Review of Killer`s Kiss, The

Introduction

Killer`s Kiss was legendary director Stanley Kubrick`s second movie, and is a story of a boxer from New York who steps in to protect a dancer from her boss/lover, which displeases him greatly, so much so that he send men out to kill the boxer...

Video

The video comes in 1.33:1 full-frame, black and white, and as you might expect from a 47 year old movie, suffers from plenty of grain and unstable contrast, with a slight flicker noticeable on the print. The print is relatively clean, but there is some dirt on the print.

As far as the visuals go, the movie is well filmed and looks quite slick at times, although there is some very bad rear projection in the gym, which makes the scene look totally false.. Of particular note however are the boxing scenes, which are well filmed, and must have been very brutal in 1955 when the film was released!

Audio

The sound comes in Dolby Digital Mono, and, like the video, shows its age. The soundtrack is definitely low-fi, with a severely restricted frequency range and tinny sounding effects.

For long periods of the film, there is little dialogue, instead Kubrick uses images and music to tell his story, occasionally punctuated with a narrative. When the characters do speak, their lines are clear and understandable.

Features

The only extra is the original trailer, which is quite entertaining when compared with today`s hard sell!

The menus are static and functional.

Conclusion

This is a surprisingly short movie, only weighing in at 64 minutes, and as a result, the lack of dialogue at times doesn`t make the movie tedious, instead allowing the viewer to concentrate on the skilful use of imagery to tell the story. The film`s visuals are good, and reasonably well presented considering the 47 year vintage of the print. The sound is quite weak but in truth doesn`t detract from the movie.

Overall, this is one to look out for in you local library unless you`re a collector of Kubrick movies, or a big fan of the film, as the replay value is very questionable.