KILLER'S KISS

US, 1955, 64 minutes, Black and white.
Frank Silvera, Irene Kane, Jamie Smith.
Directed by Stanley Kubrick.

Killer's Kiss was Stanley Kubrick's first major feature film. Not only did he write the screenplay, but he was producer, photographer, director. It is a typical enough film noir plot of the era, a boxer, a dance-hall girl, a New York criminal, prize fighting, one-night stands, violent confrontations.

Kubrick shows indications of many of the techniques, styles, character portraits and plot lines that he was to use in future films (including a dream sequence which anticipates the dreams and journeys of Dr Strangelove and 2001: A Space Odyssey).

The film is brief, the acting is not particularly persuasive. However, the film has an energy and style as well as an intellectual curiosity and emotional passion about its characters and their situations. The film was used as a basis for the 1984 Stranger's Kiss, co-written by star Blaine Novak and director Matthew Chapman - a film about the making of a low-budget movie resembling Killer's Kiss.

1. The work of Stanley Kubrick? This feature in his canon of film-making? Anticipating future themes?

2. The film noir and its popularity in the '40s and '50s, touch action films, the contrast of boxing and ballet, the gangster world of New York City?

3. The black and white photography, the editing, the realism and surrealism of the New York City locations, Penn Station, apartments, the world of boxing, ballet, dance halls, offices, the factory and the streets? The musical score?

4. The title and its focus, references?

5. The structure of the screenplay: the flashbacks, the voice-over commentary by Davy, the dreams - and the flashbacks in Gloria's experience?

6. Davy's voice-over identifying characters and situations, his accent, grammar, emotional involvement? His assessment of himself? Of his failures? Concern about Gloria? The violence? The boxing, his defeat, getting ready to go, the girl and the pass, Albert, the dressing room, the bout, his being beaten and the aftermath?

7. Gloria in the apartment opposite, the voyeur touch with Davy seeing her? Their meeting? Vinnie taking her to the dance hall? Her relationship with Vinnie, dependence on him, his brutality? The work and the customers? Watching the match, her resistance to Vinnie?

8. Gloria and Davy and their relationship to each other? His watching her, undressing, the phone call from his relations? His attention to her - and the memories of his past, the aunt and uncle, Seattle? The dream and the terrifying journey? His being awakened by the scream? The bond with Gloria?

9. His going to Gloria, their being together? Sharing their stories? Gloria and her nightmare, the memory of Vinnie and his treatment, in her room, his violence?

10. Vinnie, his background, gangsters, his malice? Attitude towards Gloria? Making her work, her refusal? His coming back to the apartment and rejection? His getting his toughs to kill Davy? The irony of Albert coming, his murder? The confrontation between Davy and Vinnie? The car, the chase? The final deaths?

11. The more humane aspects of the story - especially Davy's memory of Seattle, his gratitude towards his uncle? Gloria and her story about Alice - and the insertion of the long ballet sequence (danced by Kubrick's first wife, Ruth Sobotka)? The pathos of the story about Alice, their parents, Alice's suicide and the consequences for Gloria?

12. Vinnie and his snatching Gloria, Davy's pursuit, the confrontation, the factory, the long chase and its violence, the deaths?

13. The police, Davy's arrest, clearing him, his return to the station? Gloria's arrival - the happy ending?

14. B-story, stylish, visual impact? Genre elements?