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52-536: Kiss Me Deadly grossed $ 726,000 in the United States and $ 226,000 overseas. The film received the condemnation of the Kefauver Commission , which accused it of being "designed to ruin young viewers", a verdict that director Aldrich protested. Despite initial critical disapproval, it is considered one of the most important and influential film noirs of all time. The film has been noted as a stylistic precursor to

104-539: A "racket squad" within the United States Department of Justice ; the establishment of a permanent Crime Commission at the federal level; the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee to include interstate organized crime; federal studies into the sociology of crime; a ban on betting via radio, television, telegraph, and telephone; the establishment of state and local crime commissions; and

156-480: A direct response to the committee's recommendation. Senator Kefauver served as the committee's first chair. Kefauver relinquished the committee chair on April 30, 1951, and Senator O'Conor assumed the chairmanship until the committee folded on September 1, 1951. The television broadcast of the committee's hearings attracted huge public interest and educated a broad audience about the issues of municipal corruption and organized crime. An estimated 30 million people in

208-420: A key that Christina had apparently swallowed before her death. Bezzerides wrote of the script: "I wrote it fast because I had contempt for it... I tell you Spillane didn't like what I did with his book. I ran into him at a restaurant and, boy, he didn't like me". Kiss Me Deadly is a time capsule of Los Angeles, much of it filmed in the downtown neighborhood of Bunker Hill . Many of the locations disappeared in

260-430: A mysterious box." Kiss Me Deadly departs from other Mike Hammer films in that Hammer never carries a gun. This is explained when Lt. Murphy tells Hammer his PI license and gun permit have been revoked. Although he is held at gunpoint, pistol whipped, and even shot, he complies with the gun ban, relying only on his fists to hammer people into submission or worse. The screenplay also departs from Spillane's novel, replacing

312-477: A nationally recognized figure, and the committee enabled him to run for President of the United States in 1952 and 1956 (his runs failed, but he became his party's vice presidential nominee in 1956). Many of the Kefauver Committee's hearings were aimed at proving that a Sicilian-Italian organization based on strong family ties centrally controlled a vast organized crime conspiracy in the United States, but

364-679: A request that the Justice Department investigate and prosecute 33 named individuals as suspected leaders of organized crime in the United States. The committee's work led to several significant outcomes. Among the most notable was an admission by J. Edgar Hoover , Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , that a national organized crime syndicate did exist and that the FBI had done little about it. Legislative proposals and state ballot referendums legalizing gambling went down to defeat over

416-698: A stylistic precursor of the French New Wave . François Truffaut has acknowledged its influence on his "elliptic" filmmaking style, as has Jean-Luc Godard . In the 1960s, both filmmakers touted the film as the single American film "most responsible for the French New Wave." Homage is paid to the glowing suitcase MacGuffin in Alex Cox 's Repo Man (1984), Quentin Tarantino 's Pulp Fiction (1994) and John Frankenheimer 's Ronin (1998). The "shiny blue suitcase"

468-481: A top-secret government experiment akin to the Manhattan Project . Hammer goes back to the beach house . Before he arrives, Lily, now revealed to be an imposter named Gabrielle, is there with Soberin. They have the box, and have Velda locked in a bedroom. Gabrielle shoots Soberin to get the box for herself. With his dying words, Soberin urges the insatiably curious Gabrielle not to open it. When Hammer comes into

520-465: Is a 1954 American historical epic drama film directed and produced by Victor Saville , based on Thomas B. Costain 's 1952 novel of the same name . It was one of Saville's last films and marked the feature film debut of Paul Newman ; despite being nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his performance, Newman later called it "the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s." The film featured unusual semi-abstract settings and decor, created by

572-438: Is a bad picture, has no authenticity. It's purely theatrical, and this is mainly due to the sets. They're clean and clear; it's almost like another life, another world. We don't know what ancient Rome was like, so why not take the attitude Fellini had with Satyricon : make it science fiction in reverse? The Silver Chalice came close to that, fifteen years earlier. Paul Newman was apparently not proud of his performance. When

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624-426: Is an influential noir classic." François Truffaut wrote, "To appreciate Kiss Me Deadly , you have to love movies passionately and to have a vivid memory of those evenings when you saw Scarface , Under Capricorn , Le sang d'un poète (Blood of a Poet) , Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne , and The Lady From Shanghai . We have loved films that had only one idea, or twenty, or even fifty. In Alrdich's films, it

676-616: Is initially impressed by Hammer's brazenness and offers to work out a deal, but swiftly retracts the offer. Hammer's friend, Nick the auto mechanic, who helped defuse bombs planted in Hammer's car, is then murdered. Carl's thugs kidnap Hammer and take him to an isolated beach house, where another of their associates, Dr. G. E. Soberin (revealed to be responsible for the murders of Christina and Nick), injects him with sodium pentothal before interrogating him. Carl Evello comes in to question him, but gets nothing. Mike manages to work one hand free from

728-490: Is just as overblown. I found nothing remarkable in the performances of the leads, Paul Newman (not as good as he's been on TV), Pier Angeli, Virginia Mayo (more synthetically blondined than ever), Jack Palance (an overtheatric villain), or even Walter Hampden (the ancient Joseph)." Harrison's Reports thought the film "deserves a high rating from the production point of view", but was "only moderately interesting" as entertainment. John McCarten of The New Yorker wrote that

780-702: Is mentioned with other famous MacGuffins in Guardians of the Galaxy . When the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) is opened, the shot of Rene Belloq's face melting is directly inspired by that of Gabrielle opening the suitcase. In Southland Tales (2006), Richard Kelly pays homage to the film, showing the main characters watching the beginning on their television; later

832-412: Is not unusual to encounter a new idea with each shot. In this movie the inventiveness is such that we don't know what to look at--the images are almost too full, too fertile. Watching a film like this is such an intense experience that we want it to go last for hours. It is easy to picture its author as a man overflowing with vitality, as much at ease behind a camera as Henry Miller facing a blank page. This

884-478: Is the film of a young director who is not yet worried about restraint." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer released the film on VHS as part of their "Vintage Classics" collection in 1999, and on DVD in 2001, with the alternative ending as a Special Feature. A digitally restored version of the film was released on DVD and Blu-ray by The Criterion Collection in June 2011, and also includes the alternative ending. The original ending of

936-485: Is tortured to death. The thugs then push Hammer's car off a cliff with Christina's body and an unconscious Hammer inside. Hammer comes to in a hospital with Velda hovering over him. He decides to investigate Christina's death, believing that it "must be connected with something big." He retrieves a book of poetry from the dead woman's apartment and reads aloud several lines from Rosetti's poem, "Remember", as he tries to figure out what that something might be. Hammer goes to

988-560: The French New Wave , and has been cited as a major influence on a number of filmmakers, including François Truffaut , Jean-Luc Godard , Alex Cox , and Quentin Tarantino . In 1999, Kiss Me Deadly was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Mike Hammer is a tough private investigator who, with

1040-595: The Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce already claimed jurisdiction over the issue. A compromise resolution was substituted which established a special committee of five Senators, whose membership would be drawn from both the Judiciary and Commerce committees. Debate over the substitute resolution was bitter and partisan, and the voting on the resolution extremely close. On May 3, 1950, Vice President Alben W. Barkley , sitting in his role as President of

1092-509: The U.S. government to do so. In particular, many cities and states were concerned with the way organized crime had infiltrated interstate commerce, and how it threatened to hold the American economy hostage through labor racketeering . On January 5, 1950, Senator Estes Kefauver ( D - Tennessee ) introduced a resolution that would allow the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to investigate organized crime's role in interstate commerce. However,

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1144-449: The urban development of the late 1960s, although a few remain. Critics have generally viewed the film as a metaphor for the paranoia and fear of nuclear war that prevailed during the Cold War era. "The great whatsit," as Velda refers to the object of Hammer's quest, turns out to be a mysterious valise, hot to the touch because of the dangerous, glowing substance it contains, a metaphor for

1196-406: The American release of the film shows Hammer and Velda escaping from the burning house, staggering into the ocean as the words "The End" come over them on the screen. Sometime after its first release, the ending was altered on the film's negative, removing 82 seconds of footage showing the escape, and instead superimposing "The End" over the burning house. This implied that Hammer and Velda perished in

1248-571: The Costain book, the picture is overdrawn and sometimes tedious, but producer-director Victor Saville still manages to instill interest in what's going on, and even hits a feeling of excitement occasionally." John L. Scott of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "it is colorful at times, rather tedious in other portions". Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post wrote, "Lesser Samuels' screen play meanders self-consciously and Victor Saville's direction

1300-486: The Kefauver Commission. Organized crime was the subject of a large number of widely read articles in several major newspapers and magazines in 1949. Several local "crime commissions" in major cities and states had also uncovered extensive corruption of the political process by organized crime. Many cities and states called for federal help in dealing with organized crime, yet federal law provided few tools for

1352-693: The United States Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote, and the Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was established. Barkley, as President of the Senate, was empowered to choose the committee's members. They included: Kefauver; Herbert O'Conor ( Maryland ), Lester C. Hunt ( Wyoming ), Alexander Wiley ( Wisconsin ), and Charles W. Tobey ( New Hampshire ). The Kefauver Committee held hearings in 14 major cities across

1404-453: The United States tuned in to watch the live proceedings in March 1951 and at the time 72 percent of the population were familiar with the committee's work. The tremendous success of the broadcast led to the production of a cycle of "exposé" crime films dealing with the dismantling of complex criminal organizations by law enforcement. The first one of these was The Captive City (1952), which had

1456-806: The United States. More than 600 witnesses testified. Many of the committee's hearings were televised live on national television to large audiences, providing many Americans with their first glimpse of organized crime's influence in the U.S. Among the more notorious figures who appeared before the committee were Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo , Louis "Little New York" Campagna , Mickey Cohen , Willie Moretti , Frank Costello , Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik , Meyer Lansky , Paul "The Waiter" Ricca , Virginia Hill (former Joe Adonis – Chicago Outfit messenger and mobster Bugsy Siegel 's girlfriend), and four of Irish mob boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson's former policemen in Atlantic City were also called forth. Kefauver became

1508-520: The United States. The committee became popularly known as the Kefauver Committee because of its chairman, Senator Estes Kefauver . The televised hearing helped Kefauver become a household name; he subsequently launched an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 1952, and became the Democratic vice presidential nominee in 1956 . The term capo di tutti capi was introduced to the U.S. public by

1560-412: The apartment of Lily Carver, who says she was Christina's roommate. Lily tells Hammer she is in hiding and asks him to protect her. She is after a mysterious box that, she believes, has contents worth a fortune. Hammer later arrives at the lavish mansion of gangster Carl Evello, who also seeks the box. Hammer fends off Charlie Max and Sugar Smallhouse, two of Evello's henchmen, and then confronts Evello, who

1612-481: The assistance of his associate and lover Velda, typically works on "penny-ante divorce cases." One evening, Hammer is forced to suddenly stop his sports car by Christina, an escapee from a nearby psychiatric hospital, who is running barefoot along the road, wearing nothing but a trench coat. Hammer gives her a ride. Christina asks him, whatever happens, to "remember me," alluding to a poem by Christina Rossetti . Thugs waylay them, and Hammer hears Christina screaming as she

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1664-490: The atomic bomb. The film has been described as "the definitive, apocalyptic, nihilistic, science-fiction film noir of all time – at the close of the classic noir period." A leftist at the time of the Hollywood blacklist , Bezzerides denied any conscious intention for this metaphor in his script, saying that "I was having fun with it. I wanted to make every scene, every character, interesting." Film critic Nick Schager wrote, "Never

1716-667: The blaze, which some have interpreted as an apocalyptic ending. In 1997, the original ending was restored after the missing footage was discovered in the vaults of the Directors Guild by Glenn Erickson . Contemporary film scholars have named Kiss Me Deadly as one of the most influential exemples of American film noir , praising its bleak and nihilistic tone, its version of pulp fiction archetypes, and its twist ending. Its apocalyptic elements earned it an entry in The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction . Kiss Me Deadly has been cited as

1768-401: The blessing of senator Kefauver himself: Director Robert Wise took a print of the film to D.C. to show the senator, who not only endorsed it but even appears in the prologue and epilogue, cautioning audiences about the evils of organized crime. Other notable examples of exposé films inspired by the hearings include Hoodlum Empire (1952) and The Turning Point (1952). The committee report

1820-476: The committee never came close to justifying such a claim. Rather, the committee uncovered extensive evidence that people of all nationalities, ethnicities, and religions operated locally controlled, loosely organized crime syndicates at the local level. The committee's final report, issued on April 17, 1951, included 22 recommendations for the federal government and seven recommendations for state and local authorities. Among its recommendations were: The creation of

1872-517: The film "has to do with the pursuit of the Grail by the most dismal assortment of characters I've encountered in a decade". The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote, "Any true religious atmosphere in this vulgar and incongruous fancy-dress parade is out of the question...Some may discover uproarious moments, many will be repelled by the tastelessness of the spectacle as a whole." Writing in the first edition of his Film Guide in 1977, Leslie Halliwell described

1924-630: The film as "[p]o-faced biblical hokum...with howlingly bad casting and direction...[a] sea of boredom", assigning it 0 stars out of 4. The elaborate musical score by Franz Waxman has been widely recognized. Elmer Bernstein recorded part of the suite in the 1970s. Martin Scorsese wrote about the film as a guilty pleasure in 1978: The Silver Chalice is one of the reasons I hired Boris Leven to design New York, New York . Giant and The Silver Chalice : any man who could design those two films...that's it, I had to have him. The Silver Chalice , which

1976-551: The film was broadcast on television in 1966, he took out an advertisement in a Hollywood trade paper apologizing for his performance and requesting people not to watch the film. This backfired and the broadcast received unusually high ratings. The film is sometimes referred to as Paul Newman and the Holy Grail . Newman called the film "the worst motion picture produced during the 1950s", and once screened it for guests at his home, handing out pots, wooden spoons and whistles, encouraging

2028-453: The following year, for Parklane Productions, an independent company owned by Victor Saville . The stories would be Kiss Me, Deadly and My Gun Is Quick . Saville turned over control to Aldrich because he was busy on The Silver Chalice . The screenplay was loosely adapted by A.I. Bezzerides with contributions from Aldrich, though it "made no effort to follow the book’s convoluted plot, [though] both are structured around [a] search for

2080-501: The mafia conspiracy at the center of the novel with an apparent case of espionage and a mysterious suitcase serving as the film's MacGuffin . The film further departs from the book by portraying Hammer not so much as a sleuth of the hardboiled school than as a sleazy, narcissistic bully, perhaps the darkest private detective in film noir. Much to the derision of the local police, Hammer makes his living mostly by blackmailing adulterers, he or his secretary sometimes seducing and entrapping

2132-508: The next few years due to revelations of organized crime's involvement in the gambling industry, and more than 70 "crime commissions" were established at the state and local level to build on the Kefauver Committee's work. The Kefauver Committee was the first to suggest that civil law be expanded and used to combat organized crime. Congress responded to the call, and in 1970 passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act as

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2184-526: The opening of the case is shown on screens on board the mega-Zeppelin. Two notable rock acts have borrowed the film's title for a song title. The first was the UK punk act Generation X , featuring singer Billy Idol , from their self titled debut LP (1978); this song would be also be featured on the soundtrack to SLC Punk! (1998). The second was a 1988 hit single from former Runaways lead guitarist and glam metal solo performer Lita Ford . In 1999, Kiss Me Deadly

2236-452: The primordial sea – with the director's knuckle-sandwich cynicism pummeling the genre's romantic fatalism into a bloody pulp. 'Remember me?' Aldrich's sadistic, fatalistic masterpiece is impossible to forget". Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of its critics gave the film a positive review, with an average rating of 8.1/10, based on 37 reviews. The consensus states, "An intriguing, wonderfully subversive blend of art and commerce, Kiss Me Deadly

2288-490: The room, Gabrielle says "Kiss me, Mike" and shoots him. She then opens the box, which emits a blinding light and piercing sound. Gabrielle screams and bursts into flames. Hammer, wounded, struggles to his feet, and looks for Velda. Together, the pair flee the burning house, helping each other along the beach to the ocean as the house explodes behind them and becomes consumed in flames. In October 1954 Robert Aldrich announced he would produce and direct two Mickey Spillane stories

2340-519: The ropes. He calls out and Carl returns. He lures Carl over and knocks him out. Mike pretends to be Evello and summons Sugar in to kill Mike. Sugar enters the darkened room and stabs his boss, thinking it is Mike. Mike kills Sugar and escapes. He locates the suspiciously hot box, which burns his arm, in a locker at the Hollywood Athletic Club. But when he goes to his friend Lieutenant Murphy for help, Murphy warns him off, hinting it has to do with

2392-516: The stage designer Rolfe Gerard in a striking departure from the normal practice of the day for Hollywood biblical epics. A notable musical score by Franz Waxman was nominated for the Best Original Score at the 27th Academy Awards . A Greek artisan from Antioch is commissioned to cast the cup of Christ in silver and sculpt around its rim the faces of the disciples and Jesus himself. He travels to Jerusalem and eventually to Rome to complete

2444-417: The targets themselves, a practice perhaps made even worse because Hammer seems to exploit the genuine affection that Velda feels for him to get her participation. He readily resorts to violence, whether he's defending himself against the thugs Evello sends to kill him, breaking a potential informant's treasured record to get him to talk,or roughing up a coroner who has the temerity to demand payment in return for

2496-420: The task. Meanwhile, a nefarious interloper is trying to convince the crowds that he is the new Messiah by using nothing more than cheap parlor tricks. The film had its world premiere in the small town of Saranac Lake, New York, which won a competition selling Christmas Seals . Saville, Mayo, Angeli and Palance attended and participated in a parade around the time of the town's annual winter carnival. The premiere

2548-509: Was Mike Hammer's name more fitting than in Kiss Me Deadly , Robert Aldrich's blisteringly nihilistic noir in which star Ralph Meeker embodies Mickey Spillane's legendary P.I. with brute force savagery... The gumshoe's subsequent investigation into the woman's death doubles as a lacerating indictment of modern society's dissolution into physical/moral/spiritual degeneracy – a reversion that ultimately leads to nuclear apocalypse and man's return to

2600-399: Was an inspiration for the 1956 James Bond novel Diamonds are Forever . A fictionalized version of the Senate hearings is a central plot device in the 1974 film The Godfather Part II , featuring testimony by Michael Corleone , now the head of his eponymous crime family , and disgruntled Family caporegime Frank Pentangeli . The Silver Chalice (film) The Silver Chalice

2652-471: Was hosted by television personality Art Linkletter . A. H. Weiler of The New York Times wrote that the filmmakers "have come up with a spectacle-filled adventure easily fitted to the lush hues of WarnerColor and the king-sized screen of Cinemascope. But in providing a modicum of excitement and generous portions of extravaganza they have turned out a cumbersome and sometimes creaking vehicle that takes too long to reach its goal." Variety wrote, "Like

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2704-516: Was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Kefauver Commission The United States Senate Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was a special committee of the United States Senate which existed from 1950 to 1951 and which investigated organized crime which crossed state borders in

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