Kiss Me Deadly, original ending

[pedromiguelreis1]

spooky...

[philfrei1]

I'm glad to have a chance to LISTEN to this again. Quite the amazing SF/X for the pandora box. We just caught this film on PBS last night and they played this original ending. Who gets credit for the sound here: Frank Devol (composer) or Jack Solomon (sound)? There are some neat electronic effects in there.

I can see why Mickey Spillane hated this. A lot of great stuff is missing, like Hammer's worship of Velda. And a lot of BS is added like the ridiculous dialogue in the car with Christina.

[nita2605]

In the book, the box contained drugs (tho he still burns down the house). Thank god they changed it for the movie.

[AntiMusick]

this is why you should never open the box

[twilson11208]

Ralph Meeker drips with testosterone in this movie. I love him.

[twilson11208]

Okay...so it ended just exactly as I recalled. What was the alternate like?

[MrStrangways1]

@twilson11208 In the alternate ending, they don't show Mike Hammer escaping the house before it explodes.

[jackal59]

For some reason, I thought I remember the end of this having flash-frame shots of the house in negative (with the film swapped left for right so that the image otherwise matched). I guess I just hallucinated that.

[who3697cares]

It's more liked Spielberg and Tarantino ripped off this scene for their movies.

Long like Ralph Meeker!

[mikenw255]

Also the hot briefcase was used in Repo Man :)

[mikenw255]

The box represents nuclear bombs, now they are loose in the world.  It is symbolic and not explained in the movie, except it is called the Whatsit.

[flywatertiger7]

Damn! what exactly was in that Box?? It would of been nice to have in some point in the movie explain that. Or did I miss it?

[ChiaChai26]

something of nuclear proportions. hence the manhattan projects and yada yada yada

[Bluemirror1]

The box originates from a real life event: the criticality event during WWII when Louis Slotin's quick thinking prevented a criticality reaction from continuing. But until he shut his box, there was a burst of heat, a big flash, and enough radioactivity to kill him.

If left open, the criticality event continues -- chain reaction, fire & the contents of the box hot enough to burn right through the house and down into the beach -- the "China Syndrome"

Google: Louis Slotin criticality

[Kinemacolour]

@Bluemirror1 Different material. He lifted the lid to stop the reaction.

[cha5]

The glowing case in Kiss Me Deadly is supposedly where Quentin Tarantino got the idea for the glowing briefcase

in Pulp Fiction.

[cha5]

I kind of wonder if maybe Steven Speilberg might have gotten the idea for the big special effects ending of Raiders Of The Lost Ark

from this scene?

Just pure speculation on my part.

[Partnerfrance]

Heh - look at the clip of the beginning of the film where Cloris Leachman is being tortured -- her screams are exactly the same screams as those of the woman who opens the box at the end.

I guess the special effects budget was a bit thin!

[luvsmovies79]

This lady looks a bit like a young Shirley MacLaine. And Ralph Meeker is as sexy as H--L!

[inksac]

OldManMontgomery is kind of dorky. He cares about and acknowledges lame, stupid, pointless things.

[ICit4U07]

@inksac Sorry, but I have to disagree, to some extent. OMM is/was probably a fan of Spillane's Hammer novels, which were very different from this film in tone and characterization. All were set in NYC, and Hammer was a two-fisted, hard-drinking private eye whose fights and "kill-crazy," avenging ways could never have been put on the big screen back then. The remake of "I the Jury" featuring Armand Assante gives some idea. (You can't even find the 1950s original on DVD.)

[moparmonster1965]

@ICit4U07 The original content could've been committed to celluloid before that asshole, Estes Kefauver, launched his self-appointed moral crusade against movies, books, and magazines. Pulp fiction, up to and including Spillane's later work, wasn't the same after 1957.

[monk22yrs]

@moparmonster1965 The weird thing is, movies were a lot better when there was some censorship, and moral outrage; today anything goes----and movies stink! 

[moparmonster1965]

@monk22yrs That's true in a sense, but we're also talking about an era when we weren't desensitized to what we see in the movies now. Take the movie Alien back to 1955 and you'd have Ridley Scott being jailed over the content and realism of the movie.

It's like Eminem flipping people the bird today, as if that's still shocking. It's passe' because it's all been done before, but back then, this stuff was still fresh and new, things that people hadn't seen before.

[monk22yrs]

@moparmonster1965 Once upon a time movies had great dialogue, even in the '70s with THE GODFATHER---20 years later there's CASINO, with 400 curse words---but none of the memorable dialogue of THE GODFATHER, which has few curse words....+ again, the funny thing is, ALIEN is a gory reworking of the 50s movie, IT THE TERROR FROM OUTER SPACE

[moparmonster1965]

@monk22yrs The Godfather was good, but highly overrated because the movie doesn't really go anywhere. Casino was a real bore; too long and not very interesting. If you want vulgarity, try From Dusk Till Dawn.

I hadn't heard that about Alien, but my point was that what we think of as mild today would've been utterly shocking in years past. And there's not much shocking today anyway, aside from the sheer mindless brutality of garbage like Hostel that didn't deserve to be made anyway.

[texasB666]

perhaps my favorite film-noir next to sunset blvd and angels with dirty faces

[Luv2FatnU]

So what is Micky Spillane hated this flick?  Its still a GREAT movie and Ralph Meeker has a hot ass in this movie.........

[ERASERHEAD18]

Dude ! Have you EVER heard of a writer who was satisfied of the screen adaptation of his novel ? Their EGO is too big for that !  :-)

[JimmyCFO]

So here's the solution: Just watch the movie in "reverse" so it has a Happy Ending. !!! And Ralph Meekers Ass is STILL so round, so full, so fully packed....yeah!!!!

[ZoeEGrace]

I have. Ian Flemming took a keen interest in all of the Bond films till his death and when asked if Connery was how he imagined Bond said "No. But if I were writing them now he would be."

[spaceawesome22]

why didn't that bitch just close the case?

[Bluemirror1]

She was on fire. The only reason Hammer survived (at least temporarily) is that he didn't open the box nearly as much (and even that was good enough for serious burns). The more it's opened, the more hot it gets, and the more heat and radiation. Keeping it open a few more seconds, and opening it a little more wide are enough to make all the difference.

[TreeHugerHippie]

she's dead either way once she opened it, that much radiation would kill the guy and the other girl too, eventually.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

The movie is basically about the search for the "Whatsits" and Mike Hammer's own lack of moral character that literally blows up in his face.

[luvsmovies79]

Even though the ending had me scratching my head,Its still a favorite noir.

[DrGlitterhouse]

Why on Earth would the studio think Mike and Velma being blown up would be a better ending?

[OldManMontgomery]

It might have been okay as a movie had it not been advertised as "Mike Hammer". I can understand why Spillane hated it; I'm surprized he recognized it! Mike Hammer as a divorce detective in Los Angeles?

And the finale where the 'nuclear materials' cause the house to catch fire. Whoever did the screen play had as much knowledge of physics as the typical soccer mom.

[ProfessionalCynic]

Lynch...lol. OH yeah.

[LAZARZERO]

mickey spillane hated this flick

[Interzonal]

I can bet that David Lynch was very touch by this great movie.