Kiss of Death (1947 film)
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| Kiss of Death | |
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| Directed by | Henry Hathaway |
| Produced by | Fred Kohlmar |
| Written by | Ben Hecht Charles Lederer Eleazar Lipsky (story) |
| Starring | Victor Mature Brian Donlevy Coleen Gray Richard Widmark Taylor Holmes Howard Smith Karl Malden Jay Jostyn Anthony Ross Mildred Dunnock Millard Mitchell |
| Music by | David Buttolph |
| Cinematography | Norbert Brodine |
| Editing by | J. Watson Webb Jr. |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | August 27, 1947 |
| Running time | 98 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,523,000 |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Kiss of Death is a 1947 film noir movie written by Ben Hecht and Charles Lederer from a story by Eleazar Lipsky. Directed by Henry Hathaway, and revolves around the story of the film's antagonist and protagonist, played by Victor Mature and Richard Widmark.
Kiss of Death was Widmark's first movie, and it made him a star. The scene in which he giggles as he pushes a wheelchair bound old woman down a flight of stairs is memorable. In the book A Panorama of American Film Noir: 1941-1953, writers Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton note:
"From Henry Hathaway's Kiss of Death (1947), one will remember that nasty little creep with the wild eyes and high-pitched laugh, neurotic to the core, which Richard Widmark has turned into one of his finest roles."
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[edit] Plot
On Christmas Eve, down-on-his-luck Nick Bianco, an ex-convict, and his three cohorts rob a jewelry store located on the top floor of a New York skyscraper. Before they can exit the building, however, the proprietor sets off his alarm, and Nick is apprehended by the police. Later, Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo tries to persuade Nick, who has two young daughters and a wife, to name his accomplices in exchange for a light sentence. Sure that his lawyer, Earl Howser, and cohorts will look after his family while he is incarcerated, Nick refuses and is given a twenty-year sentence. Three years later, at Sing Sing Prison, Nick learns that his wife has committed suicide, and his daughters have been sent to an orphanage. When Nick then is visited by Nettie Cavallo, a young woman who used to babysit his girls, and learns that his wife had been attacked by Pete Rizzo, one of his accomplices, he decides to tell all to D'Angelo. Because so much time has elapsed, however, D'Angelo cannot use Nick's information to reduce his sentence, but makes a deal that if Nick helps the police on another case, he will be allowed to see his children. To that end, D'Angelo questions Nick about one of his previous, unsolved robberies, which he pulled off with Rizzo, and has Nick inform Howser that Rizzo "squealed" on him.
Howser, who also acts as a fence for his clients, hires Tommy Udo, a sadistic killer, to murder Rizzo, but when Udo shows up at Rizzo's tenement, only Ma Rizzo is present. Annoyed, Udo pushes the wheelchair-bound woman down a flight of stairs, killing her. Soon after, Nick is freed on parole at D'Angelo's behest, and immediately pledges his love to Nettie. To stay paroled, Nick then continues his work with D'Angelo, conniving to run into Udo, whom he knows from Sing Sing, at a boxing match. The unsuspecting Udo takes Nick to various clubs, including one at which narcotics are being smoked, and Udo reveals enough information to Nick about a murder he committed to enable the police to arrest him. When Udo later comes up for trial, Nick, who is now married to Nettie and living in the suburbs under her last name, is reluctant to testify against him, but realizes he must in order to maintain his parole. Despite Nick's testimony and other evidence, Udo is acquitted.
Sure that the killer will be after him, and that the police will not be able to protect him and his family, Nick sends Nettie and the children to the country. Nick then searches for Udo at his favorite haunts and finally finds him at Luigi's restaurant. Before confronting Udo, Nick telephones a concerned D'Angelo and instructs him to go to a police station near the restaurant and await his call. Nick tries to reason with Udo, but when the psychopath threatens to harm Nick's family, Nick warns him that if he does, he will go to D'Angelo with information about other crimes he knows Udo committed. Although Udo is aware that, as a "three-time loser," he will spend the rest of his life behind bars if he is found guilty of any crime, he leaves the restaurant and prepares to have Nick gunned down from the back seat of his car. Deducing Udo's plan, Nick calls D'Angelo to tell him that a confrontation is about to occur. Nick then walks to Udo's car and dares him to shoot, which Udo does, repeatedly. Before Udo can escape, however, the police capture him. Though badly wounded, Nick survives, and he and Nettie look forward to a happy, peaceful life together.
[edit] Awards
It was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Richard Widmark) and Best Writing, Original Story (Eleazar Lipsky).
[edit] Remakes
- On January 12, 1948, Widmark, Victor Mature and Coleen Gray reprised their screen roles for a Lux Radio Theatre broadcast. Mature and Widmark also reprised their screen roles for three broadcasts on The Screen Guild Theater, the first of which aired on October 28, 1948.
- A 1958 Western version of the previous film was made, this time entitled, The Fiend Who Walked the West, directed by Gordon Douglas and starring Hugh O'Brian and Robert Evans.
- Another remake, also named Kiss of Death, was made in 1995, directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring David Caruso, Nicholas Cage and Helen Hunt.
[edit] Trivia
- Kiss of Death is mentioned in Stephen King's serial novel The Green Mile. It sets off a panic attack in the main character, Paul Edgecombe, after Widmark's character eerily resembles one of Edgecombe's more violent death row inmates.
- The film's working titles were Stoolpigeon and Blind Date. According to the Twentieth Century-Fox Records of the Legal Department, located at the University of California, studio production chief Darryl F. Zanuck changed the title from Stoolpigeon , the name of Eleazar Lipsky's original story, to Blind Date, then retitled it Kiss of Death after stumbling upon a newspaper article by famed columnist, Hedda Hopper, referring to an event in a politician's life as "the kiss of death." Lipsky, who submitted his story under the name "Lawrence L. Blaine", was a former New York assistant district attorney.
- Contemporary news items note that among the New York City locations used in both the exterior and interior shooting were The Tombs, the Bronx County jail, the downtown Criminal Courts Building, the Louisa M. Alcott house on Sullivan Street, the Chrysler Building and the Hotel Marguery. Other locations included Sing Sing Prison and Astoria, NY, and Fort Lee, NJ. A Life magazine article about the film noted that when the company filmed inside Sing Sing, all rooms and cell blocks had to be cleared out before any shots were taken because of a law that prohibited the photographing of real convicts. Voice-over narration, spoken by Coleen Gray as the character "Nettie," opens the story and is heard intermittently throughout the film.
- Initial drafts of the film's screenplay was unsurprisingly rejected by then strict Production Code Administration. In a late January 1947 letter to Twentieth Century-Fox public relations head Jason S. Joy, Production Code Administration director Joseph I. Breen stated that the "basic story seems to violate the provisions of the Production Code by appearing to present the processes of law and order and the administration of justice in such a light as to cast discredit on the effectiveness of the court system." An internal memo initiated Breen's distaste of the scripts depiction of law enforcement agencies as "utterly futile in their efforts to bring criminals to justice without the aid of stool pigeons." Breen also objected to references to "Tommy Udo's" drug use and the inclusion of a "dope den" in the film.
Breen later wrote back to Joy saying that because of the "assurances to us that this picture will be made with the full cooperation of New York law enforcement authorities, our original concern...is quite fully alleviated." Although Breen reiterated his objections to the drug references, the film does depict Udo as a drug user. Some state censor boards demanded that the scene in which Udo pushes "Ma Rizzo" down the stairs be eliminated.
- In January 1947, the Los Angeles Times announced that James Cagney was being considered for the film's lead.
- An October, 1948 New York Times item stated that independent movie theater owners in London removed Ben Hecht's screenwriting credit from prints of Kiss of Death because of his "anti-British attitudes", including statements made in a published advertisement. The same owners also voted to ban future Hecht films from their theaters. Such an exclusion would have constituted a breach of contract with Hecht and the Screen Writer's Guild.
[edit] Memorable quote
Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark): You know what I do to squealers? I let 'em have it in the belly, so they can roll around for a long time thinkin' it over. You're worse than him, tellin' me he's comin' back? Ya lyin' old hag!
[edit] References
- A Panorama of American Film Noir: 1941-1953 by Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton
