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Killer's Kiss (1955)

★★★ — Killer's Kiss (1955)

Stanley Kubrick's second feature (following the largely forgotten 1953 debut Fear and Desire) was made on a shoestring of roughly $75,000, with Kubrick himself handling cinematography, as he had done on his early short films. Shot almost entirely on location across New York City, the production was a lean, self-financed affair run through Kubrick's own Minotaur Productions company before United Artists picked it up for distribution. At just 68 minutes it sits comfortably in the noir tradition that was already beginning to feel its age by the mid-1950s, though the film's visual ambition, particularly its location work in Times Square and the garment district, pointed toward a filmmaker far more interested in craft than in simple genre conventions.

Kubrick really is a master cinematographer. It's a really short film about a NY Boxer. Definitely influenced those that came after such as Raging Bull. It's captivating but does feel a little "too" Kubrick at times, with long artsy shots. Maybe it's a victim of its age now

Rating: ★★★ | Year: 1955 | Watched: 2025-04-28

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Physical: Amazon UK

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