Killer's Kiss, 1955

Killer's Kiss, Stanley Kubrick, 1955, US

Starring Frank Silvera, Jamie Smith, Irene Kane, Jerry Jarret, Julius Adelman.

67 min, b/w, film noir 

Written, edited, shot, produced and directed by Kubrick for a mere $75,000, his second feature is a moody but rather over-arty B thriller whose prime pleasures lie in the high contrast black-and-white camerawork (Kubrick had been a top photographer for Look). The story is nothing original - a down-at-heel boxer (Smith) falls for a night-club

dancer (Kane) after saving her from being raped by her boss (Silvera), who consequently determines to put an end to their romance-but Kubrick

makes the most of flashback and dream sequences, and a surreal climactic fight in a warehouse full of mannequins. The dialogue was post-synched, making for a certain stiltedness in the performances, but at least the brief running-time ensures that the film's more pretentious moments tend to flash past, rather than linger as in Kubrick's later work. Incidentally, the film-and a fictionalised account of its making-became the subject of Strangers Kiss in 1983).

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