For those who are not regular readers, I've decide to watch my way through the filmography of the great Stanley Kubrick in an effort to become better acquainted with his work. Seemed like the right thing to do for a self-professed movie geek that, for one reason or another, never got around to seeing most this acclaimed director's films.
You can read my first entry in this project, wherein in explain my rationale behind this whole endeavor, here.
A few days ago, I blogged about Fear and Desire, Kubrick's first film. Today, I will tackle his sophomore effort, Killer's Kiss.
Right out of the gate, the most noticeable thing about this film is the huge improvement it was upon Fear and Desire. Part of that was undoubtedly due to the increased budget, though, like the first film Killer's Kiss was independently financed by loans from Kubrick's family. But, it was clearly more than improved financing.
In Fear and Desire, Kubrick seemed to pay more attention on simply setting up the scenes, focusing more on the interaction of the actors than on the composition of any given shot. There were a few exceptions, of course, but the scenery itself and the specific locales never really came into play. In Killer's Kiss, however, it's easy to see the influence of Kubrick's background as a photographer (prior to beginning his career as a filmmaker, he had gained some prominence as a photographer for Look magazine).
There are improvements in the storytelling as well. While Fear and Desire was almost pretentiously existential, Killer's Kiss is an old fashioned noir film, which allowed for more streamlined storytelling and provided genre fallbacks to fill in, where necessary, some gaps when the storytelling gets a little thin.
Specifically, the movie tells the story of an aging boxer named Davey Gordon (played by Jamie Smith) who, after losing a fight, comes to the aid of a woman named Gloria (played by Irene Kane) who lives across a courtyard from his apartment. They quickly fall in love and decide to leave town to get away from their dreary lives in New York City.
Problems arise when Gloria goes to retrieve her final paycheck from her employer, Vincent (played by Frank Silvera, who was also in Fear and Desire). Gloria is a dancer and Vincent has become infatuated with her. He'll do anything to keep her from leaving, including ordering his goons to take Davey out of the picture. Eventually, that's what he does, but, through a case of mistaken identity, they end up killing Davey's manager. Vincent then kidnaps Gloria. Chases and fights ensue.
I'm being scant on the details of the plot for two reasons: 1) It's doubtful that many of you have seen this movie and I don't want to give everything away (unlike Fear and Desire, this movie is actually worth watching, even if you're not a Kubrick completist); and 2) the value of this movie is not in its story, but its visuals.
Like I said, the movie looks like it was directed by a photographer. There are a number of long, stationary shots that are staged and lit with exquisite detail. For example, there are scenes where Davey where looks across the courtyard into Gloria's apartment, where the unmoving camera is placed to allow it to peer into both residences simultaneously. In one such scene, Davey moves to stand in front of a mirror and the same view into Gloria's apartment is recreated in the reflection. It's very, very cool.
Shot entirely in New York, the film succeeds at making the city a character in the film. There are scenes inside Old Penn Station and on Broadway that envelope you in the flavor of the city life. There's a chase scene across a rooftop with the Brooklyn Bridge hanging ominously in the background. And, there's a climactic fight scene in a warehouse full of mannequins that does more to create a mood of tension than anything any of the actors say or do at any point in the movie.
This is not to say that the movie is not without its technical flaws. For example, Kubrick, so I've read, was frustrated with how the microphones were interfering with his shots that he opted not to record any of the sound on location. Instead, every sound in the movie -- including all the dialogue -- is overdubbed, which can be a little distracting at times.
Still, there is much to appreciate with this film. Clearly, Kubrick's genius was not fully developed when he made this movie at age 26. But, there were clear signs of his brilliance on display in Killer's Kiss. Watching this film for the first time reignited my excitement for this whole Kubrick project.
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