Kiss Me Deadly Details

One of the greatest examples of film noir, this early feature by Dirty Dozen director Robert Aldrich made him a name in arty circles (the critics of the French magazine Cahiers du Cinema loved him and the film) and a formidable presence in cinema. He took a piece of Mickey Spillane “pulp” fiction and turned it into an astonishing fable, with Pandora's Box transformed into a nuclear furnace. The look is off-the-wall stylish and the tension builds to a climax that is near-apocalyptic. Everything is on the side of the unexpected from the opening credits to the fact that Spillane's detective Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) is a flawed antihero who, after picking up a girl on the run, finds himself in over his head in events beyond his control. Albert Dekker is a classily obnoxious villain, but it's the women you have to watch. As the title suggests, their embrace is lethal.

Exuberant and harsh thriller set in an unlovely world and shot with brutal close-ups and unusual camera angles that create a disquieting effect. It is as unremittingly tough as its thuggish hero.