May 14, 2024
The Naked Kiss (1964)
"You know what's different about the first night? Nothing. Nothing... except it lasts forever, that's all. You'll be sleeping on the skin of a nightmare for the rest of your life."
#the naked kiss#samuel fuller#american cinema#neo noir#1964#constance towers#anthony eisley#michael dante#virginia grey#patsy kelly#betty bronson#marie devereux#karen conrad#linda francis#barbara perry#walter mathews#betty robinson#jean michel michenaud#patty robinson#paul dunlap#sally mills#edy williams#not sure anyone trod that finest of lines between significant artistry and greasy exploitation quite like Fuller; no other American‚ at any#rate. he's in fully calculating mode here‚ holding the reins tight so that this never quite tips into fullblown melodrama even at its most#histrionic and exaggerated. not his most accomplished nor his most well constructed work‚ but a hell of a film nonetheless: his treatments#of sex work and mental health might flag as a little problematic by today's standards‚ but for 1964 they're groundbreaking‚ as is the power#the agency and the sheer self determination he affords his lead (a powerhouse performance from Towers). jolts the viewer with a hard left#turn in the third act that i genuinely couldn't have anticipated‚ and which in the hands of a lesser director might have felt schlocky or#gratuitous‚ but here works perfectly to solidify his themes of sickness and culpability and to underline Towers' characters' arc and#personality. a highly unusual‚ grim and queasy look at the festering underbelly of the faux US suburban idyll