Killer’s Kiss

Killer’s Kiss follows boxer Davey Gordon (Jamie Smith) as he meets and falls for a beautiful dancer (Irene Kane’s Gloria), with problems ensuing as Davey subsequently raises the ire of a shady nightclub owner named Vincent (Frank Silvera). It’s clear that Killer’s Kiss requires a great deal of patience from the viewer, as much of the movie’s first half suffers from the feel of a rather unimpressive student film – with director Stanley Kubrick exacerbating this feeling by suffusing the proceedings with needlessly ostentatious visual choices. (There are, having said that, a number of striking shots that almost compensate, including a memorable nighttime sequence in which a character walks through New York’s Times Square.) The less-than-enthralling vibe is compounded by a narrative that is, to put it mildly, rather disjointed, with the almost total lack of an entry point holding the viewer at arms length for much of the movie’s opening 45 minutes. There reaches a point, however, at which Killer’s Kiss begins to morph into an unexpectedly compelling film noir, as the narrative begins revolving around Davey and Gloria’s efforts at escaping from Vincent’s increasingly nefarious clutches. It doesn’t hurt, certainly, that Kubrick has packed the movie’s final half hour with palpably captivating interludes, with the film’s climax, which boasts a rooftop chase and a confrontation within a mannequin warehouse, packing a far more visceral and engrossing punch than one might’ve naturally expected. Killer’s Kiss is, in the end, a thoroughly erratic effort that feels long even at 67 minutes, and yet there are enough positive elements here to ultimately warrant a mild recommendation (and it goes without saying that the movie is a must for Kubrick aficionados).

*** out of ****