Suggests: HFA Screening KILLER'S KISS

More than any other Kubrick feature, KILLER'S KISS bears the influence of the director’s early years as a photojournalist for Look magazine. A cheaply-made noir set amidst the sultry nightlife of Manhattan, the film is more notable for its acute time capsule of Kubrick’s hometown than for its fairly standard narrative of doomed love, which follows the nocturnal meanderings of a lovestruck aging boxer (Jamie Smith) as he attempts to pry a beautiful dancer (Irene Kane) from the claws of a merciless nightclub boss (Frank Silvera). Entirely post-dubbed, the film offsets its occasionally stilted qualities with a gritty evocation of the city’s grottier corners and Kubrick’s marvelous play with light and shadow, nowhere more evident than in a riveting climax set in a dimly-lit basement full of mannequins that anticipates the uncanny urban nightmares of EYES OF WIDE SHUT.

View KILLER'S KISS at the Harvard Film Archive.

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