Fluentiama Perfect cast and a good story

LouHomey From my favorite movies..

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

kijii This is part of the Twentieth Century Fox Noir collection and is a docudrama based on a true story. These Fox Noirs are great to collect in that they all have good commentary tracks that give the backgrounds of the movies and how they were made. At the time these movies were made, the pubic wasn't used to seeing true crime dramas on screen. Remember that this was before television had brought these things to life in our living rooms. Richard Widmark made his screen debut in this movie and was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. He is often famously remembered in this movie for throwing an old lady in a wheelchair down the stairs, while cackling like a hyena. In fact, although he often did use this laugh in this movie and others, he wasn't laughing at the moment that he threw the lady down the stairs. As the movie opens, Nick Bianco (Victor Mature), a life-long crook, is robbing a jewelry store in a multi-story NYC building. The female voice-over narration implies he is a sympathetic figure: he is an ex-con who just can't get a regular job and wants to support his family at Christmas time BECAUSE he is an ex-con. He is caught for the robbery and again sent to jail. The Assistant District Attorney, Louie DeAngelo (Brian Donlevy), offers him a parole if he will squeal on some of his former crime partners. Nick refuses the offer and serves three years of his jail sentence without squealing. However, things change when he learns that his wife has committed suicide, leaving his two young daughters to be placed in an orphanage. When the girls' former babysitter, Nettie (Coleen Gray), visits him in jail, he learns more about the circumstances of his wife's suicide. Now, for his daughters' sake and a little vengeance on the man (Rizzo) who drove his wife to her suicide, he wants to snitch, get the parole, and take care of his daughters.When Bianco tries to take up DeAngelo's earlier offer, he finds out that the offer no longer stands, in its original form. However, DeAngelo makes Bianco another offer if he will snitch on other partners from former crimes. For this purpose, DeAngleo uses an older job in which Bianco did NOT get caught. In this way, no one could trace him as 'the snitcher.' DeAngelo's plan is arranged so that Rizzo will look like his snitcher. This is the point at which long-time mobster, Tommy Udo (Richard Witmark), goes to Rizzo's apartment and, not finding him there, throws his mother down the staircase while in a wheelchair. The drama builds when Bianco, after marrying Nettie and getting his girls back, is found to be in Udo's sights as the informer and Bianco has to face him down without the help of the DAs office: Like Christ fighting Satan in the wilderness, he has to virtually do it alone. There are other symbolic Christ-figure shots in the movie, including Bianco's visit to the orphanage to see his daughters. When the orphanage door opens, we see him framed (by the doorway) as a Christ-figure, with a cross above his head in the background and the two DA officials on each side of him—shades of Calvary.Another memorable shot in the movie is when we see Udo's eye looking through a slit of a cracked open door. Almost everything in THAT frame is dark except the light slit and that evil eye, spying on Bianco without him realizing it. This is a chilling sight since it occurs when Bianco seems to be at his most vulnerable.

Paul Jan 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.

poe426 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.)

William Giesin I highly recommend this classic film noir story of a thief, Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) that is faced with the tough decision to turn "stool pigeon" and "rat out" a maniacal killer, Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark). Nick is a "two-time loser" and the only way he will ever get to see his orphaned kids is by "playing ball" with the cops (Brian Donlevy and Karl Malden). This film is magnificently directed by Henry Hathaway who directed such great films as True Grit, How The West Was Won, Rawhide, 13 Rue Madeleine, etc. I once read that Victor Mature was a close friend of Henry Hathaway, and that he was well aware of Hathaway's temper and reputation of mistreating actors on the set during the filming of his pictures. Consequently, Mature warned Hathaway going into the film that he "wouldn't put up with any temper tantrums or abuse during the filming". Hathaway complied in order to get Mature to agree to do the film. Richard Widmark remarked in an interview that "Kiss of Death" was his first film, and that contributed to that wonderful maniacal laugh he gave in many of the films most memorable scenes. The nervous laugh probably was also due to Hathaway's heavy handed direction. In any event, Hathaway threw a temper tantrum during the shooting that caused Mature to walk off the set and sit in a limousine for an hour or so until one of Hathaway's aides begged him to return. Mature's returned to the set on condition that Hathaway behave himself i.e. no more temper tantrums. Later during the filming when Hathaway once again started to go off into another outburst ... Mature politely raised his finger and said "Not even pantomime!". This is one of Victor Mature's best films...and newcomer Richard Widmark steals the show. Widmark was a very underrated actor and deserved a supporting actor Oscar for his performance!