A solid masterpiece. Not quite noir, more a monochrome 50s nuclear nightmare. Mickey Spillane hated Aldrich's film, Ralph Meeker brilliantly playing Mike Hammer as a smirking sadist, enjoying the pain he inflicts (look at his expression as he tortures someone with a desk drawer) and is only interested in his car and easy money instead of Spillane's square-jawed Commie-basher. A word of praise for Gaby Rogers' Lily Carver whose insatiable curiosity has severe consequences and Albert Dekker as Doctor Soberin. The violence was so extreme for the time that the film was only seen uncut in the UK when Channel 4 broadcast it in the 90s. Get the R1 edition as, while both are non-anamorphic, at least it contains the alternate ending, used as audiences misinterpreted the original ending. To find out more about the brilliant and under-rated director I recommend Alain Silver and James Ursini's book What Ever Happened To Robert Aldrich?

From the unusual credit sequence to the spectacular climax Kiss Me Deadly is still as fresh and daring as ever.
Ralph Meeker lies, bullies, and cheats his way through a deep focus Los Angeles-totally oblivious to his own shortcomings as a divorce case shamus out of his depth.
Surrounded by the weird and wonderful, every small interchange is a delight: the removal man, the mechanic, the opera lover-Meeker lords it over them all.
However it is when he is with women he reveals himself to the audience the most. Cruel, manipulitive, and smug, he lets his arrogance cloud his judgement as a detective with devastating consequences to his ego.