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Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly
In the upper half of the poster, there's a torso painting of a man embracing a woman. He's kissing her neck just below her left ear. The man is wearing a business suit. The woman is in a strapless gown; her skin is bare above her chest. She's leaning away from the man, with her eyes open and a quizzical expression; she's holding a small pistol in her right hand, which is dangling loosely. In the upper right corner, the words "Blood Red Kisses!" are lettered in red. In the middle of the poster, and just below the right corner of the painting of the couple, the phrase "Mickey Spillane's Latest H-Bomb" is lettered. Below the left corner: "White Hot Thrills" is lettered. Below the center is a painting of parted red lips with "Kiss Me Deadly" lettered on them; in smaller letters above the lips is "Parklane Pictures presents". There's a small billing block at the lower left of the poster: "starring Ralph Meeker/ with Albert Dekker - Paul Stewart - Juano Hernandez/ Produced and directed by Robert Aldrich / screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides/ Released through United Artists". There are several small paintings of scenes from the film scattered around the poster.
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Produced by Robert Aldrich
Screenplay by A. I. Bezzerides
Based on the novel Kiss Me, Deadly
by Mickey Spillane
Starring Ralph Meeker
Albert Dekker
Paul Stewart
Juano Hernandez
Music by Frank DeVol
Cinematography Ernest Laszlo
Edited by Michael Luciano
Production
company
Parklane Pictures
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • May 18, 1955 (1955-05-18) (United States)
Running time
 106 minutes
104 minutes (USA)
Country United States
Language English
Budget $410,000
Box office $726,000 (USA/Canada)
$226,000 (foreign)
436,699 admissions (France)

Kiss Me Deadly is an 1955 film noir, produced and directed by Robert Aldrich, that stars Ralph Meeker. The screenplay was written by A.I. Bezzerides, based on the Mickey Spillane Mike Hammer mystery novel Kiss Me, Deadly. The film was released by United Artists

Kiss Me Deadly grossed $726,000 in the United States and a total of $226,000 overseas. The film also withstood scrutiny from the Kefauver Commission, which called it a film "designed to ruin young viewers", leading director Aldrich to protest the Commission's conclusions.

Kiss Me Deadly marked the film debuts of the actresses Cloris Leachman and Maxine Cooper.

Kiss Me Deadly is often considered a classic of the noir genre. In 1999, Kiss Me Deadly was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Ralph Meeker plays Mike Hammer, a tough Los Angeles private eye who is almost as brutal as the crooks he chases. Mike and his assistant/secretary/lover, Velda (Maxine Cooper), usually work on "penny-ante divorce cases".

One evening on a lonely country road, Hammer gives a ride to Christina (Cloris Leachman), an attractive hitchhiker wearing nothing but a trench coat. She has escaped from a mental institution, most probably the nearby Camarillo State Mental Hospital. Thugs waylay them and Hammer awakens in some unknown location where he hears Christina screaming and being tortured to death. The thugs then push Hammer's car off a cliff with Christina's body and an unconscious Hammer inside. Hammer next awakens in a hospital with Velda by his bedside. He decides to pursue the case, for vengeance, a sense of guilt (as Christina had asked him to "remember me" if she got killed), and because "she (Christina) must be connected with something big" behind it all.


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