The Naked Kiss (1964) User Reviews

You won't be bored, and you might be amazed. Great low-budget stuff.

[secondtake · 8/10 · 31 March 2010]

The Naked Kiss (1964)

Constance Towers is fresh off of Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor the previous year, and she is perfectly adroit at the saint/sinner, prostitute/angel dichotomy at the core of it. This is a crazy movie to take seriously, yet there are so many serious parts to it, not the least of which is child molesting. For a 1964 movie that's daring stuff. Throw in a corrupt lovable cop, sweet children with physical disabilities, tinkly fairy tale music that comes out of nowhere when she is looking at a bedroom to stay in, and some good old female fist fights. Out comes a Fuller masterwork, of sort.

It's flawed enough to make some people run, but edgy enough to glue others to their seats. If the movie industry was looking for ways to break out of the doldrums of the late 1950s and early 1960s (there are some terrible high budget films from these years), it overlooked the breakthroughs coming from the fringes. The directness and everyday nasty material here would be the bedrock of movies in just two or three years, as violence, frank sexual content, and flawed people became the norm.

You may as well admit, too, that the best parts of this movie are terrific, including some hard edged, sharp, black and white photography. The Criterion DVD is as close to great as you can get, even though there is some confusion about the way even this famed company handled the release. The movie was actually shot in 4:3 format, in so called "flat" 35mm shooting (no anamorphic lens used). It was then cropped along the top and bottom to create a wide screen format for theatrical release. The "fullscreen" version is formatted full (and I don't know if any of the fullscreen ones show the whole original "open matte" formatting, or are further cropped from the widescreen cropping). Either way, it was intended to be seen with wide screen composition, so get the Criterion. It's beautiful.

Weird & Quite Unique

[seymourblack-1 · 7/10 · 18 December 2010]

Weird and quite unique are the words that spring to mind after seeing "The Naked Kiss". Samuel Fuller's melodrama about middle class hypocrisy features some characters and a small town which beneath their respectable exteriors are actually corrupt or perverted. Prostitution, violence and sexual deviancy feature prominently and the action is delivered in a style which is predominantly forthright and candid. Some sequences, however, also have a surreal quality which effectively adds another level of strangeness to this already bizarre morality tale.

Cult auteur Samuel Fuller (who wrote, produced and directed this movie) is renowned for his ability to make a powerful impact and this quality is strongly evident in "The Naked Kiss" right from the start. In the attention grabbing opening scene, a prostitute is seen viciously attacking her drink impaired pimp and during their confrontation her wig falls off to reveal that she's entirely bald. This attack had been triggered by the working girl's need to collect some money which she was owed and in an act which illustrates her integrity, she is seen taking only the precise amount of cash which is due to her, despite having the opportunity to take considerably more.

Some time later, Kelly (Constance Towers) arrives at the small town of Grantsville where the first person (and client) that she meets is Police Captain Griff (Anthony Eisley) who, after their business is complete, advises her to leave his community because he runs a clean town! He recommends that she should go to Candy's place "across the river". Kelly doesn't take his advice and instead stays in the town and decides that she wants to live the "straight life".

After getting a job as a nurse's aide in the local hospital for handicapped children, Kelly develops an extraordinary rapport with the patients, her ability is admired by everyone and she's soon fully accepted by the townspeople.

The town's most respected citizen is a wealthy philanthropist who's a descendant of the town's founder and also a benefactor of the hospital in which Kelly works. When she meets Grant (Michael Dante) they're immediately attracted to each other and their relationship grows steadily from that point.

Kelly deters one of her work colleagues from becoming a prostitute and in the process gets into a physical conflict with Candy (Virginia Grey). She also arranges help for another pregnant girl who, as a consequence, decides not to go ahead with the abortion she was planning to have.

When Kelly tells Grant about her past, he's totally unconcerned. Griff who is Grant's best friend has some misgivings about their plans but is ultimately reassured when Kelly convinces him of her feelings for Grant and the fact that she's given up her old profession for good.

Kelly's fairy tale transformation into a respected member of the community and her seemingly wonderful romance both suffer spectacular reversals when she discovers that Grant is actually a child molester. Her shocked response is typically violent and what follows illustrates forcibly just how distorted the moral values of middle class society can become and how the citizens' inbuilt prejudices can prevent them from distinguishing clearly between what's right and wrong.

"The Naked Kiss" makes its point very clearly but is also distinctly offbeat and it's this quality which gives it its strange atmosphere. Sometimes it all feels like a peculiar dream or fantasy where odd things happen and where eccentric behaviour is the norm. The spectacle of a prostitute who has a propensity for sudden outbursts of violence magically transforming into a nurse who's a cross between Florence Nightingale and Julie Andrews really is quite breathtaking but it's also very entertaining. Kelly's experiences ultimately make her much wiser but also very disillusioned by the values that she found within a so-called respectable middle class community.

The ultimate pulp fiction, high drama with Fuller's film definition of "emotions"

[ruby_fff · 8/10 · 8 July 2005]

"Pickup on South Street" 1953, an 80-minute film noir gem, is a favorite of mine. Richard Widmark and Thelma Ritter (not just exceptional in romantic comedy supporting Rock Hudson and Doris Day in "Pillow Talk") were the two characters and performances I like best. Filmmaker Sam Fuller's creative writing, directing strength, and (indie) producing savvy continued to shine in "The Naked Kiss" 1964. It is the ultimate pulp fiction: high drama soap, touch of camp and tints of film noir. Beautifully shot in Black and White. Terrific cast with Constance Towers as Kelly, the central power of energy and charm, and undeterred determination; Anthony Eisley as Griff, the gruff, tough cop with a tender heart underneath; and the townsfolk of varying characters, nice and not-so-nice to downright sleazy, crooked ones, male or female, and a number of child performances for that matter. Yet with all this, there is a blossoming healthy, full of goodwill story about handicapped youngsters, being encouraged to stand up and be happy in spite of their weaknesses.

The opening segment (before the title/credits roll) is in itself an emphatic revelation. Kelly truly wants to turn over a new leaf, and she readily shares and helps others without guile. She is no loser. She's our heroine of the story. Tearjerker? Certainly can be. Thriller suspense, too? Definitely. Will she be innocently proclaimed? Will the witness precious be found? We would root for her, our Kelly. She is so 'gung ho' and downright nice to everyone (but she can also stand up tough against the 'bad' ones). Fuller's script runs its own natural course with surprises and satisfying plot twists never lacking.

This may not be for everyone (NFE). But if you can take high drama with wide human emotional range, appreciate energetic 'filmic' storytelling with intrigue, you'll enjoy this movie immensely. A Sam Fuller film doesn't disappoint but deserves applause practically guaranteed. His films are no fuss, straightforward and bold, frank and colorful in dialog, and there's the element of raw sophistication (sounds oxymoron, but life is full of contradictions). "The Naked Kiss" is available on DVD, Criterion Collection, widescreen, 91 minutes (just the right length).

Excellent, daring noir melodrama from cult director

[FilmFlaneur · 1 February 2004]

The Naked Kiss opens with a shocking pre-credit sequence, shot partly with cameras harnessed to the actors, in which we see a furious woman beating a man with her handbag. He grabs at her and her wig comes off, revealing that she is totally bald - a prostitute who has been shaved in punishment by the pimp she is now assaulting. Kelly (Constance Towers), the hooker eventually makes her way to Grantville, a small town in New England and after a brief liaison with a law enforcement officer, abandons her bad ways and becomes a nurse in a children's hospital. In due course she becomes engaged to Grant (Michael Dante) a rich and handsome Korean War veteran. Grant, however, has a dark secret of his own... Sam Fuller started his career in newspapers, wrote some pulp novels and screenplays, and then wandered the United States as a tramp on freight trains during the Depression before serving with distinction in the US Army. Starting with I Shot Jesse James (1949) he directed a series of sometimes-controversial films that established him as a cult auteur, especially in Europe. His critical stock remains high today, for instance amongst such modern filmmakers as Quentin Tarantino and Tim Robbins. Perhaps Fuller's quote that "Film is a battleground. Love, hate, violence, action, death... in a word, emotion" is the most famous statement of his creative philosophy. Certainly the assaults come thick and fast in The Naked Kiss, either during the opening scene (where the camera angles suggest that blows are struck directly against the audience's point of view), or the two other attacks by an out of control Kelly on Candy (Virginia Grey) the Madame, or Grant respectively. Finally of course there is the 'battleground' of the legal process in which the heroine finds herself entangled.

The present film was the second of two notorious titles that Fuller made, one after the other in the early 1960s, the other being Shock Corridor. They polarised critics between those who found the results shallow and sensational and those others who discovered in Fuller's increasing disillusionment about American society a welcome, and brave aesthetic. There's no denying Fuller's in-your-face tabloid style has its rough edge, but this is part and parcel of the director's way of 'cinema as scoop' where his films were amongst the first to cover the pressing issues of the day. For instance, Steel Helmet (1950) early on brought the Korean War to the screen. The Naked Kiss goes the whole hog in sensationalism and manages to include abortion, prostitution, police corruption as well as paedophilia, often with the urgency of an on-the-spot report. At the centre of it all is Kelly, the poetry-loving prostitute who, despite her past, is both intelligent and sensitive. "Intellect rarely goes with physical beauty" the self centred Grant smugly actually tells her, "and that makes you a remarkable woman." For Kelly leaving her earlier profession is a matter of self-esteem just as much as it is social duty. When Buff (Marie Devereux) tries to follow her bad example she is forcibly reminded that prostitution is "a social problem, a medical problem, a mental problem" and that she will end up "a despicable failure as a woman."

At times The Naked Kiss plays out like a garish Sirkian drama. Small town America, as displayed in Grantville, is just as full of hypocrisy and repression as anything found in Imitation Of Life (1959) or All That Heaven Allows (1955). The difference here is that the emotions are worn on the sleeve; the ironic reassurance of the German's widescreen colour is replaced by stark journalisms in black and white. Fuller's town is a personal one, where Shock Corridor is on the local cinema's marquee, and where Fuller's own paperback novel The Dark Page is being read by the heroine. This is a feminist noir with a controversial edge. If the result is the occasional miscalculation (such as the sugary song sung by Kelly and the children) then the overall effect can be judged a success. The film's title itself refers to the way one can, ostensibly at least, identify a pervert - by the nature of his or her intimate contact. The Naked Kiss, itself a title reminiscent of some garish dime fiction, is full of such distorted intimacies, much of which ends disappointingly or with violence. Of course 'naked' in one sense is also the way we first see Kelly, bald headed and frenziedly beating her pimp. As critics have observed, there's a characteristic contradiction in many of Fuller's films that antisocial characters perform the most necessary social actions. In Pickup On South Street (1953) for instance, it is the sociopath Skip McCoy who helps bring the communists to book. Here, although some still see the newly reformed Kelly as reprehensible - notably her first, and only, paying customer in Grantville, Captain Griff (Anthony Eisley) - it is she who provides the catalyst for the eventual exposure of Grant's perversions. Although still ostracised at the end of the film, she has performed a valuable, if uncomfortable, service to the community - her lack of sentimentality neatly sidestepping many of the 'whore with the heart of gold' clichés, which the director so despised. Fuller had an almost mystical faith in America's destiny, but sensationally recorded its sins and failings with increased pessimism as his career proceeded. The choice of Kelly as the vehicle for reform in The Naked Kiss is typical of his later films. In fact the present title was something of a watershed for the director. He next made the financially unsuccessful, and far more conventional, Shark! (aka: Maneater, 1969), before he eventually found his feet again in the American cinema in the 1980s.

Ahead of its time

[wjfickling · 7/10 · 4 July 2000]

This noir film dealt openly with topics that generally weren't dealt with at all (e.g., pedophilia) or only peripherally (e.g., prostitution, procuring)in 1964. It is the only film noir I know of in which a woman is the lead. Rather than being an adjunct or adversary to the hero, Kelly carries the film from beginning to end, and the twists and turns of the plot will surprise throughout. What mars it somewhat is some bad acting in the smaller roles.

God bless Fuller.

[whipsnade76 · 9/10 · 24 May 2006]

How fascinating an artist is Samuel Fuller? So fascinating that the responses on IMDb for this film range from "brilliant, devastating masterpiece" to "pulpy, campy fun" to "Ed Wood-like crap." Of course, being Fuller, this film is ALL those things. There are sequences that are amazing as anything. There are moments of just brilliant insight and meaning -- creepy and poignant in their nightmarish beauty. And then there are just plan crappy B movie moments that are unintentionally funny. Bad acting and annoying preachy moralizing. It's a hodgepodge. But it is also a totally unique experience to watch. Noir. Melodrama. Crap. Art. This is pure Fuller! Gotta love it!!!!! A must see for people who love their aesthetics with a kick.

"Nothing but the buck, the bed and the bottle for the rest of my life"

[ackstasis · 7/10 · 30 June 2009]

In the early 1960s, few directors more enthusiastically embraced the loosening restrictions of the Production Code than Samuel Fuller. He shunned big-budget studio pictures to allow himself greater creative freedom, and the themes he tackled were often untouched, or at least poorly-explored, territory. For its first few minutes, 'The Naked Kiss (1964)' skirts delicately around its heroine's profession, implying enough without explicitly spelling out the word "prostitute" (everyone else seems to have got it, but, stupid me, I actually did think she was a champagne saleswoman – perhaps I wasn't expecting such progressiveness). This reasonably subtle approach (by Fuller standards) suggests the sort of evasive techniques that 40s and 50s writers used to bamboozle the censors on matters of sex – take the horse-racing exchange in 'The Big Sleep (1946),' or the curious relationship of the two murderers in 'Rope (1948).' By the time Fuller hits full stride, however, any such delicacy is thrown out the window, and suddenly what you see is exactly what you get.

I don't want to describe this film as exploitation. It certainly is exploitative to a huge degree – Fuller, for example, wrings every ounce of empathy from the poor crippled kids – but somehow there's a sense of sincerity in how he tells the story, as though he really does believe in the possibility of redemption. Tough, independent-minded prostitute Kelly (Constance Towers) arrives in a new town, sleeps with the police captain (Anthony Eisley), and then decides to leave her shameful past behind forever, somehow securing a job at the local children's hospital. Captain Griff is immediately suspicious of Kelly's motivations, hypocritically believing that she'll only pollute his home town, but wealthy local benefactor J.L. Grant (Michael Dante) falls in love with her. When it came to women, Fuller appears to have admired the lowly kind: Constance Towers in 'Shock Corridor (1963)' was a stripper, and in 'The Naked Kiss' she was a prostitute; Jean Peters in 'Pickup on South Street' might as well have been one, too.

Especially in its final act, 'The Naked Kiss' has strong elements of film noir, substituting the usual male protagonist for a woman, of course. However, there's also high degrees of melodrama, exploitation, and pulpy, B-movie schlock, and Fuller's ultimate message appears to be double- edged. A prominent noir motif concerns the sheer hopelessness of redemption: however hard one tries to evade their past, a man's former misdeeds will always return to haunt them. This fate does, indeed, confront Fuller's heroine, but he leaves a light at the end of the tunnel, arguably dampening the full brunt of the film's ending. Perhaps the more potently-noirish message to be gleaned from 'The Naked Kiss' is that society is rotten: not just the mistreated prostitutes and tyrannical pimps, but the hypocritical police captain, the prejudiced townsfolk, the philanthropist with an ulterior motive in funding a children's hospital. Towers' prostitute crosses to the "respectable" side of society's fence, but finds that corruption has already pervaded to its highest levels.

You want a medal? The Naked Kiss

[jaredmobarak · 8/10 · 7 January 2009]

Here it is, my first foray into Samuel Fuller's world of pulp, The Naked Kiss. I still don't quite know what my feelings are. When the ending credits rolled, I was a bit indifferent, but after a heady discussion with my viewing friends, that initial ho-hum—"it was entertaining at least"—thought process became, "yeah, I guess it does have a lot more going for it, if you take the time to look". And I think this is the point to get across. The Naked Kiss is chock-full of detail and specific plot points, which may at first appear to just be overload and nonsense, but eventually prove to be crucially enlightening to the tale. It takes an audience that understands the time period the film was made, viewers that know of and enjoy French New Wave, and people who can appreciate a heightened reality, realizing that the campy acting is just part of the film's style, to be successful. Like pulp fiction novels and zines, the aesthetic is one of economy and lesser art, but the fact that it knows this—fusing attributes from film noir and soap opera-like scripting—makes it so much more.

The thing you hear is how the opening five minutes will blow your mind. The seeming absurdity of it all—a bald prostitute beating a man up with her shoe—throws you for a loop until the rest of the story commences, two years after that event. However, it isn't just that scene putting you in an off-kilter position, the opening credits themselves puzzle too. It all starts off normally until we get a list of the people playing the children, then Candy's girls, and finally Candy's Bon-Bons … try wrapping your head around those before the film uncovers the mystery. Oh, and don't forget that credit for "Charlie" playing himself, the best inside joke of the entire film.

With the beginning nonsense out of the way, the story starts up again in a quiet town named Grantville. Kelly (Constance Towers) steps off the bus and turns heads with her looks, including that of local law enforcement Captain Griff (Anthony Eisley). He takes the newcomer to his apartment where he verifies her occupation and warns her to get out of town and cross into the next where Candy will be able to take care of her. We soon discover that Griff has been cleaning up his jurisdiction by welcoming all the "women of the night" just to pass them on to the brothel nextdoor—keeping tabs and relations with them while maintaining the wholesome façade of his own home. A façade is all it is, though, much to his surprise, once the secrets start to be brought to light.

After Kelly looks in the mirror at Griff's, she decides to once and for all turn her life around. She finds a nice room for rent with the local seamstress and then a job as a therapist for handicapped children, something the town is known for, what with the generosity of town namesake J.L. Grant (Michael Dante). Grandson of the town's founder, Grant is a mountain of a man, always traveling, bringing gifts, caring for the local needy, and even a war hero, having saved his best friend Griff in Korea. It is when he begins a love affair with the reformed Kelly that the town soon shows its dark underbelly. Grantville's veneer is dissolved as everyone soon gets shown as liars or cheats, looking out for only themselves, and others prove to be involved in crimes such as pedophilia, right under the nose of the town. This subject matter, especially, is handled interestingly to comply with censorship while still retaining its weight.

While the story may disturb some—I know child abuse could be a killer for some people whether they were enjoying the movie before that point or not—it is the construction that will end up alienating many. To keep with the pulp aesthetic, Fuller never shies from holding details in focus after a deliberate zoom to blatantly get a point across, nor is he afraid to lend his characters a certain creepiness. The handicapped children, for instance, are shown in close-up very often, dressed as pirates, singing, or just being made to stand on their crutches while the nurses move in and out between them. Even an odd scene where they are shown running around, as if in a dream, becomes hyper-real; all of the young actors acting as though they were told to be a tad off-kilter and appear mentally handicapped as well as physically. Then, of course, there is the karate chopping prostitute and numerous other bit parts that become unforgettable due to their demeanor, not necessarily their importance to the plot.

In the end, I do feel the need to recommend The Naked Kiss to any serious film lovers out there. If you aren't willing to delve deeper than the surface and find all the different motifs strewn about, hidden via the purposely-campy acting that stays consistent with the film's world, do not bother wasting your time. It is definitely a movie that warrants repeated viewings, asking you to question why recording devices are so important, (tape recorders, films of Venice, etc), how Griff can be so blinded to the fact that atrocities are going on right in front of him, or whether characters' motivations are more plainly seen the second time after knowing who they all really are. Don't expect to be shocked by gruesome events or risqué shots, but instead by the surreal world you will be transported to. As one of my friends said at the screening, "David Lynch must have seen this." He spoke in regards to Lynch's Blue Velvet, but I would go a step further in comparing to "Twin Peaks". That small town was all roses until a prom queen's death uncovers the hellish world unable to stay contained. Grantville is not far off.

Ed Wood meets Blue Velvet

[brefane · 7/10 · 3 March 2009]

Sam Fuller's tabloid-style pulp masterpiece The Naked Kiss, is more interesting than "good". A modern day feminist story and a look at the underbelly of a small town The Naked Kiss stars Constance Towers as Kelly Kelly a prostitute who moves to Grantville, goes legit, gets a job as a nurse in a children's orthopedic hospital despite lack of training or experience, becomes engaged to the town's most prominent citizen, discovers, and exposes his "sickness", cleans up the town, strikes a blow for feminism and still has time to sing to the handicapped children.

The generally stilted acting makes the plot and dialog all the more outrageous, and yet, the film remains a singular, near indescribable and even powerful experience. Its deconstruction of small town America suggests low budget Douglas Sirk as well as Far From Heaven, Peyton Place and Blue Velvet and High Noon, with the statuesque Towers being the new sheriff in town. In the cast, the vocally endowed Towers and Virginia Grey as her adversary Candy standout with vivid and amusingly tough performances. As in Fuller's equally loony Shock Corridor(63), the editing and directing are sometimes sloppy, but they are just as often arresting and imaginative. Stanley Cortez who photographed Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter gives the film a strikingly expressionistic look. While not for every taste, the Naked Kiss is one of the more notable American films of the 60's.

The Naked Kiss is one of the reasons why I love B movies

[L_Miller · 9/10 · 5 August 2006]

B movies lack money so they have to compensate everywhere else; they take chances and risks and try to patch the holes with creativity. Most of them stink but there are a few true gems and this movie definitely belongs in the jewelry case.

This film is ostensibly about a hooker trying to go straight but it's really about the dark subcultures of our world which feed on the urges "normal" people must deny to maintain civilization.

Mainstream Hollywood loves the shiny parts of those subcultures, the random encounters, sexy young things and "pimps up, hos down" trappings of that darkness. But when it comes to showing the whole of the poisonous ecosystem, the popreligion-fueled evangelistas and their sycophantic bean counters in the MPAA and studio system have no interest in acknowledging, much less depicting, its existence.

The studios are happy to show you the yards of sweaty flesh and the figurative hunt/kill part of the act but the process someone goes through to try and get out of that world? Oh, that's a NC-17 art-house flick starring Jennifer Jason Leigh. The mainstream producers prefer to focus on what they think you want in a drama: achingly beautiful people living in penthouse apartments on a plumber's salary acting out plots lifted from "Search for Tomorrow". But what about real drama, the infinite and often-lost battle that stems from the eternal, fundamental conflict between what we wish and what we are? Save it for Sundance.

This movie is far from perfect but it gets so many points for originality and effort I'm giving it 9/10. It tells a difficult story with a very offbeat lead (a strong woman), a underused setting (I was one of those kids in the orthopedic ward for about a year in the mid-70s and when I saw them performing that odd yet haunting musical number I was really moved) and slightly unusual viewpoint and style (shoe-cam, the use of Beethoven, etc).

Constance Towers strikes the right note of bravery and inner strength without turning into a hard-hittin' miracle woman caricature and Grant strikes just the right note for playing a molester; despicable in action but also showing that basic human need to give and receive love, even in his twisted way. Griff moves the plot along, not the greatest acting chops but he hits the marks and reads the lines.

Definitely worth a rent. Check it out.

The Naked Kiss

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 18 June 2017]

I would never have had heard about this film if it wasn't for looking at the credits of the director Samuel Fuller (Pickup on South Street, Shock Corridor, The Big Red One), it sounded interesting and had good critical reviews, so I watched it. Basically, Kelly (Constance Towers) is a prostitute traumatised by an experience, referred to by psychiatrists as "The Naked Kiss" (a kiss from a serious pervert). After being chased out of the big city by her former pimp, and after a long string of stops, she shows up in the small town of Grantville. Kelly is trying to make a career out of selling expensive champagnes. She encounters local police chief Griff (Anthony Eisley) who tells her to get out of town. Instead she finds herself work as a nurse at the hospital for handicapped children. Griff doesn't trust reformed prostitutes and continues trying to run Kelly out of town. Meanwhile, Kelly has fallen in love with wealthy J. L. Grant (Michael Dante), descendant of the town's founding family, and Griff's best friend. Kelly has found the dream lifestyle; Grant is not deterred when she confesses to her past and the two decide to marry. She finally manages to convince Griff of her love for Grant and giving up prostitution; he agrees to be best man. Shortly before the wedding however, Kelly finds Grant at the mansion molesting a small girl. He tries to persuade her to marry her, arguing he is the only one who understands him and he loves her. But in the argument, she strikes him on the head with a phone receiver, killing him. Kelly is jailed and heavily interrogated by Griff. She tries to convince him and the whole town of what really happened between her and Grant. But old enemies show up and others try to defame her. In the end, she is able to prove her innocence, but in despair she leaves town. Also starring Virginia Grey as Candy, Patsy Kelly as Mac, Betty Bronson as Miss Josephine, Marie Devereux as Buff, and Karen Conrad as Dusty. Towers gives a good dignified performance as the former prostitute trying to build herself a new life, but the past keeps coming back to haunt her. The story is fairly simple, the black-and-white picture adds to the tension, and there is some memorable imagery throughout, all in all, it is an interesting and watchable neo-noir melodrama. Very good!

the feminist macabre

[jeanpesce · 8/10 · 25 December 2004]

I began looking into Sam Fuller after seeing a documentary about him on TV in which Scorsese, Tarantino, and Tim Robbins discussed his films. Scorsese also mentions Fuller in his "Personal Journey" film retrospective, in which he sites "The Naked Kiss" as a major influence. From what I've read, the studios found the material in "The Naked Kiss" to be a tad on the heinous side, and re-edited Fuller's film to the point where he didn't even want his name in the credits. His name is very much in the credits however, for soon after the film opens with a prostitute beating a man unconscious with the heel of her shoe, Fuller is named writer, director, and producer. I suspect that the discomfited staggering between camp, noir, and grotesque melodrama, might be more a result of studio tampering than Fuller's misdirection. It is also difficult to discern just what sort of censorship the studios achieved, for whatever they did was austerely permeated by social taboos the likes of abortion, prostitution, child molestation, and murder. These issues are treated by Fuller in a way that is decisively an ideological digression from noir, despite the film's sporadic use of noir's aesthetic. In noir, women are the enigmatic femme fatales: deceptive, seductive, fatal, and the primary antagonism of all men. It appears to be precisely the opposite in "The Naked Kiss." Fuller's protagonist, Kelly, an ex-hooker, tells a cop that you can always tell when a man is "a pervert" from his "naked kiss." Throughout the film, as Kelly encounters women dealing with abortion, prostitution, and pretty much just general depravity, Fuller shows men reinforcing and furthering their depravity, then condemning it when need be. The character of Griff, the cop, is the essence of this. To Fuller, there is a perversity in the way men treat women in American society, and it is reflected in the title of the film itself.

"You'll be sleeping on the skin of a nightmare for the rest of your life".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 26 October 2008]

This was my first experience of a Sam Fuller picture, and I have to say, it was quite the revelation. The entire film keeps you slightly off balance, starting right out of the gate with that bizarre opening, which could have had any number of interpretations. It was interesting that the full details of that encounter weren't revealed until some time later in the story, by which time I had started to form a different idea of what had originally happened. But the scene that changed the entire picture for me had to be Kelly's (Constance Towers) discovery of Grant's (Michael Dante) pedophilia. Even though it was all done by inference and suggestion, I was immediately creeped out by the assault on innocence that changed the whole complexion of the story on a dime. Kelly's reaction was swift and deadly, and in keeping with the street smarts gained from a life of prostitution.

I was surprised to see that this film was made as late as 1964. It had a lot of the earmarks of the type of 'educational' film that came out of the 1930's and '40's that have earned cult status for their camp portrayals. I'm thinking of titles like "Delinquent Daughters" and "Slaves in Bondage", but here, the emphasis doesn't seem to be on creating sensationalism as much as forcing the viewer to think outside the box regarding aberrant behavior. Grant's conversation when he's outed as a pervert is particularly revealing; he believes that he and Kelly could have a wonderful marriage because they're both abnormal. How's that for a rationale?

For it's unusual and offbeat subject matter, "The Naked Kiss" is a stunningly surprising movie, one that won't appeal to every taste, but it certainly leaves it's impact on the viewer in a way that precariously treads the line between entertainment and revulsion. Constance Towers is unusually effective in maintaining credibility for her character after the shock of that opening scene wears off. This is only the second time I've seen a bald woman in a picture, the first being Persis Khambatta in the 1979 flick - "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". In both instances, there's something to say about how sexy a bald woman can be under the right circumstances. I think Captain Kirk would agree.

Entertaining, but not on purpose

[jhill8 · 4/10 · 6 April 2010]

"The Naked Kiss" is a film which explores themes of redemption, abuse, and exploitation. And it's kind of a mess. Never quite sure of where it's headed, "Kiss" seems to be writer- director Samuel Fuller's attempt to cram as many risqué (for the time) ideas into a single film as humanly possible. Starting out as a prostitution parable, the film wanders in every direction imaginable, from "Miracle Worker" style humanitarian melodrama to sensationalized ham, and the tone of the film suffers because of it.

Aesthetically, the film is flawed. While "Kiss" never strives to look like an "A" film, it doesn't do itself any favors with its shoddy editing and lighting. Both thematically and technically, this movie is totally cut-and-paste. Not that it isn't entertaining. Scenes like the one in which disabled children recite a song in a hospital are unintentionally funny and totally out of place, and it's constantly a guessing game as to where Fuller will go next. (Did anyone see the child molestation thing coming?)

I guess you could call this movie ahead of its time, but with better movies cropping up around the same time exploring similar ideas, "The Naked Kiss" seems a desperate attempt to make a quick buck on shock value alone.

Ahead of its time.

[Jackyl-8 · 5 October 1999]

I just had to comment on this movie to give another view to the only other review that's here for this movie at the time. This movie was made in 1964 and thus should be judged according to its time. I thought the movie was excellent in the fact that it took alot of chances for 1964. It dealt with prostitution and child molestation in a very real way. The cinematography was very good for a picture of its time. The lighting on some of the scenes was absolutely erie and sometimes very emotional. I think in todays world of movie making the art of lighting has been lost or at least severely under developed. This movie is well worth seeing if you can find it.

Holeee cow, but I'm a sap...

[silvrdal · 7/10 · 7 January 2010]

The Naked Kiss is the most overdrawn. sordid, melodrama I've ever seen. At times I confusedly wondered if it were a parody of the weepies of the 1940s, at other times I wondered if it was an exploitation film full-blown. The Naked Kiss will, for some, be an hilarious caricature of 'girl-gone-wrong' films of the 40's and 50's, but for me personally, it is a film about redemption and human horror. This is the most shocking film from this period I've ever seen. I had little idea what I was getting into when I purchased it. It is a frightening portrait of human nature, with heart-wrenching portrayals of nobility and goodness. As sordid as the subject matter, This is an important and recommendable film. Good wills out. Evil is conquered. I, however, was exhausted by the end. Yikers!

The naked truth

[dbdumonteil · 9/10 · 15 May 2006]

Samuel fuller is everything but a conventional director.When he tries his hand at western ,his western does not look like a routine one ("40 guns" and "run of the arrow").When he tackles thriller,he is so ahead of his time he predates "cuckoos's nest" by more than 10 years( "shock corridor").And when he broaches melodrama (the atmosphere of "kiss" is more melodrama than film noir,Cinderella's prince recalling the one in "barefoot contessa"),he tramples on something that was sacred in the fifties: the romantic drama,redemption...

Constance Towers' magnetism is spellbinding.So horrendous were the chances taken by Fuller's screenplay that with any lesser talent (actress and director) the result could have been disastrous.The script seems sometimes desultory but Fuller always lands on his feet. His film is some kind of tapestry of Bayeux which sometimes verges on bad taste but I guess it's part of the game.

The film is ,in turn,a film noir (the prologue and the last scenes) , a romantic drama (Venice) , a musical (and the song in the hospital exerts a certain queer fascination that impels listening which a lilting chorus encourages), a reversal of the eternal clichés (Griff's phone call or the biter bit)of melodramatic blackmail.

In its form "Kiss" has moments of magnificence: Kelly imagines she can cure the disabled children with her marvelous tales and she takes them for a happy running in the garden of the hospital;a symmetrical scene shows the nurse and Grant watching an amateur film on Venice and it really takes them there;The discovery of Grant's terrible secret is treated with very restricted means,and the fiancé's behavior really makes sense ,we are not even surprised.

A guilty pleasure,but that kind of pleasure,I ask for more!

Sam Fuller!

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 5 April 2016]

Kelly (Constance Towers) is a prostitute who shows up in the small town of Grantville, just one more burg in a long string of quick stops on the run after being chased out of the big city by her former pimp. She engages in a quick tryst with local police chief Griff (Anthony Eisley), who then tells her to stay out of his town and refers her to a cat-house just across the state line.

Sam Fuller is like a bigger budget version of Herschel Gordon Lewis. They both love schlock, sleaze and all that, but Fuller just made everything look a bit crisper and cleaner. And he also had a lot less gore. But he does not shy away from controversy, because we have a prostitute teaching handicapped children here. Maybe I am wrong, but this is sort of edgy for 1964... the independent streak really took off in the 70s, so he was way ahead of the curve.

Samuel Fuller like no other...

[Polaris_DiB · 9/10 · 5 March 2009]

B-movies are interesting because, operating outside of the mainstream codes of Hollywood productions, they are in ways allowed more space to actually show and represent things that Hollywood productions are hesitant to handle. In a Hollywood movie of this era and especially the era before it, sex, violence, and language had to be more alluded to than actually shown, while it was the place of films noir and horror movies to show the real undercurrents of psychotic drama running through society. Fuller, a maker of a handful of noir, knew this, and so in Naked Kiss while taking on the role of women in society, he knew what he had to do.

The first scene of this movie, and its ensuing opening credits, has more sex, violence, and pure explicitness than even many of the Hollywood productions of today.

Anyway, this movie good. As in, real good. As in, this is a pretty important text directly confronting the hypocrisies of America and rampant sexism and sexual dysfunction that boils underneath it. For such a message, Fuller needed to be confrontational, so he takes onto himself the methods of b-movie productions to show what needs to be shown and not just alluded to. The effect is perfect, and the best part is that it's also absurdly entertaining. He even includes a musical number! Albeit... a musical number that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

I'm there. Not everything Fuller has impressed me (didn't much care for The Big Red One, myself), but having recently seen White Dog and now this, Fuller is high on my list of amazing directors that are simply like no other. For me, it's on to Shock Corridor, but for you, if you haven't seen it, do it. Do it now.

--PolarisDiB

Interesting, but not essential

[adverts · 6/10 · 1 November 2005]

I'm not sure how anyone can say that the acting is "good" in this film. Like other Fuller films, the acting and dialogue is sometimes awkward. It's probably partly the script, partly Fuller and partly the actors' abilities (or lack thereof).

This one of of those films that people like to talk about because of the great opening scene and the shocking subject matter - but as far as entertainment, it's certainly lacking. Think about it - all you film snobs out there (myself included) - does this deserve an 8, 9, 10 out of 10? Is it really that good? Of course not.

I recommend reading AMG's review of the film: The Naked Kiss is a truly unique film that isn't easily classified as either "good" or "bad."....uneven acting, cheap sets, and gratuitous footage from the director's own home movies, it also features beautifully glossy cinematography by Stanely Cortez......the best way to appreciate The Naked Kiss is probably to keep in mind how much this independent film went against the grain of Hollywood movies of its time period.

Fullers most powerful work

[droopfozz · 8/10 · 2 July 2002]

If Sam Fuller is the father of Independent film then this is the point where the history of the Indie film begins. However, unlike most of Fuller's work this is not overtly shocking or wordy. In fact its best sequences are those which have no words. The acting, by mostly B actors is terrific, and the dialogue is well done. It tackled an issue that no film had before, and perhaps has not done so well since. A teriffic work.

Fairly Effective

[Hitchcoc · 7/10 · 26 April 2007]

I'm sure this must have caused a bit of a stir when it was released. It deals with the crime of child sexual abuse. It has as its central figure a young prostitute who is trying to go straight. She has a natural propensity for children and works with them in a hospital. Her past is always lurking in the shadows as she bobs and weaves through a net of suspicion. Her relationship with a cop is the center and he must constantly be on his guard to do what he must do and yet trust her motives. Enter a man who has designs on her, but who has his own little secret. This movie is pretty good, showing how she must deal with her own perverse upbringing and activity and do the honorable thing wherever possible. I did have some trouble with her rapid transition. It's just a little too pat. She is almost too good to be true. Too easy in some respects. Still, there are good performances and the movie breaks some ground.

Not a B movie to sneeze at; have an open mind and it might be something special

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 27 January 2006]

Constance Towers has a certain class in her acting, her appearance, just in the way she can give you a look that'll tell you a whole story, or maybe hide away something entirely by her smile. And playing a woman who's been around the block, in good and bad ways, she can definitely make it all her own character. There's one scene I think captures the sort of quiet desperation behind Kelly, behind the tough-as-nails attitude, when she is having a kind of intra-personal conversation, only with a partial mannequin named Charlie. It's got some cheesy dialog (not one of Samuel Fuller's best written scenes), but she's just terrific in the scene, and captures the spirit of her character in the story- a girl probably from the wrong side of the tracks who wants nothing more than to escape it, somehow, against the odds of the bonbons and guys named G-R-I-double F. There's almost a Jeanne Moreau quality to her.

Fuller's The Naked Kiss is a small treasure of a B-movie, one that again shows his strange, infectious quality to bring a sense of humanity, or at least humility, to the B-movie. It can't quite escape its boundaries to become an "A-Movie", but why carp? There are possibilities to be captured in a story like this, and Fuller not only captures them, but puts in a sense of personality and heart alongside the gritty moments. Kelly (Towers) was a prostitute, but after getting some payback in the outstanding, funny opening scene, she moves on a couple years later to a suburban town, becomes a nurse in a Children's hospital. While she falls for the small-town hero, Grant, his friend Griff has some other ideas about it. But do all good things last? In Samuel Fuller's world, who knows...

The storytelling in the film is near impeccable, but in a way it goes against some expectations for a Fuller film. Possibly too sweet at times, like with the scenes of kids singing 'Bluebird of Happiness' with the tugging-at-the-heart close-ups. On the other hand, when Fuller pulls a zinger at the audience, it is with a full punch, so to speak. In fact, when the real twist of the film comes along, you may be pulling at your hair wondering what's coming next. He also has a sure-handed kind of style, one that is bold, but not over the top, and it corresponds with the dialog, which (in general with Fuller) makes Frank Miller's Sin City dialog sound ridiculous in comparison. It may not be for everyone, and I wouldn't say to see this as the first of the filmmaker's works to see if you haven't started (not that it isn't accessible to the right audience). But it has a lasting power though, the kind of film that takes a story right off the back of the paperbacks, and given a shot of reality- 'movie' reality- in the best possible way to say.

Absolutely Unique

[rewolfsonlaw · 7/10 · 12 July 2015]

Others who understand Samuel Fuller's brave, groundbreaking daring genius have written excellent reviews of this highly unusual if technically lacking film that from 1964 explores topics still shocking today. I'm not easily forgiving or surprised, but "The Naked Kiss" manages to overcome its faults (wooden acting, sometimes bludgeoning but perhaps necessary sermonizing)by producing what no other film or film maker that I know of did at the time, maybe still. It is a film about the seamy underside of life and its human actors that tells it like it almost is, as much as it could at the time. Like one alcoholic sharing his story with another, it works because we believe in the sincerity of the storyteller. Forget all the low budget criticism; what studio actor would dare have been associated with a film about prostitutes, abortion, violence and pedophilia, all in the perspective of a prophet revealing the hypocrisy of moral society. The biblical prophets were unpopular in their time, too, and Sam Fuller remains a visionary whose work and voice are and remain absolutely unique.

Highly entertaining trash!

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 10 September 2009]

In THE NAKED KISS, the film makers purport to do an exposée on sexual depravity--in particularly focusing on prostitution and pedophilia. However, this film does NOT appear to be a public service but more just an opportunity to shock the audience. And, considering the film came out in 1964, it occasionally leaves the audience wondering what the heck had just happened! For lovers of trashy films, however, this is an absolute must-see, as this makes films like PEYTON PLACE seem like a Disney production!

The film begins with a wildly over-the-top scene as a prostitute fight (Kelly) with a drunk a man (late in the film you find out this is her pimp). In the process, her wig is stripped off--revealing a bald head! And what follows is an amazingly vicious beating of the man. No holds were barred in this slug-fest!

The film now skips ahead two years. The same woman, now a blonde, arrives in a small town. Now here is one of the confusing moments. She says that she is a representative for a champagne company. Apparently, this is some sort of code for "hooker"--though no one would know this...except for Captain Griff of the local police. He does what any cop would do under the circumstances--he takes her home and pays for a great time. First, considering the rather advanced age of the leading lady (she looked very old for the role), this seemed surprising as apparently there is a brothel across the river and they must have had SOMEONE more interesting than Kelly. Second, once again, this is handled with such kid gloves that the viewer still isn't sure what transpired between Griff and Kelly. Did he let her sleep in the guest room or did they do the old 'horizontal mambo', so to speak.

Now the film skips a bit ahead again. Apparently Kelly has given up her sleazy ways and now works with handicapped kids. She is practically an angel she is so perfect at this job--I mean REAAALLY perfect--Mother Theresa perfect. Life is good and the only one in town aware of her sordid past is Griff.

A bit later, she meets a wonderful and rich guy who is too good to be true. Even after she tells him about her past, he STILL wants to marry her. What a guy, right? Nope!! J.L. Grant has a secret of his own and Kelly discovers "it" during yet another confusing scene. We know that a child was involved but what he was doing with her is completely vague. Most people will assume he was sexually abusing the kid, but for all we know he was teaching her macramé or making cookies! But, we're more inclined to think he was a child molester because when Kelly walks in, she decides to beat her fiancé to death--and you usually don't do that over macramé or cookies. Don't mess with this lady! Now she is accused of murder and everyone, particularly Grant's best friend (Griff) thinks she's a cold-blooded murderer--not a person who just rid the world of a....whatever he was! Will she fry or go free--see for yourself.

Overall, this film is anything but subtle. It bathes in sleaze and exploitation but oddly because it was made before the production code was totally abandoned, you never are explicitly told anything!! So, it teases but doesn't exactly please. This is a bad film in many ways but is handled in such a salacious manner that it's pretty exciting stuff....highly sanitized but exciting.

This was NOT director Sam Fuller's finest moment--trading some of his cache for great economical film making for a bit of titillation and trash.