死吻

看到片尾我才明白电影名字为什么叫《死吻》，Gabriel对迈克说，“过来吻我，一个撒谎者的吻，你不是很擅长这个吗？”，自大的迈克以为自己洞察一切，却不知自己掉进怎样黑暗的无底洞，对于深爱着他的怀特（迈克的女助理），贪婪的迈克一直都在利用她，怀特说的，“你只是在有麻烦的时候才需要我”，可是迈克平时那些半真半假的吻依然让怀特飞蛾扑火，怀特用自己的肉体把线索一个一个地挖出来交给迈克，她不知道迈克为何不离开这一切，一定要去追求那个“伟大的什么（Great What）”，她怎知道迈克其实是极度贪婪的，迈克对于平时从事的离婚纠纷侦探工作那点收入完全不感兴趣了，他认为他钓到一条大鱼了，整个事件的背后肯定是一个价值连城的东西。一直到警察说出“曼哈顿计划”的时候，迈克终于瘫在那里，他付出这么多，竟然只是陷入了一场让他毫无收益的政治事件。他交出了那把得之不易的钥匙，他开始想起了怀特，酒吧里的歌手唱的那一段，“你不知道你对我做了什么，我宁愿忧愁和忧郁包围我.....”正是怀特心声的写照，那一夜迈克心有触动，他喝了很多，他烂醉如泥。然而他在沉烂醉中被酒保叫醒，“怀特被人抓走了”，他决定去救怀特，这一次他注定要付出沉重的代价。

贪婪的岂止是迈克，Gabriel更贪婪，她不仅仅是贪婪，而且心肠如毒蛇，她平时在迈克面前表现得胆小怕事，纯洁可爱，事实上她天不怕地不怕，无情无义，当然最后贪婪导致了她的毁灭，她打开了致命武器的盒子。电影在剧中称之为潘多拉的盒子。导演在剧中多次指出，科学家对此感到非常忧郁，暗示这个东西一旦发明出来，就是潘多拉的盒子被打开了。

剧中有几处比较深的地方:

一个是克里斯蒂娜的室友卡弗早就死了，Gabriel冒充了卡弗，接近了迈克，她处心积虑利用迈克找到了盒子的钥匙。

再一个就是克里斯蒂娜其实是警察的工具，然后又因为曼哈顿计划的绝密性，克里斯蒂娜被送入了疯人院，迈克后来总算想到了这一点，他怒斥那些警察，可是有什么用呢？

还有一个是克里斯蒂娜的名字，用的是英国诗人克里斯蒂娜的名字，迈克找到了诗人克里斯蒂娜的书，那首诗《remember me》指出了，“记住我，如果黑暗和堕落在我们的思想上留下印记，日子不会再接续，你却以为你计划好了未来”，暗示了整个故事的走向！

不过结局还是给了观众一点点温暖，醒悟后的迈克终于救出了怀特，在核爆炸的声光中，两人搀扶着逃开了，一瘸一拐的，活着！

Jumping on the bandwagon of an escalating post-WWII nuclear paranoia, Robert Aldrich’s hard-hitting Film-Noir KISS ME DEADLY (his fifth feature film) sets its cock-and-bull backbone in Mickey Spillane’s titular pulp novel, but substitutes its McGuffin with a cockamamie Pandora’s box allegory that is only appended for its sheer shocking value.

A hardboiled L.A. shamus Mike Hammer (Meeker), reluctantly falls in with a hitchhiker Christina Bailey (a radiant Leachman in her screen debut, and we do miss her illuminated presence after her character’s fate is appallingly sealed), who only wears a trench coat after fleeing from a mental institution in the dead of night, before being caught up with her pursuers, she tells Mike to “remember me” if she doesn’t make it alive, and this is exactly what happens. After Mike miraculously survives the man-made accident which ostensibly kills Christina (the villains have an unconscious Mike at their mercies, yet, they inexplicably spare him for no other reason but what the story requires), he knuckles down to bird-dog the mystery behind, routinely sieving through a concatenation of names, often from the mouth of his devout and world-savvy assistant-cum-lover Velda (Cooper), tritely hazarding the lives of those who are passively enmeshed in his investigation, it is mildly surprising that his buddy, the Greek immigrant Nick (vexingly played by Nick Dennis in hamming up his va-va-voom catchphrase) doesn’t blow himself up earlier but only succumbs to a facile budging of a jack. But the major breakthrough hinges on deciphering Christina’s cryptic last words (which might just as well be rephrased as “examine me” by screenwriter A.I. Bezzerides, if she doesn’t really intend to muddy the waters when her life is hanging by a thread), and “vestige” is the operative word.

For one thing, the story-line barely makes any sense, and Bezzerides has no volition to paper over its porous loose ends and preposterous turn of events, for instance, we have no inkling of the antagonists’ agenda with the box (saving an urbanely intimidating Paul Stewart from going sinister all the way), what is the involvement of Lt. Pat Murphy (Addy), and why on earth the only person who knows its whereabout is so impetuously dispatched? While Mike’s myth-divulging takes an improbably simplified route name after name, what he faces mostly is a cesspool of human scums that truly merits his slapping-happy second-nature (in turn echoes his own short-fused cruelty), not to mention the film’s sweeping derogative treatment of its female characters, everyone mechanically falls under the spell of Mr. Meeker’s irresistibly laconic and impassive macho posturing, trying to seal a kiss with him at short notice, Aldrich really overreaches himself in beating the drum for this fusty and pernicious masculinity.

That said, as a grubby noir tall-tale, its superficial production value speaks for itself by allowing Mike perambulating L.A.’s nocturnal streets and treacherous corners where lies and danger fester under DP Ernest Laszlo’s immaculate lens, and Aldrich unflinchingly ratchets up its cynicism until the final radioactive perdition, remotely elicits a sense of Sci-Fi proportion that chimes with its vertically rolling opening credits, which would be normalized by the STAR WARS juggernauts two decades later.

referential entries: Aldrich’s WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (1962, 8.2/10), HUSH….HUSH, SWEET CHARLOTTE (1964, 7.8/10).

目前唯一一部——我还没看过《精神病患者》——能够与威尔斯《历劫佳人》（重剪版）相提并论的noir。它属于那种电影：其中90%内容诡异地超前于时代大约二十年，而剩下的10%，更令人不安地，提醒我们这仍然是1955。隧道、车灯和低语，旅馆窗外不断拍动的风，从架空的地基看出去的昏黑的海：也许是一种林奇的诗意，但全都法国式地完美。不断出现的名字和人物加深了某种超现实；或许noires在寻求完美时终归要走向超现实。最主要的一次解谜很假，但反而使一切更动人了……看过戈达尔《影像之书》的人，这时会认出电影的尾声，仿佛从最初看到那个画面到这时都只是一场他刚刚从中醒来的梦。 A

看《低俗小说》的时候，对文森特（约翰·屈伏塔 饰）和朱尔（萨缪尔·杰克逊 饰）打开的金光闪闪的神秘盒子，十分好奇。每次重看这部影片，我都很想知道那盒子里到底是什么。《死吻》（Kiss Me Deadly1955）里也有这么一只盒子，而且到了最后才现身;蛇蝎毒妇加布瑞埃尔以为胜券在手，完全听不进任何劝告，好奇心和贪婪驱使着她打开了盒子，也让她在一瞬间被“地狱烈焰”吞噬。

不过本片中的蛇蝎毒妇，更像是一个看似无害，实则工于心计的幕后操纵者。她甚至都不主动出击，也没有做出过威胁的举动，但却毫无疑问地掌控着全局。男主角麦克，刚救下一个惊魂甫定的少女，就被神秘人绑架。女孩惨死，他念念不忘女孩临死前的“remember me”，好奇心驱使着他，让他陷得越来越深，为了寻找女孩留下的线索，麦克游走在危险的边缘；因为他不肯停手，导致朋友惨死，女朋友被抓；从头至尾，都在寻找一个他完全无法理解的东西——只是打开就能毁灭一切的盒子。

影片中，警长的几句暗示，暗示影片的关键背景信息：盒子里是足以毁灭世界的原子武器。二战胜利之后，很快进入美苏争霸，冷战和核武器的威胁，导致了普通民众的“赤化恐慌”、“核武器恐慌”。这种微妙、幽暗的压力，与黑色影片有了绝佳的结合契机。阴谋论无疑是最有市场的。那个吞噬一切“潘多拉魔盒”，恐怕道出了当时很多人的内心隐忧。好在黑色电影里，主角是坏人，而且他们基本上不存在翻身的机会，往往都会作法自毙，从某种程度上来说，这部电影为了观众的缓解焦虑，提供了一个理想的“宣泄口”。

【片中出现的诗歌】

Remember - Poem by Christina Georgina Rossetti

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land;

When you can no more hold me by the hand,

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to counsel then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.