by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 18, 2008

"Kiss Me, Deadly" is one of the great noir film classics. A detective picks up a female hitchhiker who holds a mysterious secret, and unexpected acts of violence begin intruding into his simple black-and-white world. As he investigates, the stakes keep escalating on the way to a horrifying conclusion.

The film was expertly directed by Robert Aldrich, who would later direct such action classics as "Flight of the Phoenix" and "The Dirty Dozen." A near head-on collision suddenly appears in the detective's headlights, as swerving tire sounds shatter a quiet conversation with the frightened hitchhiker. (Worried that they wouldn't successfully elude her pursuers, she'd said "If we don't...remember me.") Unseen antagonists leave the woman screaming off-camera - in two different scenes - while the detective struggles to consciousness after the car accident. He's left with no clues, injured in the hospital, while his secretary Velda identifies the shadowy figures who are always afflicting detectives- "the nameless ones who kill people for the great whatsit."

The detective is Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (played by Ralph Meeker), and he's both solid and stubborn. He bristles when taunted by the high-powered government investigators, and plows ahead doggedly with his own pursuit of justice. The hitchhiker had said "remember me," and Hammer begins an investigation, eventually finding his way to the hitchhiker's roommate Lily. And what is the great whatsit? It's strange clue: it's a briefcase that feels hot when touched.

The film was declared one of the most corrupting films of 1955. (Its lurid posters promised "Blood red kisses! White hot thrills!") But what made it most disturbing was its flirting with a danger that was all too real. Hammer's continues his investigation despite warnings from government agents and thugs, until a police lieutenant finally confronts him with the magnitude of the case. Adding more mystery, the police officer is forbidden from discussing the case itself, and he offers only three names as a hint. "Manhattan Project. Los Alamos. Trinity." The briefcase contains dangerous nuclear materials - maybe even a bomb.

And this ultimately leads to the film's startling conclusion, which was even more shocking in its original release. As the words "The End" appear on the screen, audiences of this film see one of two very disturbing endings. Either Mike and his secretary Velda escape to the beach, only to turn and see a nuclear explosion engulfing the house behind them.

Or...they don't escape to the beach.

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