Timothy Bodzioney
Reviewer
Timothy Bodzioney submitted a new blog post
My Gun is Quick - Blu Ray Review
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.
My Gun is Quick - Blu Ray Review
Continue reading the Original Blog Post.
Me, too! I was hoping this would be fun to watch, though it doesn't sound like it. I love Mickey Spillane. But what makes the books addictive isn't the sleaziness of the plots but the quality of the writing. Maybe 10 years ago the "Sunday Times Magazine" had a quiz in which you were supposed to pick which paragraph had been written by Hemingway and which by Spillane. It turned out the ones I thought were by Papa Ernest were actually by Spillane. He's a very fine and individual writer who kind of extended the "hard boiled" style to the nth degree, which is very hard to translate to the screen. Robert Aldrich came closest. Though KISS ME DEADLY might be considered "Anti-Spillane" in terms of its theme, it's also very faithful in reproducing Spillane's style and world-view.Thanks for the review. I've never seen this film and I'd like to but it doesn't sound like a film I'd watch again and again. I've always been impressed by Robert Bray and I agree with your point about him having the screen presence and persona to be an authority figure. John Sturges, who was always careful about casting for his supporting characters, used Robert Bray in that capacity in Never So Few. He has a very small role in Blood On The Moon which is about to appear on Blu-ray disc.
The irony of course is Kiss Me Deadly turned out the way it did because Bezzerides thought the book sucked.He's a very fine and individual writer who kind of extended the "hard boiled" style to the nth degree, which is very hard to translate to the screen. Robert Aldrich came closest. Though KISS ME DEADLY might be considered "Anti-Spillane" in terms of its theme, it's also very faithful in reproducing Spillane's style and world-view.
Well, "KIss Me Deadly" as a book is pretty minor. It's Mike Hammer on auto-pilot, with the bad blonde/good brunette dichotomy carried over from the earlier books, and some not very believable nonsense about the Mob, inanely plotted and slackly written. Even the sex and violence seems muted. What Bezzeridies came up with is really brilliant and echt-Spillane, though the character and milieu is taken more from the earlier books. Spillane hated the movie, but I think it's a brilliant and extremely faithful adaptation, not so much "Kiss Me Deadly" specifically, but Spillane's body of work. The difference is, in the books Mike Hammer appears to be loyal to the people in his life and says he believes in a higher moral purpose, but in reality he's just a raged-filled killing machine, making the argument that you need someone just as crazy and lethal as the bad guys to save society. The movie takes Mike Hammer's braggadocio and violence and pushes it to the nth degree, with the romanticism and rasion d'etre of Spillane's books stripped away. And yet, it's way more faithful to Spillane's world view and stylistic tendencies than any of the other films.The irony of course is Kiss Me Deadly turned out the way it did because Bezzerides thought the book sucked.