Noir Chronicles

KISS ME DEADLY (1955) (B) - And do the dames ever kiss him. Clean-cut, wisecracking Mike Hammer is irresistible in this take on Mickey Spillane's iconic gumshoe from director Robert Aldrich ("The Dirty Dozen").

Hammer (Ralph Meeker) is driving along a stretch of road in L.A. when he runs across a woman, Christina (Cloris Leachman's debut) dressed in only a trenchcoat, having escaped from a mental institution. Some men would like a word with her. After their car crashes, Hammer wakes to the sounds of Christina being tortured to death. The thugs put Hammer in a car with her body and push it off a cliff, but damn if Hammer doesn't survive.

The rest of the plot is rather convoluted. It involves another woman in just a trenchcoat, Lily Carver (Gaby Rodgers), who is after a secret, glowing box. (Insert Cold War chills here.) The bodies pile up as Hammer and his assistant/lover Velda (a sexy, often sweaty Maxine Cooper). Velda is willing to do just about anything for her boss, including activities that would qualify him as a pimp.

Aldrich is in command here. He shoots in crisp black and white. He mounts a camera on the back of Hammer's two-seater sports car for a great night shot at a gas station. This is the classic seedy L.A. you think about when conjuring up such old movies.

And check out the young faces. Jack Elam looks like a young Steve Buscemi. Meeker is a dead ringer for Bill Paxton (HBO's "Big Love"). Strother Martin is nearly unrecognizable as a whippersnapper in his one scene. Percy Helton shows up as a coroner.

The third-act twist borrows special effects from the era's monster movies. The ending is a howler. But for most of the film you can dig the snap of the dialogue and the sheen of a city.