, Nick is happy to see Mike alive. A car with two men observes Mike from across the street as he returns to his apartment. Mike warily enters, looking for bad guys who might be trailing him. The phone rings, and a tape machine acts as the world’s first answering machine. It’s a message from Velda asking if he’s all right and that she’ll be right over. Next sequence, Mike and Velda are passionately kissing after she asks him what occurred at police headquarters. Interrupting them, Lt. Murphy enters. Murphy is revoking his PI license and his gun permit. Hammer is interested in a science newspaper columnist who dropped out of sight. Pat tells Mike to tell him everything he knows, but Mike remains tight-lipped. Velda tells Mike that Christinas was being held for interrogation by either the feds or the state.

Mike follows a lead on Ray Diker (Mort Marshall), but when he gets out of the car, a man in a suit eyeballs him and begins to follow him. Mike stops at a street newsstand, which causes his follower to pause. Mike begins walking again, and his pursuer comes closer. Mike pauses to buy popcorn from another vendor. Hammer stops once again to use a payphone, with a mirror surface, clearly seeing the man following him. The pursuer draws closer, pulls out a switchblade, and Mike, ready for him, turns and throws popcorn in his face. Hammer forces the man to drop his knife, punches him several times, and bangs his head against the wall, seeming to enjoy the display of violence. The man slowly crumbles to the ground. Mike retrieves the knife and slowly walks away. Unfortunately, the man soon gets up, attacks Mike, and Mike punches him, and the man tumbles down a super-high staircase, Mike still smiling.

Arriving at Ray Diker’s apartment, Hammer forces his way in. Diker is wearing a puffy coat, has a bloody face, and appears very scared. Diker knows Christina and realizes just how afraid she was. Hammer gets her last known address and her last name. Hammer has what he wants and abruptly leaves.

Hammer demands to go through Christina’s apartment, but the Super says the police have already investigated. But Mike won’t take no for an answer. The Super says her roommate moved out a couple of days before Christina died. Her apartment is filled with books, some of them poetry ones. He leaves her apartment with one.

Helping an old moving man, he tells Hammer that he helped Christina move to a new place. Going to that apartment, a woman is home, a woman with a gun. The woman is Christina’s old roommate and friend. She says Christina seldom went out; she became sicker and more scarred. Then the police came around asking her many questions. Finally, the police took her away. Then some men came around to find Christina, but the roommate did not remain to find out why.

Returning home and answering his messages, a distinguished voice warns him that if he hadn’t picked up Christina, none of the horrible things that occurred would have happened. Hammer quickly answers the phone while the man is still speaking. The voice tells him to forget having ever picked up Christina, and his life will return to normal. The voice hangs up, but not before promising Mike a new sports car tomorrow morning. Nick, entering the car at Mike’s house, is ready to start the motor when Mike warns him to look under the hood. There he discovers dynamite ready to explode, but he dismantles it. Driving to Nick’s garage and examining the car, another bomb is found tied to the speedometer.

Mike returns to Velda, who is dancing/exercising at the parallel bars, and is told to quit all their Penny Ann cases and focus on the major one concerning Christina. That’s where the real money exists. Velda gives Mike two names to check out. One of them is a former boxer who was hit by a truck. The other man is a failed opera singer. Later, questioning the guy who witnessed the man being hit by a truck, the other driver says he appeared to have been pushed. Mike goes to the gym to ask about former fighter Lee Kowalski. The manager says two toughs came around and suggests the manager does not know anything. They said if the manager cooperates, they’ll let him breathe.

Mike is told the names of the two thugs, Charlie Max (Jack Elam) and Sugar Smallhouse (Jack Lambert), and that they work for gangster Carl Evello (Paul Stewart). Going to his place during a party, Mike comes on to Carl’s sister Friday (Marian Carr) to get himself invited inside. Mike goes inside the house to change into a swimsuit, with Charlie and Sugar following. Mike immediately knocks out Sugar, and Charlie flees. Carl knows Hammer and calls his superiors for direction. Carl immediately offers Mike money to call himself off the case. Mike asks Carl his fee, and Carl backs off, asking Hammer to leave. Carl says it’s too late to offer him a backoff fee.

Cruising beneath the cable cars of San Francisco, Hammer mounts a steep staircase to reach Carmen Trivago, friend of one Nick Romano, who loves to sing opera and collects rare opera recordings. To get Trivago to talk, he breaks one opera recording, and Trivago spills his guts

Visiting Christina’s roommate’s apartment, Lily Carver tells Mike that men came to her apartment after he left last time. Lily says she hid in the basement. Obviously they must think she knows something. Hammer helps her escape in his car.

Meanwhile, back at Nick’s garage, he happily works while singing and dancing. Hammer drives into the garage and tells Nick he’ll be right back. Nick returns to his work happily whistling, sliding under a car. A pair of legs enters the garage, playing around with a jack. He lowers the car’s full weight on Nick, who screams. Meanwhile, Mike takes Lily to his apartment for safety.

Returning to Nick’s place, Mike sees a man holding Nick’s dead hand and crying, his body crushed under the car. Hammer is quite upset that Nick is dead. He returns to find Velda sound asleep in bed. Awakening her, Hammer tells her about Nick. Mike admits that the other Nick had something valuable, and that Christina knew what it was. Velda uses the term the “great whatsit” to describe the thing that is causing people to die. Velda returned to talk to Ray Diker this afternoon, and the name Dr. Soberin came up. The doctor came on to Velda, and she could use his interest in her to find out more. Velda finally asks Mike to meet her tomorrow at 2 o’clock. The mostly black nightclub features a rhythm-and-blues singer. Hammer drinks alone, depressed, thinking about Nick. As Hammer falls asleep, the bartender tells him they got Velda, and the man left the bar with her. Mike, wobbling, slowly exits the bar and drives away. Stopping at the same service station where Christina asked the attendant to mail a letter, he finds out the letter was addressed to him.

Returning to his office, he is surprised by Sugar Smallhouse and Charlie Max. Sugar clunks Hammer over the head. The two thugs escort Hammer outside. He is driven to an isolated beach home where Hammer attempts to escape, but he is finally subdued. Awakening, Mike is tied face down to a bed. A dignified man (again seen from the waist down) enters and speaks to Mike. He says that Hammer will die, but he can still save his friend. The voice asks him about Christina’s letter and what he was supposed to remember as he prepares a hypodermic. He tells Mike he is only administering truth serum. Mike, sleeping from the effects of the drug, partially awakens, babbling.

Carl Evello enters and begins to question Mike about the letter. Mike babbles incoherently. Hours seem to pass, and Mike mumbles while managing to slip one hand out of his restraints. Then he slips the freed hand back into the restraints and calls for help. When Evello enters, he says he now remembers but says he’ll whisper what he knows. When Carl approaches, he subdues the criminal and places him face down in the bed. Soon, Sugar opens a switchblade to kill Hammer in bed (he thinks), stabbing him. Sugar screams and is soon dead, propped up against the bedroom radiator. Charlie Max hears a sports car speeding away.

Hammer returns to his apartment and finds Lily there. Thinking aloud, Mike asks what Christina meant by “Remember me.” Hammer briefly opens a book and asks Lily to read aloud. The phrase is contained in Christina’s book of poetry, a poem titled “Remember Me.” But if the darkness and corruption leave a vestige of the thoughts that once we had ... Mike is ready to leave the apartment, but he also takes Lily after she announces people tried to get in last night. Mike and Lily go to the morgue to look at Christina, thinking she possessed something of the villains’, something small. The morgue attendant, Doc Kennedy (Percy Helton), performed an autopsy and found a key, which he wants money before he’ll give it to Mike. Mike pays him but refuses to pay any more, slamming a desk drawer shut with the attendant’s hand being squeezed inside, screaming aloud. Mike, again smiling, finally frees the man’s hand and takes the key.

Mike drives immediately to an athletic club and asks about the key, again forced to pay for information. Instead, he slaps the attendant’s face several times and again demands information. He says it’s a locker key belonging to Nick Raymondo. Inside the locker, Mike finds an old medium-sized trunk. Opening it, Mike finds a smaller metal box inside, quite hot. Opening the lid slightly, harsh roaring erupts, and a very bright light shines. The attendant asks what that thing is, and Mike answers that he doesn’t know but to keep everyone away from it. Returning to the car, Lily is nowhere to be found.

Going to Pat for police help, Mike learns Lily’s body was discovered a week ago, and this woman is passing herself off as the real deal. Pat looks at Mike’s wrist and discovers nasty burn marks. Pat utters the Manhattan Project and other words referring to nuclear energy. Reluctantly, Mike hands Pat the key.

Hammer returns to Ray Diker’s house. Diker is worried and incessantly smoking. Mike enters the house, smiles once again, and slaps around Diker. He demands where Velda is, and the terrified man names William Mist, and Hammer leaves. Mist owns an art gallery, and Hammer is there in no time. Hammer breaks in and approaches the living quarters. Mist reaches for pills prescribed by Dr. Soberin. Mist is in his bathroom, gulping down sleeping medication and water as Mike slowly approaches. Hammer hears choking sounds from the bathroom and knocks the door open, inquiring again about Velda. But the medication renders him unconscious. Mist begins to audibly snore. Mike, fishing around, finds a bottle of sleeping medicine with Soberin’s name on it. Mike remembers that Velda mentioned that name to him. Hammer calls Dr. Soberin’s office, but he’s out. The receptionist says he may be at his beach cottage.

Dr. Soberin at his beach home, with the Lily impersonator. Lily holds the closed metal box, wondering aloud what it contains. Soberin refers to her as Gabrielle, opening Pandora’s Box. Using a broad metaphor, he says the head of Medusa is in the box, and that the person who looks upon the inside won’t be turned to stone, but to brimstone and ashes. Gabrielle assumes that since too many people have died seeking out the box, it must be precious. She demands half of it from Soberin. He replies that the contents in the box cannot be divided, so Gabrielle pulls a pistol and demands it all. She shoots Soberin, and with his dying breath he warns her not to open the box. Immediately she goes to open the container. But before she does, Mike Hammer enters. She welcomes Mike by holding a gun on him. She smiles and demands Mike kiss her. As Mike slowly approaches her, she fires one bullet into him.

Returning to opening the mysterious metal box, Gabrielle slowly lifts the lid to see a bright light both shining and howling. As she further peers inside, she screams, transfixed, and soon catches on fire, still screaming. The wounded Mike rises and finds Velda locked in a room. The house itself turns into a terrifying howling sound and flashes with the light of the box illuminating the entire house. Mike and Velda slowly help one another out of the ready-to-explode house. Walking further down the beach and out into the water, the entire house catches on fire and explodes multiple times as the couple watches the mayhem. The end titles appear.

Critique

Not actually a studio production, Kiss Me Deadly was an independent production released by United Artists in 1955, directed by Robert Aldrich. A few actors have portrayed the iconic private detective Mike Hammer by this time, but Ralph Meeker was probably the best. He sizzled with energy and had a sadomasochistic side, smiling while committing random acts of vivid mayhem. He was romantically involved with his private secretary Velda, and owned the world’s first telephone answering machine. He was smart as a whip and sassy too. He only accepted Christina’s murder as a case because it would generate a pile of cash.

While the villains constantly torture Christina, Mike is equally involved in the conflicts and murders surrounding the case and becomes involved whether he wants to or not. Though the Mike Hammer literary series by Mickey Spillane is very popular, the concept created by these movie-makers is more their own. The novels, though, are no better than pulp fiction; they are elevated by Spillane’s concept of violence, relationship with Velda and cop Pat Chambers (who equally loves Velda), period detail, and Mike Hammer’s personality. The filmed versions are generally good to excellent, but they fail to replicate the fiction. When Mike Hammer was dying, he gave unfinished manuscripts of his to author Max Allan Collins to complete. Collins, who was a Hammer fan, completed the series superbly and did Spillane proud.

It’s quite interesting to note that the viewer never quite understands the grand plan of the movie. We hear that Christina is being interrogated by either federal or state officials. We know that Dr, Soberin has stolen raw nuclear power, or as he puts it, a Pandora’s box for modern civilization. But we don’t know if he plans to sell it, make it into a bomb, or if he has any definite plans at all. He and Gabrielle are working together, but the “pixie from hell” wants it all and is willing to kill Soberin to acquire it.

The fast-paced finale shows the beach house catching on fire and exploding multiple times, illustrating nuclear power’s destructive force. Besides the Pandora’s box concept, we have the greed-driven human nature aspect, which forces people to capture ultimate power even if they can harness it or not.

How Carl Evello becomes involved in all this is unknown, but involved he is. The world of the criminal mob, thugs Max and Sugarman too, makes the dizzying scenario all the more interesting. Even though motives are difficult to come by, the morgue doctor being greedy for money and having his hand crushed is similar to the athletic club director who asks for money and gets viciously slapped around. It seems everyone is more and more greedy, especially at the top of the food chain, and that people desire power and money at every opportunity.

Cloris Leachman, in her first film role, impresses with her small supporting role and mysterious request to remember her. She demonstrates her superior intelligence in the way she psychoanalyzes Hammer and concocts a mysterious solution to the entire problem by writing her letter, which offers solutions.

The “big whatsit” is a perfect metaphor for the movie. First, it illustrates how criminals and the genre of noir are quickly morphing into something undefined and new, a crime for a new generation. The pieces are not fully formed and defined, but seen at the end, this total destruction defines what is around the corner. The world of crime is changing. Four years before the end of the classic noir cycle, Kiss Me Deadly kicks open the door for the new era of film noir. The movie is just as important for what it fails to define as for what it defines. Kiss Me Deadly is nouveau noir dressed up in a classic package.

TURNCOAT LILY CARVER/GABRIELLE (GABY RODGERS) OPENS THE "BIG WHATSIT" FOR THE SURPRISE OF HER LIFE.

RALPH MEEKER PLAYS A VERY INTERESTING MIKE HAMMER!

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