“Her soft mouth was the road to sin-smeared violence,” runs the blurb on the poster for Killer’s Kiss. Well, yes and no. The title of Stanley Kubrick’s second feature’s isn’t really that accurate either – which killer? which kiss? – but we get the idea. Film noir.
The lone individual dwarfed by circumstance and environment became an abiding concern of Kubrick’s in later films and you can see it here in his story of atomised individuals trying to make a go of it in the big city. On one side Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith), a fighter who’s seen better days. On the other Gloria Price (Irene Kane), a taxi dancer wondering how it came to this. Davey and Gloria live opposite each other, and in the evenings he sneaks glances at her through the window that overlooks hers – blonde and striking, former Vogue model Kane does indeed have a mouth that looks like the road to sin-smeared something.
They’re thrown together when Gloria’s handsy boss, Rapallo (Frank Silvera), tries to push himself on her one night, after the pair of them have watched Davey in a televised fight. Davey lost, but in later rescuing Gloria from what looks like an attempted rape he wins Gloria’s heart, to the deep disgruntlement of Rapallo. Violent payback now seems certain.
It’s a classic silent movie story really, with dastardly Rapallo the moustache-twiddling villain, Gloria the fragile damsel tied to the tracks and Davey her heroic if downbeat saviour.
The story, in fact, is dull, the weakest aspect of the film, which luckily has other compensations. Kubrick’s eye, for instance, which hints at his past as a stills photographer. Between 1946 and 1951 Kubrick had shot over 300 assignments for Look and he brings the magazine’s interest in everyday American life to bear on his movie, which often feels like a series of stills collected together – but what stills.
Another negative is the post-dubbed sound, which makes the film feel slightly dislocated. Kubrick had intended to shoot with sound but fired his sound guy early on over problems getting the technicals right and decided it would be quicker and easier to just do it silent and fix it in post.
Much of the film is shot on the streets of a downbeat New York, the largely deserted Brooklyn waterfront and the empty industrial wasteland of what would later become SoHo. Contrasted with this, busy Times Square and Pennsylvania Station. Kubrick shot it all on the hoof, guerrilla style, with night-time tracking shots done from car windows and the like.
Indoors, Kubrick is able to be a bit more recognisably Kubrick – stark angles and careful use of lenses tending to isolate individuals in their environment. There’s even the odd Kubrick Corridor Shot for fans to get their teeth into.
A few times Kubrick breaks with his downbeat style. Once for a dream Davey is having, which Kubrick does as a negative image sped up. Later, as Gloria tells the story of her childhood, a hazy shot of her ballerina sister (it’s Kubrick’s first wife, Ruth Sobotka) dancing solo. And finally, for some Orson Welles-style bravado, he shoots his finale in a mannequin factory, where style completely trumps grunge in a sequence reminiscent of the finale of The Lady from Shanghai.
Kubrick’s first feature, Fear and Desire, had been financed by his family and friends, and lost money. Killer’s Kiss was funded the same way, but with more resistance this time, so when United Artists offered Kubrick $100K for the film, plus another $100K for his next film, he reluctantly took the money in exchange for tacking on the happy ending it still has. It’s not hard to guess how Kubrick would have liked it. Just imagine the film ending about 30 seconds before it does.
In the event the two fistfuls of cash turned out OK for both Kubrick and United Artists. His next film was The Killing. Kubrick was on his way.
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© Steve Morrissey 2024
