Kiss Me Deadly (1955).  Director: Robert Aldrich.  Starring Ralph Meeker, Albert Dekker, Paul Stewart, Cloris Leachman.

Mickey Spillaine's Mike Hammer makes his big screen debut in this exciting and far, far ahead of its time detective/noir classic.  Ralph Meeker is absolutely perfect as the sleazy Mike Hammer, P.I. He's a nasty piece of work pretty boy with a leering sneer.  His career as a detective revolves around either personally seducing and placing in compromising positions disgruntled married women or getting his beautiful secretary Velda to do the same with  married men.  Their goal is to collect money from spouses seeking a nasty divorce or cash in on a little blackmail.  Perhaps both at the same time.

Yes, kids, this is our protagonist!

The movie opens with Hammer nearly running over a nude woman (by nude I mean she wears only a trench coat.  Remember, this film was made in 1955, long before mainstream films showed any skin.  The lady in the trench coat, by the way, is Cloris Leachman, in her screen debut).  Hammer's furious that she nearly made him wreck his beautiful sports car, but decides to give her a lift anyway.  Things go downhill for Hammer from there, as he goes up against crooks, swindlers, and the law (Lt. Pat Murphy, somewhat friendly to Hammer in the novels and subsequent features/TV shows, is downright antagonistic to Mike Hammer here.  Later in the film, when he warns Hammer that he's "in over his head" the potentially tired cliché turns out to be downright prescient).

As I mentioned before, this film was way ahead of its time.  Despite the fact that almost all the sleazy material is presented subtly, the viewer gets the point.  The world of Mike Hammer is a dark and gritty one and there are no heroes to be found here.  Hammer's actions are dictated by a desire to get ahead rather than right any wrong, and the ending of the film really hits home...

...although there are two versions of it: what I'll call the Director's version and the so-called US Censorship Ending.

Given that I'm about to discuss the two different endings, I will most definitely entering heavy SPOILER territory.  If you don't want to read anymore, at least not until you see the film, please skip the rest of this article.  Otherwise...

                                                               SPOILERS FOLLOW:  YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

 

Kiss Me Deadly involves the search for a lead box containing some kind of dangerous radioactive material that has been stored in a lead lined box.  The various characters within the film, with the exception of Lt. Pat Murphy, have no clue as to how dangerous this material is.  At the end of the film, Hammer confronts the villain in her beach home.  Velda, Hammer's gorgeous secretary, is being held somewhere in this home, but Hammer's immediate attention at the moment is directed toward the villain and her case.  He is shot and gravely injured.  The villain, pleased that she has triumphed, opens the case and is incinerated (a brief aside: This scene is highly reminiscent of the climax of Raider of the Lost Ark.  Also, the glowing case seems to have found its way into both Repo Man and Pulp Fiction).

While the villain fried, Hammer crawls out of the room and calls out to Velda.

What happens next depends on which version of the film you have.  These two versions have been labeled the "Director's Cut" and the "US Censorship Version".

VERSION ONE (Found on the DVD):  Hammer finds Velda and the two stumble around inside the beach house before finally making it outside. They move on, distancing themselves from the house and eventually reaching the shoreline.  While the knee-high waves pound on them, they watch the home erupt in a violent explosion.

VERSION TWO (Found on the Laserdisc): Hammer finds Velda and they stumble inside the beach house and we CUT TO outside the beach house.  It erupts in flames, taking with it the villain as well as Hammer and Velda.  A downbeat, nihilistic ending to a downbeat, nihilistic movie.

So which ending is the "Director's" version and how did the so called "US Censorship Version" come into being?

According to IMDB (the link is here) director Robert Aldrich stated: "I have never seen a print without, repeat, without Hammer and Velda stumbling in the surf. That's the way it was shot, that's the way it was released; the idea being that Mike was left alive long enough to see what havoc he had caused, though certainly he and Velda were both seriously contaminated." (as quoted in: Edwin T. Arnold and Eugene L Miller, The Films and Career of Robert Aldrich, p. 246.) .

From this quote we know that the Director's cut is the one present on the DVD.  So what's this about a "US Censorship Version" and why does it feature Hammer and Velda dying in the explosion?  Again, according to IMDB, there is no clear story as to why this truncated ending exists.  Some have speculated that this version was created to play in the more conservative Southern states during the film's initial release, but I wonder.

You see, there's plenty of lurid material presented in the rest of the film, yet both the Director's Cut and the so-called "US Censorship Version" version contain, with the exception of the ending, all the same material.  Every little bit of it.  The only difference is the truncated ending, an ending that doesn't seem to feature anything remotely controversial.

So, what gives?

Perhaps, and I must state up front very, VERY clearly that this is total speculation on my part, Aldrich or the movie's editors themselves toyed with the more abrupt ending.  Years later, when Aldrich was interviewed for the above quote, he might have simply forgotten that he considered using this ending.  Why do I feel this way?  Because clarity is vitally importance in telling a story.  You want your audience to get your message and if you're too vague, they may leave the theatre confused or, worse, thinking they saw something they didn't.

 In the longer version of the ending, some viewers might not get that Hammer and Velda are "contaminated" by the radiation and will die from it.  To these viewers, Hamer and Velda survived the explosion and therefore would be back another day, to continue their lurid lives.  But, in the more abrupt ending, the audience, with no doubt, SEES Hammer and Velda die.  The director's intention, if anything, is much clearer in this truncated cut than in the "Director's Cut".  Once again, this is all speculation on my part, and I have to defer to the possibility that someone else did indeed cut the ending to create a less "controversial" film.

By now, you must know which ending I prefer.  Coming from a guy who's inclined to favor the Director's vision and who feels "censorship" is a four letter word, this is a tough thing for me to state:  I like the "US Censorship Version" better than the "Director's Cut".

Ouch.

Regardless, if you're ever up to seeing a truly startling take on the classic detective/noir genre, give Kiss Me Deadly a try.  In either format, it's still very much worth it.