I’m nineteen, and I walk into Starlight Video. The year is 2003, tape stores were still around. I browse the aisles. I peruse the various sections, which include “new releases” “blaxploitation,” “ Hitchcock,” “Italian Cinema,” ect.. I yell at Peter, the owner, “Hey, what should I get this time? There are so many!” Next, I picked up a DVD that attracted my eye.
“What’s The Naked Kiss?” I asked.
“Oh it’s a classic, Yale. You must see it."
After watching The Naked Kiss (1964) for the first time, I was blown away. I thought to myself, “Now, this is cool cinema.”
The story is about a prostitute who escapes her corrupted lifestyle, moves into a charming little town and becomes the beloved nurse of crippled children. Ironically, she ends up stepping into the same kind of underbelly she was escaping from, but this time around, the disturbing elements were part of a respectable society. The Naked Kiss is my favorite Samuel Fuller film; an awkward stroke in low-budget filmmaking. The film contains the most unusual melding of noir and melodrama.
At the time this low-budget gem was released, it was incorrectly labeled as a “sexploitation” film. This was in 1964. According to today’s standards, Samuel Fuller’s strange melodrama is a biting commentary on social hypocrisies. Fuller lures the audience into a world of prostitutes, pimps, and a strip-club/bordello that uses a respectable business as a cover-up. Before “hooter” girls were born, there was chocolate-selling “bon-bon” strippers. In addition, writer/director Fuller suggests psychological concepts, such as mental illness and sexual abuse.
Fuller’s style and sociological commentary are very in-your-face. The opening shot is so rough and edgy that it almost throws you off balance. We see a raging woman batting her purse at the camera. A drunken man, her pimp, grabs her hair and rips off a wig. Now, we see a bald-headed femme fatale kicking the crap out of a man. The first few images, combined with the chaotic jazz music, is so raw and gritty, you must think the rest of The Naked Kiss is going to be a totally dark film noir. Dark; yes, but after the opening scene, the credits roll, and the star, Constance Towers, puts her wig on and elegantly fixes her image in front of the mirror. Simultaneously, the music shifts into something out of a Doris Day's melodrama. This is the joy of watching the film; the abrupt shift from film noir to a full-fledged, glowing melodrama. There are parts where the film is a bit choppy, but that’s part of its low-budget charm. Some of the dialogue is a bit soap-opera-ish and unconsciously comical, but still, it’s purely fun and provocative at the same time. A forgotten or hard-to-find film like The Naked Kiss has more qualitative direction and a cooler style than a lot of today’s big-budget studio films.
For those readers who’ve seen the film, don’t you think there should be some-kind of monumental screening? Like at the Cannes film festival (maybe there was)? A masterful director like Martin Scorsese should present it. I mean, watching it again, I see so much daring and unusual camerawork and editing, which I’m sure have influenced up-and-coming directors of the late 60s and 70s. For example, Bonnie and Clyde (1967) was known for its distinctive opening shot; actress Faye Dunaway’s face is clinging onto the bar rails of her bed, which expresses her personal imprisonment. However, before 1967, Sam Fuller constructed an even more abrupt, daring, and original opening. Most mainstream American films in the early 60s were still utilizing a classical style; they opened by establishing location, not energy.
I also think Fuller’s work influenced filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. Sure, the sudden outburst of violence is there, but I’m thinking of a smaller reference. In a scene from The Naked Kiss where Kelly gets off the bus in the quaint town, the first iconic image is an old-style movie theater, and the marquee reads “Shock Corridor,” which was Fuller’s previous film with the same small studio. The parallel influence I’m referring to is in Tarantino’s Kill Bill (2003), where we see a giant ad for “Apple” brand cigarettes in the background, as “The bride” (Uma Thurman), enters the airport. The reference to Fuller’s previous and similar film, Shock Corridor (1963), is a bit obvious, but I like those catchy, inside-joke film references. Also, I get a real geeky kick when I see directors linking their films together by the minor mis-en-scene.
The juxtaposition of soft and hard images in The Naked Kiss divides the film’s tone, shifting from the classical to the avant-garde. There’s a unique scene where our hooker with the heart of gold is falling in love with the town hero; a rich, giving and accomplished playboy. Then, the man shows Kelly a home-made film reel of the river flowing through Venice. Suddenly, the two lovers are imaginatively transported into the image. The stylized use of rear-screen projection is very stagy, but that’s part of Fuller’s inventive idiosyncrasies. Another great scene is where the film moves into an effective musical sequence; Kelly sings “the blue bird of happiness” with a group of racially diverse, crippled children. Again, Fuller pushes the boundaries by purposely using a variety of races in the children’s portrayals, yet all, or most of the adult townsfolk, are white. The musical scene is a combustible stir-pot of sweet, dreamlike and creepy tones, and it sets-up the disturbing revelation.
The plot might seem too over-the-top, creating too many drastic shifts in character relationships and revelations in a swiftly running time of 90 minutes. Nevertheless, Fuller stays true to his usual cinematic obscurities, while developing a richly textured story. We follow Kelly, who rapidly transform from the low-brow whore with the fiercest stilettos you ever did see, to a gentle town nurse for handicapped children. I get so giddy watching the shifty character interactions and campy dialogue. I wanted the frame to stand still and let every scene play out with more dialogue and more attitudes; it’s one hell of a fun time.
The last, and the most distinguished directorial vision, is the filmmaker’s blunt messages, which are still taboo for 1964. The best sequence is the actual “naked kiss.” The direction, the extreme shot/reverse shots, and the lack of music (only the ambient sound of a powered film reel) all build suspense, and sets up the most important plot-point of the film. The naked kiss, if you haven’t figured it out, is………. oh no, I don’t think I could live with myself if I gave out that piece of information.
I had the great opportunity of witnessing the cult classic on the big screen at the Texas Theater in Dallas, TX. Yes, that’s the same theater where Lee Harvey Oswald hid-out after shooting a cop (so they say). The Pick Up on South Street (1953), Another film by Samuel Fuller, is great and a more polished, thriller-type film, but The Naked Kiss remains my favorite, the perfect underground classic. This is one of my favorite films of the 60s and pushed me to experience all of Samuel Fuller’s work.
**** (out of four stars)
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