Kiss of Death (1947)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Ben Hecht (screenplay) and
Charles Lederer (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

27 August 1947 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Film-Noir

Tagline:

It will mark you for life as it marked him for... Betrayal

Plot:

With his law-breaking lifestyle in the past, an ex-con, along with his family, attempt to start a new life, unknowing a betrayed someone from the past is bound to see otherwise.

Plot Keywords:

Prison | Suicide | Wheelchair | New York | Murder

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 2 wins

Cast

Victor Mature	...	Nick Bianco
Brian Donlevy	...	Asst. Dist. Atty. Louis D'Angelo
Coleen Gray	...	Nettie
Richard Widmark	...	Tommy Udo
Taylor Holmes	...	Earl Howser, Attorney
Howard Smith	...	Warden
Karl Malden	...	Sgt. William Cullen
Anthony Ross

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

UK:12 (DVD rating) (2005) | UK:A (original rating) | West Germany:16 (nf) | USA:Approved (PCA #12356) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

14th Street, Astoria, Queens, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Originally, Patricia Morison played Victor Mature's wife, who is attacked and raped by a gangster who is supposed to be watching out for her while Mature is in prison, and afterwards commits suicide by sticking her head in the kitchen oven and turning on the gas. Both scenes were cut from the original print at the insistence of the censors, who wanted no depiction of either a rape or a suicide, so although Morison's name appears in the credits, she does not appear in the film at all. Mention is made later in the film about Mature's wife's suicide and a now obscure reference is made by Nettie that the unseen gangster Rizzo contributed to the wife's downfall.

Quotes:

Tommy Udo: I'm askin' ya, where's that squealin' son of yours?
[weird laugh]
Tommy Udo: You think a squealer can get away from me? Huh?
[crazy laugh]
Tommy Udo: You know what I do to squealers? I let 'em have it in the belly, so they can roll around for a long time thinkin' it over. You're worse than him, tellin' me he's comin' back? Ya lyin' old hag!
[maniacal laugh]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Love, American Style: Love and the Modern Wife/Love and the Phonies/Love and the Single Couple (#1.5)" (1969)

Good crime drama

This film is "required reading" in the study of gangster films, mostly because of Richard Widmark's exceptional and truly frightening performance as Tommy Udo. Interestingly enough, 43 years later, actor Joe Pesci would also terrify movie audiences with his portrayal of another psychopathic gangster, who also had the rather benign name of 'Tommy'. However, unlike Pesci, Widmark never had another particularly memorable gangster role after this one.

While a lot of the story is realistic, some of it is far-fetched - mainly, the end. Only a complete lunatic would even think of walking into the headquarters of a gangster that he had just testified against and expect to come out alive. However, the tension in that restaurant confrontation scene is effective, and I suppose for the era in which this film was made, it was necessary to have the 'good hero' face down the 'bad bully' and put him in his place. In reality, of course, it just doesn't happen that way in the world of crime.

But what makes this film is Widmark, and to give an idea of just how effective he was, when this film first came out, a real-life NYC mobster(Joey Gallo) would watch it and earnestly try to imitate Widmark's style and mannerisms, thereby enhancing his own skill in intimidating others. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.