死吻1955

Jumping on the bandwagon of an escalating post-WWII nuclear paranoia, Robert Aldrich’s hard-hitting Film-Noir KISS ME DEADLY (his fifth feature film) sets its cock-and-bull backbone in Mickey Spillane’s titular pulp novel, but substitutes its McGuffin with a cockamamie Pandora’s box allegory that is only appended for its sheer shocking value.

A hardboiled L.A. shamus Mike Hammer (Meeker), reluctantly falls in with a hitchhiker Christina Bailey (a radiant Leachman in her screen debut, and we do miss her illuminated presence after her character’s fate is appallingly sealed), who only wears a trench coat after fleeing from a mental institution in the dead of night, before being caught up with her pursuers, she tells Mike to “remember me” if she doesn’t make it alive, and this is exactly what happens. After Mike miraculously survives the man-made accident which ostensibly kills Christina (the villains have an unconscious Mike at their mercies, yet, they inexplicably spare him for no other reason but what the story requires), he knuckles down to bird-dog the mystery behind, routinely sieving through a concatenation of names, often from the mouth of his devout and world-savvy assistant-cum-lover Velda (Cooper), tritely hazarding the lives of those who are passively enmeshed in his investigation, it is mildly surprising that his buddy, the Greek immigrant Nick (vexingly played by Nick Dennis in hamming up his va-va-voom catchphrase) doesn’t blow himself up earlier but only succumbs to a facile budging of a jack. But the major breakthrough hinges on deciphering Christina’s cryptic last words (which might just as well be rephrased as “examine me” by screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides, if she doesn’t really intend to muddy the waters when her life is hanging by a thread), and “vestige” is the operative word.

For one thing, the story-line barely makes any sense, and Bezzerides has no volition to paper over its porous loose ends and preposterous turn of events, for instance, we have no inkling of the antagonists’ agenda with the box (saving an urbanely intimidating Paul Stewart from going sinister all the way), what is the involvement of Lt. Pat Murphy (Addy), and why on earth the only person who knows its whereabout is so impetuously dispatched? While Mike’s myth-divulging takes an improbably simplified route name after name, what he faces mostly is a cesspool of human scums that truly merits his slapping-happy second-nature (in turn echoes his own short-fused cruelty), not to mention the film’s sweeping derogative treatment of its female characters, everyone mechanically falls under the spell of Mr. Meeker’s irresistibly laconic and impassive macho posturing, trying to seal a kiss with him at short notice, Aldrich really overreaches himself in beating the drum for this fusty and pernicious masculinity.

That said, as a grubby noir tall-tale, its superficial production value speaks for itself by allowing Mike perambulating L.A.’s nocturnal streets and treacherous corners where lies and danger fester under DP Ernest Laszlo’s immaculate lens, and Aldrich unflinchingly ratchets up its cynicism until the final radioactive perdition, remotely elicits a sense of Sci-Fi proportion that chimes with its vertically rolling opening credits, which would be normalized by the STAR WARS juggernauts two decades later.

referential entries: Aldrich’s WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962, 8.2/10), HUSH….HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964, 7.8/10).

看到片尾我才明白电影名字为什么叫《死吻》，Gabriel对迈克说，“过来吻我，一个撒谎者的吻，你不是很擅长这个吗？”，自大的迈克以为自己洞察一切，却不知自己掉进怎样黑暗的无底洞，对于深爱着他的怀特（迈克的女助理），贪婪的迈克一直都在利用她，怀特说的，“你只是在有麻烦的时候才需要我”，可是迈克平时那些半真半假的吻依然让怀特飞蛾扑火，怀特用自己的肉体把线索一个一个地挖出来交给迈克，她不知道迈克为何不离开这一切，一定要去追求那个“伟大的什么（Great What）”，她怎知道迈克其实是极度贪婪的，迈克对于平时从事的离婚纠纷侦探工作那点收入完全不感兴趣了，他认为他钓到一条大鱼了，整个事件的背后肯定是一个价值连城的东西。一直到警察说出“曼哈顿计划”的时候，迈克终于瘫在那里，他付出这么多，竟然只是陷入了一场让他毫无收益的政治事件。他交出了那把得之不易的钥匙，他开始想起了怀特，酒吧里的歌手唱的那一段，“你不知道你对我做了什么，我宁愿忧愁和忧郁包围我.....”正是怀特心声的写照，那一夜迈克心有触动，他喝了很多，他烂醉如泥。然而他在沉烂醉中被酒保叫醒，“怀特被人抓走了”，他决定去救怀特，这一次他注定要付出沉重的代价。

贪婪的岂止是迈克，Gabriel更贪婪，她不仅仅是贪婪，而且心肠如毒蛇，她平时在迈克面前表现得胆小怕事，纯洁可爱，事实上她天不怕地不怕，无情无义，当然最后贪婪导致了她的毁灭，她打开了致命武器的盒子。电影在剧中称之为潘多拉的盒子。导演在剧中多次指出，科学家对此感到非常忧郁，暗示这个东西一旦发明出来，就是潘多拉的盒子被打开了。

剧中有几处比较深的地方:

一个是克里斯蒂娜的室友卡弗早就死了，Gabriel冒充了卡弗，接近了迈克，她处心积虑利用迈克找到了盒子的钥匙。

再一个就是克里斯蒂娜其实是警察的工具，然后又因为曼哈顿计划的绝密性，克里斯蒂娜被送入了疯人院，迈克后来总算想到了这一点，他怒斥那些警察，可是有什么用呢？

还有一个是克里斯蒂娜的名字，用的是英国诗人克里斯蒂娜的名字，迈克找到了诗人克里斯蒂娜的书，那首诗《remember me》指出了，“记住我，如果黑暗和堕落在我们的思想上留下印记，日子不会再接续，你却以为你计划好了未来”，暗示了整个故事的走向！

不过结局还是给了观众一点点温暖，醒悟后的迈克终于救出了怀特，在核爆炸的声光中，两人搀扶着逃开了，一瘸一拐的，活着！