5/5 A sense of scale
  by Jay Dickson (Portland, OR)
Made for only $75,000 (more than half of which was borrowed from his uncle), Stanley Kubrick's second film is absolutely astonishing from a visual perspective. There hadn't been anything quite so showy from a young director in America (Kubrick was only 27 when this film was made) since Orson Welles's early films before the war. Kubrick also wrote the story, which is practically nothing -- a washed-up welterweight boxer (Jamie Smith) becomes involved with a dance-hall girl (Irene Kane), whose jealous crooked boss (Frank Silvera) plots revenge -- , and is unnecessarily complicated by flashbacks. But the cinematography is so tremendous as to carry almost all else before it. Kubrick makes remarkable use of shots through windows, of silhouettes, against rear projections, of silhouettes, and of mirror reflections; he seems intent on showing us everything he can do with a movie camera. (There is even a brief dream sequence which makes spectacular use of negative film.) His greatest accomplishments are his shots of New York City, which is depicted on such a massive scale (in Times Square, Pennsylvania Station, and the warehouses along the river) that against it his human players seem trivial and unimportant. There's a famous sequence emphasizing this inhuman scale at the film's end involving a gladiatorial battle to the death with sharp implements between Smith and Silvera in an eerie dusty mannequin storeroom; even more remarkable is Smith's preceding scramble from Silvera and his henchman along the gigantic warehouse rooftops behind which the massive tenements loom impersonally. There has probably never been another film that quite captures how Manhattan can be akin to an entire dreamlike behemoth film set. The actors seem themselves a bit dehumanized by the post-synced sound (Kubrick was unsatisfied with his ability to keep the mikes out of his shots, and so decided to dub in all the sound after the shooting), but the deep-chested pair of Smith and Kane seem perfectly matched. Whatever the film's shortcomings as a piece of storytelling, as a visual experience this film is so stunning as not to be missed.

3/5 A Sneak Peek At Things To Come
  by Craig Connell (Lockport, NY USA)
A young Stanley Kubrick's bare-budget film - perhaps his first "mainline" movie - shows him still in the minor leagues but very close to making it to the Major Leagues. In fact, he did so the following year with "The Killing," a film noir that still ranks among the best. At any rate, this is an opportunity to see Kubrick at work right before he "makes it" in the business.

With an almost-nothing budget you aren't going to draw too many professional actors, and that certainly was the case here, but still is worth watching. It's definitely a "B" noir that is more melodrama than crime until the ending when it gets very, very suspenseful featuring a chase over New York City rooftops and then into abandoned warehouses.

Jamie Smith and Irene Kane are the stars and if you've never heard of them, it's probably because they weren't exactly Humphey Bogart and Bette Davis, acting-wise. The other star, Frank Silvera, at least is a name I recognized.

Overall, the best feature may be the camera-work. It gives us a preview of the visual talents that Kubrick would bring to the big screen in following decade. On its own merits, if you are a film noir fan, you'll want this in your collection.

4/5 Good enough for TCM intro clips
  by Max Fraley (costa mesa, CA. United States)
Stanley Kubrick's KILLER KISS deserves attention for providing so many of the little black & white intro film clips that have been a mainstay on TCM since its beginning. The "ticket seller in the ticket booth", the "floor man at the dance ballroom" and "the black-bra clad blonde taking off her earrings" are all scenes snipped from KK. To me that's enough to watch this movie because I suspect there may be some more I haven't picked up on yet. All in all I respect this little gem which doesn't have a bright luster, but is good enough to stimulate the senses. Frank Silvera, so good in character roles in many TV and movie productions, really steals the acting honors, but the whole thing is done on a shoestring and with Kubrick in charge that is all you need to make it worthwhile. The final knock-down, drag-out fight on the warehouse floor filled with mannequins has the power to linger on in your mind, but not as much as those TCM accessories. If they liked it that much then it must be good.

4/5 Gritty little noir.
  by Jordan Krall (Noir Jersey, USA)
Brutal, raw, low budget noir by Stanley Kubrick. This was only his second feature and even though it's roughly edited, it shows just how much talent he had. At 67 minutes, it's pretty short (and there's a chase scene at the end that could've been trimmed by a minute or two) but it's an enjoyable but bleak look at what happens when a washed-up boxer gets involved with a girl and her shady, obsessive boss. There's no melodrama
here. It's pure gritty film-making on location in NYC. Excellent noir. (This would also make a good companion piece to Robert Wise's 1949 film The Set-Up which stars Robert Ryan as a boxer on his way out. And it has a bummer of an ending.)

Another reviewer said this was "ugly". I think that it was supposed to be. It wasn't supposed to be beautiful. It's a realistic, gritty, and dark look at NYC in the fifties. Compared to the high budget police procedural noirs from the same year, of course it's going to look ugly.

It's not going to be for all tastes but it's worth a look especially if you like bleak film noir.






1/5 Kubrick's very worst
  by Robert Buchanan (Wisconsin)
Kubrick's second feature film is a clumsy, ugly, nauseatingly dull crime drama in the vein of my grandmother's house during Thanksgiving. Highlights of this longest hour of my life include wooden performances, terrible editing and a story that literally has more exposition than actual plot. As most Kubrick enthusiasts know, "Fear and Desire" was pulled from circulation because Kubrick was so dissatisfied by it. I wish that he'd followed suit with this pile of bore. I'm amazed that the great filmmaker who created so many extraordinary, innovative motion pictures directed this at the start of his bizarre career.

This film is only notable for the penultimate scene, which features one of the single worst fight sequences that I've ever seen in a movie.

The theatrical tagline for this movie was: "Her Soft Mouth Was the Road to Sin-Smeared Violence!" Gross!