cult film freak: RALPH MEEKER HAMMERS ROBERT ALDRICH'S 'KISS ME DEADLY'

Wesley Addy & Ralph Meeker in KISS ME DEADLY Year: 1955 Rating: *****

When hitchhiking damsel-in-distress Cloris Leachman is picked up by convertible driving private-eye rogue Mike Hammer in Robert Aldrich's noir classic KISS ME DEADLY, actor Ralph Meeker epitomizes the role without uttering a single word...

After she asks if he likes poetry, his manly/glib shrug speaks volumes in what's a gumshoe thriller that plays out like a tapestry of vignettes... thrust into a cautionary tale involving the most important of three ingenues that Meeker's Hammer uses to figure out what/who killed first-girl Leachman, and why...

Marian Carr in KISS ME DEADLY

Boyish, squeaky-voiced, short-haired blonde Gaby Rodgers is no bombshell, like, for example, dizzy hot blonde Marian Carr when Hammer first enters a villain's shiny lair... which is more than halfway through, while Rodgers importance literally explodes during the curiosity-kills-the-cat finale, with imagery and sound-effects liken to a horror movie...

It's full-lipped brunette Maxine Cooper as Hammer's secretary/undercover b-girl Velda who's the most important dame in author Mickey Spillaine's overall canon... as Maxine Cooper's scenes with Ralph Meeker are both sensuous and suspenseful: she's basically his only dependable dream girl during a slow-burn nightmare...

Maxine Cooper as Velda in KISS ME DEADLY

Connected by the overseeing lawman presence in snide/snarky Lt. Pat Murphy, perfectly suited for veteran actor Wesley Addy, warning Hammer about what PI's always mistake for good intentions... a location-to-location hellish road paved with alleyways, fist fights, boxing gyms, seedy hotels, plush mansions and Hammer's bachelor pad/office (that includes a 1950's answering machine)...

Director Aldrich, best known for more mainstream action flicks later on, uses creatively artistic, avant garde camera angles that he would never fully revisit: sometimes involving closeups of suited ankles/shoes walking towards particular murderous scenes, where the lurking danger occurs mostly within the tension, suspense...

Ralph Meeker in KISS ME DEADLY

That makes KISS ME DEADLY one of the most important noir films since the French coined their translated term Dark Film after it, inspiring both their 1960's French New Wave that inspired the 1970's American Neo Noir...

Mainly involving edgy instinct over expository banter, DEADLY is one man's odyssey involving the most grounded and deliberately underwhelming of crime flick tough guys: providing Ralph Meeker a character that holds back more than he reveals — while still embroiled/absorbed in both heated passion and violent cruelty.