Wonderful Movie

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Well I did not get the point why this movie was called "Kiss of Death". I expect a "femme fatale" in a movie with that title but there was none. The movie is dated, an average film noir of the forties, but the acting of Richard Widmark is simply great and the wheelchair incident was quick but splendid for the forties. The loving father figure was quite overacted. Overall the movie is still worth seeing when you are a film noir fanatic. The script is OK but somewhat predictable, the shooting scene at the end was fast and quite unreal. But most of all ...the last spoken lines sounded irritating and should be better for a nowadays public. Normally I would give it a 5 but Widmark's performance tilted it up to a 6.

From the opening shot, it's clear that KISS OF DEATH isn't just another guns 'n' gals thriller: we see a "SHOOTING SCRIPT" (identified as such by its title); placed upon said script, a handgun. Not a bad way to begin a noir thriller, eh? Victor Mature as Nick Bianco is a hood with personal ethics that preclude him ratting out his accomplices in a botched jewelry store robbery. Three years into his stretch, however, he learns that his wife has committed suicide and his two children have been sent to an orphanage. When the prison warden asks Mature if he "plays ball," Mature replies, "I'm going to." The D.A. sets a trap for Mature's accomplice, Rizzo, but Howser, Mature's crooked lawyer, sends the psychotic Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) to silence Rizzo. But Rizzo ain't home when Udo arrives... so Udo ties Rizzo's invalid mother into her wheelchair with a length of electrical cord and shoves her down the steps. It's a particularly brutal scene, and is justifiably (in)famous. Things take a few more twists and turns before it's all over, but Mature isn't as impressed with the D.A. and his minions as he is with Udo: "He's NUTS, and he's smarter than you are," he snaps contemptuously. KISS OF DEATH is nigh flawless and deserves its status as a topnotch film noir. (Ruminating briefly, I've come up with a list of what I think are probably the top ten most memorable fictional but non-supernatural madmen and troubled women: Colonel Kurtz in APOCALYPSE NOW; Norman Bates in PSYCHO (and PSYCHO II); "John Doe" in SEVEN; "Zodiac" in DIRTY HARRY; Dennis Hopper in BLUE VELVET; Betty Davis in WHATEVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?; Kathy Bates in MISERY; Robert Mitchum in NIGHT OF THE HUNTER; Ernest Borgnine in EMPEROR OF THE NORTH; and the entire in-bred family in THE Texas CHAINSAW MASSACRE (the ORIGINAL version). Honorable mentions go out to the Killbillies in DELIVERENCE; the faceless trucker in DUEL; Ernest Borgnine in the original WILLARD; Boris Karloff in BEDLAM and THE BLACK CAT; Orson Welles in TOUCH OF EVIL; the kid in THE BAD SEED; the bandit leader in FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE; Paul Stewart in THE WINDOW and the Captain in Val Lewton's GHOST SHIP.)

"Kiss of Death" is probably best remembered for the scene in which Richard Widmark's character, Tommy Udo pushes a wheelchair bound woman (Mildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs. But it is more than that.Shot on location in New York, Director Henry Hathaway use a documentary film noire style to give the film a reality not possible on a sound stage. He uses actual locations for the various prison scenes, buildings and offices which accentuates the realism of the story.The basic story line has small time crook Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) being arrested for a jewel robbery and being brought before Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo (Brian Donlevy). D'Angelo tries to get Nick to rat out his partners in crime. No go. Nick goes to prison with the promise from his lawyer Earl Howser (Taylor Holmes) that he'll get an early parole. On the way to prison he meets the sadistic giggling psychopathic killer Udo, a friendship doomed to failure.After a personal tragedy happens while he is in prison, Nick reverses his stand and decides to contact D'Angelo and turn states evidence. He testifies against Udo and thinks that it's all over. Not so.Along the way, Nick Strikes up a romance with Nettie (Coleen Gray) and eventually marries her.Hathaway seems to have slipped a couple of things past the censors. The fact that Nettie was Nick's former baby sitter suggests that she is quite a bit younger than he and that he may have had his eye on her as a budding teenager. And because Hathaway used real locations, one might almost miss Mature flicking a cigarette butt into a real toilet in a jail cell, a no-no in those days. But not to worry, Nick and Nettie sleep in twin beds.The ending is pure Hollywood and therefore unbelievable. I mean, count the number of slugs both Nick and Udo take at the film's climax, yet both survive.I had a problem with some of the time lines in the picture. For example, Nick meets Udo on the way to prison but we don't see him again for at least a third of the film and never in the prison. When Nick turns states evidence, we casually learn that he has been away for three years and in the interim, Udo somehow has been released. And Nettie appears out of nowhere and seems to be carrying a torch for Nick in spite of their age differences.Victor Mature was always, in my opinion, a much better actor than his "hunk" image allowed. In this film he gives a powerful performance as the tragic Nick. Widmark, in his breakthrough role, steals the picture with his over the top performance as the demented killer Udo. I can't say that I agree with his make up consisting of an exaggerated over bite and fright wig used to apparently enhance his animal like mannerisms.Others in the cast include Karl Malden and Millard Mitchell as cops and John Marley as a convict friend of Nick.

"Kiss Of Death" is a tense crime drama which tells the story of a criminal whose main preoccupations and motivations centre on his family. The plot is unveiled in a style which utilises both neo-realist and expressionist elements and the many scenes filmed on location in the actual places referred to in the story are very effective and contribute strongly to the authenticity of the events depicted. The original story was based on actual events and was written by Eleazar Lipsky who himself had previously been a New York Assistant District Attorney. The use of a documentary style to deliver a very human story could've been regarded as incongruous but this potential problem was avoided by using a sympathetic narration by Coleen Gray."Kiss Of Death" is notable for the fact that it provided Richard Widmark with his sensational screen debut which was so successful that it almost immediately elevated him to star status and won him a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Eleazar Lipsky was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Original Story.After carrying out a jewellery robbery, Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) is caught by the police as he tries to make his getaway. Assistant DA Louis D'Angelo (Brian Donlevy) encourages him to inform on his three accomplices who had successfully escaped from the crime scene, in exchange for a reduced sentence. Nick has a wife and two daughters but being confident that they would be looked after by his lawyer and accomplices when he is in prison, refuses to co-operate.Three years later, after his wife commits suicide and his daughters are placed in an orphanage, Nick is visited by Nettie (Coleen Gray) who used to be his girls' babysitter. She tells him that his wife had been attacked by one of his gang, Pete Rizzo and this provokes him into offering the Assistant DA all the information he had previously withheld. Due to the passage of time since the crime, the offer of a reduced sentence is no longer available but Nick does get to visit his girls if he agrees to provide some useful details about another unsolved case. Nick obliges by telling D'Angelo about an earlier robbery he carried out with Rizzo and then goes on to tell his lawyer that Rizzo had been the police's informer.Nick's lawyer, Earl Howser (Taylor Holmes) then contacts hit man Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) who goes to Rizzo's home and gets angry when he's told by Rizzo's crippled mother that her son isn't in. In his fury, he binds Ma Rizzo up with some cable and despatches her, in her wheelchair, down a flight of stairs, killing her in the process. Nick had known Udo in prison and after meeting him again, gains enough information from him about the murder he'd carried out for D'Angelo to take the case to court. Nick, who by this time is married to Nettie and is settled in a regular job, bravely testifies but the work of a clever mob attorney ensures that Udo is acquitted. This puts Nick in mortal danger and sets the story up for its powerful finale.In the introduction to the movie, it's explained that as an ex-con, Nick had found it impossible to get a job and with Christmas approaching and no money for presents for his wife and children, he took part in the jewellery store robbery. This predicament is something with which most people can immediately empathise and as such provides a compelling start to this fine movie. Equally riveting, are the brilliantly tense sequences, particularly those seen when the gang are making their escape from the crime scene, when Nick waits nervously for Udo to come and hunt him down and also in the run up to the scene in which Nick and Udo have their final confrontation. The murder of Rizzo's mother is incredibly shocking and Udo's insane giggling is chilling.All the acclaim Richard Widmark received for his portrayal of Udo was thoroughly justified and his depiction of this psychopathic, drug fuelled maniac with his trademark giggle and crazy eyes is exceptional. Victor Mature's performance is perfectly understated as it conveys Nick's basic decency and stoicism without ever becoming maudlin or self-pitying. He was a man whose principles as a criminal prevented him from co-operating with the police, however, when a conflict arose between these principles and his family values, the latter took precedence. Coleen Gray is also faultless as the bubbly, good natured Nettie.