Killer's Kiss (Stanley Kubrick, 1955)
Cast: Jamie Smith, Irene Kane, Frank Silvera, Jerry Jarrett, Mike Dana, Felice Orlandi, Shaun O'Brien, Barbara Brand, David Vaughan, Alec Rubin, Ruth Sobotka. Screenplay: Stanley Kubrick, Howard Sackler. Cinematography: Stanley Kubrick. Film editing: Stanley Kubrick. Music: Gerald Fried.
If only Stanley Kubrick hadn't had to worry about such incidentals as plot and characters, Killer's Kiss might have been a classic film noir. It has a gritty urban atmosphere, striking visuals of well-chosen locations, and a perhaps slightly overdone jazz score. But it doesn't have much of a story to tell: Boxer on the skids meets attractive blond and rescues her from her brutal boss. It's not enough to carry a film for even the bit over an hour that the film runs. (It only seems longer.) What holds our attention are some skillful photography -- a reminder that Kubrick began his career as a staff photographer for Look magazine -- evoking a now mostly lost New York City, including Penn Station before its demolition, and a few set pieces: the prize fight; the larking, drunk conventioneers who steal the protagonist's scarf; the chase across the rooftops; and the fight in a warehouse full of mannequins, in which Kubrick comes up with some striking setups such as a shot of the protagonist with plaster hands dangling over his head. There are some attempts to give the characters a backstory: his family in Seattle, her gloomy tale about her father and sister. But these don't give enough depth to the characters. They remain excuses for camera setups rather than actual human beings.