Synopsis
Kiss of Death is a semi-documentary thriller, one of a cycle of documentary-based noirs, which began life not as pulp fiction but as a version of the facts, derived from the case files of
Eleazar Lipsky, an aspiring novelist and Manhattan Assistant District Attorney.
Ben Hecht, screenwriter of
The Front Page and
Scarface, and
Charles Lederer, a frequent collaborator, delivered the script.
Sharing with the later
On the Waterfront (1954) the theme of heroic informing, the film was a huge hit for Fox. The giggling psycho killer, the old lady in the wheelchair pushed down the stairs – this is the film wherein Richard Widmark became a star, Victor Mature became an actor, sadism came to the big screen and Hollywood neorealism got tangled in the dreamscape of noir.
Richard Widmark, then a radio actor, made his film debut, stealing every frame as the terrifying, grinning, snickering killer Tommy Udo. Udo, with his animal ferocity and vicious joie de vivre, is clearly a spiritual nephew of
Scarface's Tony Camonte, but Widmark himself is to be credited with many of the inspired details of his performance.
Special Features
- Interview with Richard Widmark
- Original theatrical trailer, presented by famed commentator
Walter Winchell- Booklet
- Essay by author
Lee Server- Interview with director
Henry Hathaway