Killer's Kiss

Screening on Film

Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
With Frank Silvera, Irene Kane, Jamie Smith.
US, 1955, 35mm, black & white, 67 min.
Print source: Yale Film Archive

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.

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FOLLOWED BY

Day of the Fight

Directed by Stanley Kubrick.
US, 1951, 35mm, black & white, 16 min.
Print source: Library of Congress

Kubrick’s debut short film grew out of a photo series he’d shot for Look magazine in 1948 about Irish American middleweight boxer Walter Cartier. Adopting a candid day-in-the-life structure, Day of the Fight documents Cartier’s routine as he prepares for a fight with Bobby James on April 17, 1950, emphasizing the mundane waiting period leading up to a short but brutal match. Walter, with his twin brother at his side, goes to breakfast, church, the doctor’s office and a steakhouse before finally making his way to the ring, where more preparations take place. CBS anchor Douglas Edwards' narration and Gerald Fried’s hyperactive score work overtime to impart this fly-on-the-wall business with a sense of gravitas and portent, but Kubrick’s camera favors moments of quotidian calm, like a lengthy cuddle session between Walter and his puppy or a morning walk on serenely quiet Manhattan streets.