Killer's Kiss

Kubrick's second film

Shot in New York on a few tens of thousands of dollars borrowed from family and friends, Killer's Kiss is Stanley Kubrick's second feature, after Fear and Desire (1953) and before The Killing (1956). Kubrick, then 26, was director, producer, cinematographer and editor. The uncredited script is by Howard Sackler. United Artists bought the film and imposed a happy ending against the director's wishes. It opened in the United States in October 1955.

Boxing shot from the inside

Before moving to fiction, Kubrick had made a short documentary in 1951, Day of the Fight, following boxer Walter Cartier on the day of a bout. He reuses the method here: Davey's fight against Kid Rodriguez is shot from inside the ring, handheld, from low angles and in point-of-view shots, with punches coming at the lens. In a few minutes the sequence shows how raw boxing was at the time: cramped dressing rooms, a smoke-filled hall, a 29-year-old fighter who knows he will go no further. A practitioner will notice the low guard and wide hooks typical of 1950s welterweights.

A broke, inventive film noir

Without permits, Kubrick filmed Manhattan street scenes from the back of a pickup truck. The sound was entirely post-synchronised, and Irene Kane's voice was dubbed by another actress. The finale, a chase across rooftops and into a warehouse full of mannequins, remains the film's best-known image. It won the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 1959, and critics have since reassessed it: 81% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. Kubrick himself was hard on it, while admitting it opened Hollywood's doors to him.

Who it's for

For fans of film noir and old-school boxing, and for anyone curious about where Kubrick came from: it runs 67 minutes. Compare it with Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) and The Harder They Fall (1956), shot the same year, and with Raging Bull, which Scorsese also filmed from inside the ring. It is available on Blu-ray and 4K from Kino Lorber and Criterion.