"Kiss Me Deadly" had few similarities with Spillane's story about a gang of dope traffickers… Instead Aldrich reworks the plot so that the criminals are mixed up in the theft of priceless and high1y dangerous radioactive material which they are planning to smuggle to an unnamed power… The complicated story begins with Hammer picking up a scared girl on a lonely road at night and continues through the girl's subsequent death, a kidnapping and a series of very brutal killings…

Spillane's Mike Hammer remains the ultimate in violent private eyes… The killings seem to matter less than the sadism… One scene in which Hammer deliberately breaks the irreplaceable records of an Italian opera lover in order to get the information he wants is more repellent than any of the murders in the film…

Furious but stylish, "Kiss Me Deadly" is a film of great power and stays unique for its mixing of art and pulp fiction

Robert Aldrich was a no-nonsense film director. When he undertook the direction of this film, little did he know it was going to become the extraordinary movie it turned out to be. The fame seems to have come by its discovery in France, as it usually is the case. Based on Mickey Spillane's novel and adapted by Al Bezzerides, the movie has an unique style and it's recommended viewing for fans of the film noir genre.

Right from the start, the film gets our imagination as we watch a young woman running along a California highway. That sequence proved Mr. Aldrich's ability to convey the idea of a disturbed young woman that seems to have escaped from a mental institution. The plot complicates itself as Hammer learns that Christine, the young woman, has died. He decides to investigate, which is what he does best.

Some excellent comments have been submitted to this forum, so we will not even try to expand in the action but will only emphasize in the tremendous visual style Mr. Aldrich added to the film, which seems to be its main attraction. For a fifty year old film, it still has a crisp look to it thanks to the impressive black and white cinematography of Ernest Lazlo, who had a keen eye to show us Hammer's world as he makes it come alive. The great musical score by Frank DeVol fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the L.A. of the fifties.

Ralph Meeker made an excellent contribution as Mike Hammer. He dominates the film with his presence. Albert Decker, Paul Stewart, Miriam Carr, Maxine Cooper, Fortuno Bonanova, and especially Cloris Leachman, in her screen debut, make this film the favorite it has become.

Fans of the genre can thank Mr. Aldrich for making a film that didn't pretend to be anything, yet has stayed as a favorite all these years.

On a lonely stretch of road Mickey Spillane's famous private detective Mike Hammer picks up a dazed and confused Cloris Leachman in her big screen debut, trying to thumb a ride. He picks her up, but shortly afterward they're both attacked and he's left unconscious and she's dead.

Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer wants to find out why of course, a reaction similar to the one Dick Powell as Philip Marlowe had in Murder My Sweet when something exactly like this occurred. But Powell didn't have not only the local police, but the FBI snooping around in this apparent street crime.

Meeker's motives are not noble, he smells a big pay day. And while he's honest, he's not squeamish in the slightest about how he gets information. He runs into a variety of movie bad guys like Paul Richards, Strother Martin, Jack Lambert, Paul Stewart, and Albert Dekker.

Some are helpful, some are not. The bodies start to pile up and what this is all about is a McGuffin to end all McGuffins. Let's just say the police in the person of Wesley Addy and the FBI had very good reason to tell Meeker to butt out. In fact his very entrance into the case causes a lot of fatalities.

This turned out to be Ralph Meeker's career role. Perhaps had Meeker come along earlier or had gotten better breaks he could have had a great career in noir type films. As it was he became a respected character actor. Another performance you'll like is that of Nick Dennis who's a garage mechanic and part time leg man for Hammer.

Juano Hernandez has an interesting part as well. He's a fight manager and not above taking a dishonest dollar if he can turn one. He's a reliable tipster, but the well runs dry about this case when Meeker questions him.

But the performance really to watch is that of Gaby Rodgers who is a femme fatale to beat all. She makes Mary Astor in The Maltese Falcon and Claire Trevor in Murder My Sweet look like Girl Scouts. Watch the ending, it's so incredibly surreal it will stay with you forever.

Can't tell you what the McGuffin is, it will give it all away. But it will be worth your while to see Kiss Me Deadly to find out.