The Kubrick Series #3: Killer's Kiss

THE KUBRICK SERIES #3:

KILLER'S KISS

Despite the failure of Fear and Desire, Stanley Kubrick was still eager to make another film. And he had learned his lesson, and decided to stay away from the challenging European art film and instead produce a film that could belong in a more accesible American genre: the film-noir, which was doing well at the time. Although Kubrick apparently had very little interest in the genre itself, he knew he needed to make a film that could be a commercial success in order to continue making films, and perhaps pave way for the types of films he truly wanted to make. And the result, was Killer's Kiss.

Irene Kane and Jamie Smith, the two leads in the film.

Once again, Kubrick got together with his friend and aspiring playwright Howard Sackler, who had written Fear and Desire, and tried to write a script that would fit the mold of a film-noir type story that could be filmed in Kubrick's native New York City. Whilst they were writing the script, they looked around for appropriate shooting locations, which all happened to be just a quick walk away from Kubrick's current apartment in Greenwich Village. Financing would once again come from Kubrick's near and dear friends and family, but the majority of the money was given to him by a Bronx pharmacist named Morris Bousel, who put $40,000 into the project and earned himself the title of "executive producer" in the opening credits. Kubrick himself would once again take on the role of director, producer, cinematographer and editor. The only carryovers from the cast & crew of Fear and Desire would be Sackler (who chose to go uncredited), composer Gerald Fried and actor Frank Silvera, who receives star-billing this time around. By this point, Kubrick had divorced his wife Toba Metz and married Ruth Sobotka, who would appear as an actor in the film, but we'll get to that later.

Kubrick standing on the streets of New York shooting Killer's Kiss.

The story of the film is relatively simple compared to Fear and Desire. A former boxer named Davey (Jamie Smith) is waiting at a train station and through voice over (another classic Kubrick hallmark) tells the story of how he fell in love with his beautiful neighbor Gloria (Irene Kane). Gloria works for small time gangster Rapallo (Frank Silvera) who's also in love with her. Davey and Gloria plan to run away, but perhaps unsurprisingly, things don't go so well, and Rapallo kidnaps Glora and threatens to kill her. Davey tries to save her, which results in a mano o mano of sorts with Rapallo.

The washed up boxer Davey and the beautiful femme fatale Gloria.

So let's get on with the actual review and talk about the qualities of the film, good and bad. This is definitely an improvement over Fear and Desire, and you can see Kubrick being a much more confident filmmaker and storyteller this time around. The way Kubrick uses the camera feels much more confident and delibarete, and you can see much more of his skills as a photographer in the film and how that influenced his approach to filmmaking. The film also features a healthy mix between static shots, graceful dollies and gritty handheld photography. The handheld photography combined with the use of real locations gives the film much more of a cinéma vérité feeling than more traditional Hollywood films at the time and actually preceeds the French New Wave as far as that is concerned. I remember being particularly struck by the use of handheld photography during a boxing scene, which reminded me of the way Michael Mann shot the boxing scenes in Ali (2001), with quick cuts and super-intimate and handheld closeups.

 Above: Day of the Fight (1951)

Below: Killer's Kiss (1955)

During the boxing scene we also get to see Kubrick reference his earlier work with this particular camera angle.

This would however lead to a repeat of Fear and Desire, since Kubrick fired his sound designer Nat Boxer (who would later work on The Conversation and Apocalypse Now) when he felt his sound equiptment got in the way for his photography. This meant that Killer's Kiss had to be dubbed in post as well. It was as if Kubrick had learnt absolutely nothing from his previous experience in that regard.

These are some of the shots in the film that caught my attention the most.

Although the acting isn't exceptional, it is completely serviceable and much superior to the performances in Fear and Desire. Silvera is probably the best actor in the film, and works very well as this sleazy and violent gangster who will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. Smith and Kane are both fine in their respective roles, but again, they're not exceptional or anything in terms of their acting. Ruth Sobotka, Kubrick's wife at the time who also served as Gloria's deceased sister Iris in a strange flashback which sees her dancing as a ballerina as Gloria explains her character's death and what happened to their family.

The film does feature another dream sequence, this one more interesting actually, in which Davey has a nightmare and the footage we see is a 35mm negative going straight through the streets of New York. Cameron Beyl, in his analysis of Kubrick's work called The Directors Series, cites this sequence as a possible heads-up to the famous Stargate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey, but were saving that for another time.

Davey's nightmare, which is a 35 mm print flipped to its negative.

The film also makes great use of location, and watching it now you can't help but feel like you've stepped into a time machine to see what New York was like in the 1950s. The handheld camera work also helps in this regard, although that probably came more out of necessity than anything else, since they didn't have any shooting permits and all the "extras" just happen to be real New Yorkers walking by.

Most of these shots were taken without permission, so Kubrick would often walk around with bribe money in his pocket in case cops showed up.

The film was eventually picked up by United Artists, which I'm sure must've made Kubrick feel better about the film's prospects as a potential box office hit, but he would be met with crushing dissapointment when the executives at UA forced Kubrick to change the ending into a happy ending, which is by far the worst aspect of the film. They would also design a poster that completely fails to accurately describe anything that happens in the film or anyone that appear in it. As such, the movie was yet another commercial failure, and it was time for Kubrick to prove his worth as a filmmaker. Fortunately, he did with his very next film.

This poster might be the worst thing I've ever seen!

To be continued with: The Killing (1956)