Popular reviews

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 14

  “Kiss of Death” is a double peck on each cheek from the Angel and Devil on its lead actor’s shoulders. 

  Fittingly for Victor Mature, who gave one of the best antihero performances in classic cinema as Doc Holliday in “My Darling Clementine,” he finds himself in “Kiss” as the axis between crushing weights of good and evil. 

  Respectively, those are Brian Donlevy as a morally sound but ethically dodgy assistant DA, and Richard Widmark as gang fixer Tommy Udo. With Mature as the ex con manipulated between the two; “Kiss” becomes an expertly constructed character study between its three players. 

  While Donlevy deserves to be lauded for not turning too saintly in a role that, in lesser pictures, would tempt…

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  Review by Slig001 ★★★★½ 1

  Richard Widmark may have got fourth billing for this, his debut performance, but he absolutely steals the show as psychotic gangster Tommy Udo. Every moment he's on screen is great, and he absolutely dominates the film in the second half despite relatively little screentime. Kiss of Death is essentially the story of two criminals; one who is forced to become a stool pigeon through a series of unfortunate events, and another who is not happy with that decision! The film's strength lies in its characters, who are always at the forefront. It really cuts to the chase - putting all the focus on the key parts of the story and not wasting any time fleshing out plot points. This one…

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 11

  Throughout cinema history, film genres have changed in a variety of ways. The definition of Thriller today is not the same as what it used to be back in 70 or 80 years ago. Even then, there were a few variations on it.

  What makes this movie so good is the way Hecht, Lederer and director Henry Hathaway are able to combine the classic mystery and film noir with a story of a man on a quest for redemption by following many of the same methods that the wicked employ in committing their crimes.

  Victor Mature is excellent as Nick Bianco, a petty criminal who is caught by the law after committing a crime that goes wrong, and is used…

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  Review by DallasFrance ★★★★ 5

  Good film noirs make it hurt. 

  
  The good guy is doomed, because it’s a nasty world.

  The bad guy becoming a good guy is still doomed, because it’s a nasty world that never forgets.

  The bad guy is also doomed, cause f*ck that guy, amirite?

  
  Nick Bianco, played by Victor Mature, is a complex man that falls into all three categories, depending on your perspective. Then there’s Tommy Udo, played by Richard Widmark, who delights in knowing exactly who he is.

  One of my favorite images in noir is Widmark peeking through the slits between curtains…We only see one eye, a narrow slice of his sinister glare. He’s a seething snake slithering towards his prey.*

  Nick Bianco wants to be better,…

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  Review by Jesse Snoddon ★★★½

  "You know what I do to squealers? I let 'em have it in the belly, so they can roll around for a long time thinkin' it over."

  After a crime gone wrong, Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) is put in a hard position - squeal on the other men or take a hard fall. He initially resists the deal, but eventually rolls over to help his wife and kids. The psychotic Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark) escapes justice and comes for him, putting Nick in a position that is even worse and more dangerous than if he did the whole sentence. 

  Victor Mature is fine here. He doesn't exactly manage to come across as torn and doesn't really convey all that much…

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  Review by Josh Gillam ★★★½ 3

                                     MILD SPOILERS 

  Ex-con Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) puts his criminal past behind him to start a new life with his family, but this plan is complicated with the arrival of vengeful old associate Tommy Udo (Richard Widmark), in Henry Hathaway’s noir with Coleen Gray and Brian Donlevy.

  Many films have been made about criminals over the years, but this takes a refreshingly unusual spin on the usual thriller tropes, letting this low-key character study of a man haunted by his old life play out with a surprising level of restraint. 

  Once Nick is out, the conflict no longer comes from whether he’ll reoffend…

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  Review by Sean Gilman ★★★★

  This is pretty much the plot of Goodfellas, except the hero wants to be an anonymous schnook and Richard Widmark is 1000 times scarier than Joe Pesci.

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  Review by sarah ★★★★ 3

  So many noirs suffer from that same voiceover narration technique, trying to convey useless information in a neatly-packaged, concise delivery instead of relying on visual cues or more effective storytelling. I can just imagine some studio head in 1940s Hollywood viewing this film in post-production and making the decision to add voiceover last-minute, just in case some points are not crystal clear to the audience. That’s what makes aspects of Kiss of Death so frustrating— the film is so good, why must it be interrupted by some preachy, omniscient voice? Fortunately, the voiceover in this film probably totals two minutes, and once I got past my aversion to this narrative flaw, I was able to completely immerse myself in this…

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  Review by ✨Angelica Jade Bastién🔮 ★★★½ 4

  Found this film to be a fascinating portrait of the tensions within noir when dealing with the nature of crime and what makes a good man. Kiss of Death is blunt and doesn’t feel very much like New York despite being shot entirely on location. I found how it equates Victor Mature as Nick Bianco being a father to being a good man kind of laughable. The reason to see this film is Richard Widmark as Tommy Udo. That maniacal giggle that it splits his face open. The way he vacillates from calm to menace in the blink of an eye is a wonder to behold. I’m not sure if the story that he based the character on the Joker…

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  Review by Jim Morrow ★★★★ 2

  Mature, Gray, and Donlevy are featured, but the debut of Widmark is the main reason this one is remembered as more than a run of the mill noir. The wheelchair scene hasn't lost anything over the years; it's still pretty shocking. Tommy Udo is a very bad person, maniacally gleeful, and clearly right out of his skull. Widmark is given a false set of choppers to lend a freak show appearance and a bit of an overbite. This was the only time Widmark got an Oscar nomination, but he lost to Edmund Gwenn playing Santa Claus. It's getting so a demented psycho killer can't get no respect. Qu'est-ce que c'est?

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  Review by Demdike ★★★★ 2

  Tim Burton - "So Jack, any thoughts on how you'd like to play the Joker?"

  Jack Nicholson - "You know what Tim, i just got off watching Richard Widmark play Tommy Udo in Kiss of Death"

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  Review by HBSpade ★★★½ 6

  While Jules Dassin gets most of the credit, Hathaway seems to be overlooked as a pioneer of bringing noir out from the cracks and shadows of cloistered rooms and into the corners and backalleys of the city at large by venturing on-location shoots. It is interesting in the vein of the (admittedly tenuous) Hathaway-Mann connection that most of the real-life shooting takes place in a prison and a catholic school, two of the most Foucauldian of locations. Otherwise mostly a by-the numbers noir, and definitely didn’t hold my interest the way 777 did, but a stacked cast with Victor giving his most Mature* performance, Donlevy being his usual paternal self (he could probably sell me on an MLM), Collen Gray…