Before becoming one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema, the Joker used to be one of the most iconic characters in the history of comic books. Long before he would be brought to the screen for the first time, the iconic arch-villain had inspired one of the most legendary acting performances in the history of Hollywood. That performance can be seen in Kiss of Death, a 1947 film directed by Henry Hathaway, which is considered one of the classics of film noir.
The protagonist, played by Victor Mature, is Nick Bianco, a man who spent much of his life in a perpetual cycle of unemployment, poverty, crime, and serving time in prison. On Christmas Eve, he and two cohorts arrive at one of New York City’s skyscrapers to rob a jewellery store. The heist goes wrong, and Nick is wounded by police and arrested. Despite an offer by Assistant District Attorney Louis D’Angelo (played by Brian Donlevy) to inform on gang members in exchange for a lighter sentence, Nick sticks to his principle of not being a “squealer”. He is further motivated by assurances given by his lawyer, Earl Howser (played by Taylor Holmes), that the gang would provide for his wife and two little daughters while he serves his prison sentence. After some time, his wife stops sending him letters, and he learns why when a former neighbour and babysitter, Nettie Cavallo (played by Coleen Gray), visits him and tells him that his wife became desperate and committed suicide, while the children ended up in an orphanage. Nick now wants to get his children back at any cost, so he decides to co-operate with D’Angelo. He is to collect incriminating information about his acquaintance Tommy Udo (played by Richard Widmark), a vicious psychopathic killer.
Kiss of Death is a clear example of Hollywood’s post-WW2 trend of making crime films in as realistic a manner as possible. The script by Charles Lederer and Ben Hecht was based on a story by Eleazar Lipsky, a Manhattan district attorney, and further authenticity was achieved by the film being shot on New York locations, including the infamous Sing Sing prison. There were, however, limits to this approach, most notably due to the strict censorship standards of the Hays Code, which made producers remove scenes dealing with the rape of Nick’s wife (played by Patricia Morrison). Kiss of Death is nevertheless gritty enough, and the scene in which Tommy Udo murders the wheelchair-bound mother of a suspected informant (played by Mildred Dunnock) is one of the most shocking in the history of 1940s Hollywood.
Henry Hathaway directs the film very well, confidently switching between suspense (like in the robbery scene at the beginning) and drama. His efforts are helped by Victor Mature, one of the most underrated actors of Classic Hollywood, who plays the typical film noir antihero as a flawed man who makes serious mistakes but who evokes the audience’s sympathy as a dedicated family man.
Mature’s efforts are, however, overshadowed by Richard Widmark in his screen debut. Widmark wasn’t the first casting choice for Hathaway, and the relationship between the two men on the set wasn’t good at first, but they would later become lifelong friends. Widmark brought a very interesting way of playing Tommy Udo. As an enthusiastic fan of Batman comics, he decided to base his character on the Joker and have him laugh hysterically and menacingly at any opportunity, including those when he threatens and commits terrible violence. The result was one of the greatest acting performances, which brought Widmark a nomination for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and was later immortalised as the model for the main villain in Stephen King’s novel The Green Mile.
Kiss of Death is a very good film, but it isn’t perfect. The romance between Nick and Nettie seems a little forced, and the ending is slightly melodramatic. The ending was supposed to be tragic, but producers decided to make it much lighter through voice-over narration by Nettie. That narration was used in the rest of the film, thus giving Kiss of Death proper film noir credentials. The film was remade twice – in 1958 as a Western under the title The Fiend Who Walked the West and in 1995 as an eponymous contemporary crime film starring David Caruso and Nicolas Cage.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
_
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog @drax.leo
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax y
Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
Posted using CineTV