Robert Aldrich

Kiss Me Deadly

Kiss Me Deadly

In this atomic adaptation of Mickey Spillane’s novel, directed by Robert Aldrich, the good manners of the 1950s are blown to smithereens. Ralph Meeker stars as snarling private dick Mike Hammer, whose decision one dark, lonely night to pick up a hitchhiking woman sends him down some terrifying byways. Brazen and bleak, Kiss Me Deadly is a film noir masterwork as well as an essential piece of cold war paranoia, and it features as nervy an ending as has ever been seen in American cinema.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1955
  • 106 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.66:1
  • English
  • Spine #568

Special Features

  • New high-definition restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Audio commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
  • New video tribute from director Alex Cox
  • Excerpts from The Long Haul of A. I. Bezzerides, a 2005 documentary on the Kiss Me Deadly screenwriter
  • Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, a 1998 documentary about the life and work of the author
  • Video pieces on the film’s locations
  • Controversial altered ending
  • Theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by critic J. Hoberman and a 1955 reprint by director Robert Aldrich

    New cover by F. Ron Miller

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New high-definition restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Audio commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
  • New video tribute from director Alex Cox
  • Excerpts from The Long Haul of A. I. Bezzerides, a 2005 documentary on the Kiss Me Deadly screenwriter
  • Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, a 1998 documentary about the life and work of the author
  • Video pieces on the film’s locations
  • Controversial altered ending
  • Theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by critic J. Hoberman and a 1955 reprint by director Robert Aldrich

    New cover by F. Ron Miller
Kiss Me Deadly
Cast
Ralph Meeker
Mike Hammer
Albert Dekker
Dr. Soberin
Paul Stewart
Carl Evello
Juano Hernandez
Eddie Yeager
Nick Dennis
Nick
Wesley Addy
Pat Murphy
Marion Carr
Friday
Maxine Cooper
Velda
Cloris Leachman
Christina
Gaby Rodgers
Carver
Credits
Director
Robert Aldrich
Producer
Robert Aldrich
Executive producer
Victor Saville
Screenplay
A. I. Bezzerides
Music composed and conducted by
Frank DeVol
Orchestrations by
Albert Harris
Makeup
Bob Schiffer
Casting supervisor
Jack Murton
Sound
Jack Solomon
Assistant to the producer
Robert Sherman
Assistant director
Robert Justman
Editing
Michael Luciano
Set decorator
Howard Bristol
Art director
William Glasgow
Production supervisor
Jack R. Berne
Photographed by
Ernest Laszlo
“Rather Have the Blues” sung by
Nat “King” Cole

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This week, as part of a complete survey of Robert Aldrich’s career (running through mid-August), the Harvard Film Archive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will screen the director’s explosive 1955 noir masterpiece Kiss Me Deadly. Based on Mickey Spil…