Kiss Me Deadly (1955)

A doomed female hitchhiker pulls Mike Hammer into a deadly whirlpool of intrigue, revolving around a mysterious "great whatsit." (imdb)
Cast and Information
Directed By: Robert Aldrich
Written By: A.I. Bezzerides, Mickey Spillane
Starring: Jack Elam, Cloris Leachman, Albert Dekker, Ralph Meeker, Paul Stewart, Juano Hernandez, Jack Lambert, Wesley Addy, Marian Carr, Nick Dennis, Maxine Cooper, Gaby Rodgers
Genres: Suspense/Thriller, Crime
Country: USA
Where to Stream
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Kiss Me Deadly belongs to 84 collections
1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 234 stars)
2. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 167 stars)
3. Film Noir (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 55 stars)
4. Martin Scorsese's Film School: The 85 Films You Need to See to Know Anything About Film (collaborative - 44 stars)
5. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)
6. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)
7. They Shoot Pictures 250 Quintessential Noir Films (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
8. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 1000 Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)
9. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2010 revision) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 32 stars)
10. National Film Registry (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
11. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)
12. Netflix Instant (collaborative: moderated by somnivore - 29 stars)
13. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)
14. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2012 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 25 stars)
15. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2017 revision) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 22 stars)
16. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray) (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 20 stars)
17. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)
18. Cahiers du cinema's 100 Greatest Films (collaborative: moderated by CCLZA - 17 stars)
19. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson - 17 stars)
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25. films101.com's 5 star films (collaborative: moderated by ppinocchio - 11 stars)
26. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 11 stars)
27. List: Essential Noirs in The Rough Guide to Film Noir's Canon (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 10 stars)
28. Best of criticker: Suspense / Thriller (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 9 stars)
29. 1,000 Noir Films: They Shot Dark Pictures, Didn't They? (collaborative: moderated by lisa- - 9 stars)
30. The Village Voice: 150 Groundbreaking Films (public: kevinjoseph - 9 stars)
31. Los Angeles (collaborative: moderated by Zarkon - 8 stars)
32. BFI 100 key Noir films (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 8 stars)
33. Best of criticker: Crime (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 8 stars)
34. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Alternative Top 100 (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 7 stars)
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39. Best of Classic Old Hollywood (pre-70s) (collaborative: moderated by 90sCoffee - 6 stars)
40. Cinemag's Best 200 films Ever Created! (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 4 stars)
41. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)
42. Private Detective (collaborative: moderated by shalev - 4 stars)
43. edkrak films to see (public: edkrak - 4 stars)
44. List: Noir of the Week (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 3 stars)
45. Best of criticker: Film Noir (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 3 stars)
46. L.A. sleaze (collaborative: moderated by mattburgess - 3 stars)
47. Cult Movies (Danny Peary) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 3 stars)
48. Coheed's Films I Need To See Or Try To Track Down (public: Coheed - 3 stars)
49. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray and 4K) (public: PepeCamello - 3 stars)
50. High contrast black and white cinematography (collaborative: moderated by juandr - 2 stars)
51. A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (public: xinet - 2 stars)
52. Discussed in Truffaut's "The Films in My Life" (public: juandr - 2 stars)
53. Paste Magazine: The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time (public: TychoCelchuu - 2 stars)
54. The 100 Best Film Noirs of All Time: Slant Magazine (public: TychoCelchuu - 2 stars)
55. List: Empire's masterpiece picks (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 1 star)
56. Moviedrome: Alex Cox (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 1 star)
57. Pickpocket inaccurate PSI (public: Pickpocket - 1 star)
58. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)
59. List: TSPDT's 100 Noir Films (public: KasperL - 1 star)
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62. Mike Hammer (collaborative: moderated by Luna6ix)
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64. Los Angeles in Film (collaborative: moderated by PerryStroika)
65. Versátil Home Video (collaborative: moderated by allegreller)
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67. The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: The Gangster Film (collaborative: moderated by RoyalB)
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70. nminichino DVD collection (public: nminichino)
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Browse the full list of collections
Stars | User | Rating | |
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KasperL | 90 97th |
Late in the genre cycle this B-noir cult classic turned up the male chauvanism, the masochism, and the sleaze yet somehow, by making the paranoia connection with cold war anxieties, it transcends all the trashy elements to become somewhat artful, as well as campily off-beat. Among the absolutely most original of the essential film noirs.
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Pickpocket | 1 12th |
Left me feeling pretty cold. Too many characters to keep track of and Meeker was terrible in the lead role. Imagine Mitchum in this movie and my score would immediately go up about 4 points. Has one of the worst endings I've ever seen, I actually had to watch it 3 times because it was so unbelievably terrible. Bad writing, bad acting and too many shots of people's feet. Seriously, there is like at least 5 minutes of footage of various people's shoes. Ridiculous.
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prowler | 28 22nd |
The noir isn't noiry enough, the mystery isn't mistery'y enough and the writing is pretty poor. It does have a specific charm though.
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MartinTeller | 74 50th |
Incredible for the first 10 minutes and again for the last 15 or so. But the middle part is less exciting. Mike Hammer goes to one guy, intimidates him, gets some other guy's name, goes to that guy, gets another name, and so forth. Occasionally someone gets killed, but you never feel the weight of it. It's unusual because it's so dark and the hero is so unlikeable, but that middle section is a bit sluggish.
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2 | gleeb | 69 32nd |
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The lead is OK, but too many of the supporting characters are flat stereotypes. And it could have been half an hour shorter without missing much.
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Alex Watkins | 5 91st |
In which our ostensible hero is a violent lunkhead, pursuing a mystery greater than himself controlled by forces far more vast and clever than he could ever hope to be...What's most striking about Kiss Me Deadly is how its cynicism - hardly unusual for noir - bleeds over: everybody's a target, and nobody's to be trusted. That, plus the sci-fi elements and the exceptionally lurid depictions of sex and violence, makes this one jump off the screen.
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PeaceAnarchy | 90 94th |
It just never pays to want to know what's in a damn box, does it? It starts off with a bizarre attention getting premise, and while it then resets itself as an ordinary noir it slowly unveils a viciousness way beyond what most noirs even dream of reaching. Everything in the film grew on me as time went by and while the ending felt a bit amateurish it was still a very satisfying film as a whole.
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JooJoo | 5 80th |
Incredibly mixed reaction. For every moment that makes it, there's another that rubs me wrong. There's a certain actress that seems to be making up her mind mid-delivery through most every scene. I still don't know how to feel about that bizarre twist, but I really have to admire what it took to make something like this in 1955. Especially ballsy in the choice of a widely, staggeringly, otherworldly ending that obliterates any idea of traditional conventions.
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Mentaculus | 99 98th |
Evil, cynical, perverse. Everything about it screams Wrong, from its reverse titles, heavy breathing, torture and whoring, and then it gives the American Dream, and what keeps all this debauchery safe, a not-so-subtle Middle Finger.
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Timon88 | 89 95th |
An utterly unique and often strange noir classic--don't miss it. It's got style in spades. It's great to see Cloris Leachman in her first film role. And you gotta love IMDB - I kept wondering why Lily/Gabrielle's delivery was so very odd, and it turns out that Gaby Rodgers was born-in-Germany German. Ralph Meeker was HOT... who knew?
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Paxton | 91 98th |
This movie is so good that reality simply couldn't contain it at the end and thus, it bursts out into sci-fi in the best possible way.
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JohnnyZombie | 90 83rd |
Excellent despite some very shaky acting.
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x-human | 65 22nd |
Good plot but terrible screenplay (especially the dialog). Indulges too deeply in the bad cliches of hardboiled and only plays lip service to the better ones. I'm not one to flinch at misogyny but this almost comes off as homosexual propaganda it's laid on so thick!
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TheDiceman | 55 49th |
Great up until the end when it got a bit silly.
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Nathan S | 4 74th |
A stand out noir, walking the razor's edge between tropes of the classic cycle and a new age of sci-fi tinged atomic paranoia. Middle budget, made with the spirit of emerging independence from studio systems, and skirting near the end of Code oversight with particularly severe depictions of violence and sexuality.
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joseywales | 77 79th |
Stylish and violent, just like I like em!
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rthornhill | 78 18th |
for a classic noir i found this only so-so. the mood is great but the acting is really off. i did enjoy the way meeker slapped the country club clerk senseless however.
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hehejaja | 55 32nd |
A so-called "hardboiled" film noir, with an inexorable private detective diving into matters far too big for himself. Directed with assuredness, style and attitude - this is hardboiled stuff. Aldrich draw a fully nihilistic world and consequently give no happy ending. An entertaining tragedy.
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cinema_hell | 100 99th |
The ultimate noir!
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Obdurate | 90 91st |
I'm disappointed with plot twists in movies more than I would like to be, but I wasn't here. It put it on a whole other level, and in the process made it a lot stranger than its peers that I've seen. Some of the acting isn't always great but that's the only criticism I can see. The violence works, it's appropriately dark and nihilistic--almost disturbing at times--and the plot moves at a great pace; never boring or uninteresting.
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FantacBob | 58 33rd |
OK, once.
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cat9man | 58 17th |
Starts great - loses "energy" through the story
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DetoxP | 1 0th |
Gritty and interesting, but a good idea does not a good noir make.
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afx237vi | 65 60th |
What a peculiar film. Despite being made when the term "film noir" didn't exist in film-maker's vocabulary, it seems completely self-aware, heightening every noir archetype to the max and taking Hammer's journey of self-destruction to the absolute extreme. I wasn't convinced by some of the acting and the story is just your typically convoluted private eye stuff for the most part. It's certainly an interesting entry into the noir canon, but I can't make up my mind on whether I liked it or not.
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fuzzleshnops | 80 61st |
Wasn't as steamy or mysterious as I wanted it to be.
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juntakinte99 | 50 9th |
There should be nothing better than a picture that combines the post war anxieties of 50's noir & sci-fi tropes. But this movie fails from the start, as the screenwriter obviously detested a novel with a psychopathic lead with no redeeming qualities or skills. What makes Kiss Me Deadly unforgivable, however, is the improv troupe level acting, poor editing, and odd blocking and staging. Avoid at all costs and watch better noir flicks of the era (like The Killing or Odds Against Tomorrow).
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Average Percentile 67.79% from 943 Ratings | ![]() |