I can't help but think of Bunuel (well, feet), and I'm sure David Lynch had "KMD" in mind when he did the credits sequence for " Lost Highway" - another sleazy, apocalyptic noir.
That opening image - the bare feet and legs, the trench coat, the lines on the highway asphalt - doesn't last more than a few seconds, but man does it have an impact. A seminal noir, a masterpiece of artistic pulp “Kiss Me Deadly" - opening shots alone - are exactly why the French praised Aldrich as “Le Gros Bob." Un-relenting, sleazy, mean, disorienting, neurotic, psychotic and hopeless, Leachman is the crazed conscious inside all of the film’s characters, maniacally running from a world that could explode (literally) by the opening of a suitcase. How many pictures, even current pictures, would have the guts to place a viewer on this kind of edge? But he’s not playing simply for shock-Aldrich and cinematographer Ernest Laszlo instantly address the expressionistic, off kilter and monstrous universe we’re about to enter. I’m still amazed by how totally perverse and subversive Aldrich’s kick start remains. The only thing you hear is Nat King Cole’s elegant “Rather Have the Blues" and the woman’s hard, almost sexual sounding hyper-ventilating. Kiss Me Deadlys Mike Hammer specializes in divorce cases in which he and his secretary/assistant/lover Velda (Maxine Cooper) use sex to entrap their clients. With the camera placed behind our two characters (one absolutely frantic, the other as cool as a cucumber), the credits roll upside down against the highway’s white lines. Well? Get in!"Īs the woman enters the car, you hear a velvety-voiced female DJ announce a Nat King Cole song on the car radio. The driver, Mike Hammer ( Ralph Meeker) is agitated by this mystery woman/potential loony, begrudgingly “rescuing" her with a sneer. She walks towards the car, roughly breathing and panting but with some relief. Finally, a cool little Jaguar sports car comes to a screeching halt, blinding her with its headlights and swerving to the side of the road. Classic pulp fiction begets classic film noir: Investigating the death of. Desperate for a ride, she places herself in the middle of the road and stands holding her arms out in a V.
As the soundtrack intensifies, cars pass by but none stop. Making its debut, it is learned by investing 10 skill points into Sylvandos Showmanship Character Builder and deals 67-77 damage while having a 50 chance of. The feet belong to a hysterical, heavily panting blonde ( Cloris Leachman) wearing only a trench-coat.
Robert Aldrich’s masterful noir hits you with a hysterical bang that sets its frenzied tone with such balls-out experimental élan you can’t believe the film was released in 1955:īefore any credit sequence, the film begins with a pair of naked feet running down the middle of a highway in the black of the night.
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