The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

You feel this could have been better, even thigh all the performances are solid and the camera moves well. There is a marvellous start with a female voiceover and a promise of real location shooting. Unfortunately most of these 'location' scenes are indoor and not outside on the streets. However interesting it might be to use the actual Chrysler building for the heist it doesn't really add much. Must be said though however stupid it was to arrange the getaway via a public lift some 24 floors up, the suspense or the bad boys being pressed up against each other and the constant stopping and starting while we see the jeweller getting closer and closer to his alarm is very well done. There is a similar, again near silent suspense scene in the restaurant at the end. Its just that in-between there is as much emphasis on Mature's little girls as there is on violent action. I realise that much had to be done to convince us that he would make the suicidal squeal but was a trip to the orphanage at the convent really necessary? Enjoyable with great performances from Mature and Widmark, maybe just one more person down the stairs and less little kiddies and it would have been even better.

Henry Hathaway directed this revenge story that stars Victor Mature as Nick Bianco, a small-time crook sent to prison after a jewel heist who refuses to inform on his gang, because of his wife. After learning his wife committed suicide, and knowing he was double-crossed, Nick does cooperate with the D.A.(played by Brian Donlevy) and gets paroled. He then remarries, to a woman named Nettie(played by Coleen Gray) and gets a job. Things are fine, until one of the old gang he informed on named Tommy Udo(played by Richard Widmark in his film debut) comes calling, hell-bent on revenge... Unremarkable story on the whole, except for one thing: Widmark's unforgettable performance as ruthless and giggling killer Tommy Udo, one of cinema's most memorable villains, with that iconic scene of his pushing the poor wheelchair-bound woman down the stairs while he laughs maniacally being most memorable. He steals the film, and his performance was Oscar-worthy.

Victor Mature had no illusions about his acting; when he was rejected for membership to a golf club because he was an actor, he said, "I'm no actor, and I've got 65 movies to prove it." However unpretentious he was, when he was cast in the right role, he came off well, as he does here in the noir "Kiss of Death." Mature plays Nick Bianco, a con who becomes a stool pigeon for the D.A. (Brian Donlevy) so that he can get a parole and retrieve his kids from an orphanage. He marries a friend of his late wife's (Coleen Gray) and uses another name so that his kids won't be tainted by his old criminal life. It all goes well until he has to testify in court against Tommy Udo. Then his life and that of his family are in grave danger."Kiss of Death" is notable for being the auspicious debut of Richard Widmark, and few actors have had such a powerful introduction to an audience. As the sadistic Tommy Udo, Widmark's raw laugh and smirk are chill-inducing. His famous scene - maybe the most famous scene of his career, as well as being a famous scene, period - occurs when he throws an old woman in her wheelchair down a flight of stairs. And laughs. A fantastic performance.The beautiful Coleen Gray plays Nettie, Nick's wife. Despite her looks and good acting, Gray never achieved big stardom, though she had some excellent roles. I wonder if she just wouldn't play ball with Zanuck. Now 89, she is an attractive woman who continues to make public appearances, usually at screenings of the film "Nightmare Alley." Here she's perfect as a loving, worried woman. She also narrates.Mature gives a solid performance as Nick -- he was really in his métier here and in films like "I Wake Up Screaming," though he graduated (or was demoted) to beefcake roles in period pictures later on. He had the physique but he wasn't a great actor and somehow, it was more apparent in those movies.I feel very privileged to have met and spoken with Coleen Gray and to have heard the remarkable Richard Widmark speak in person, so I have an affection for this film. Even if I didn't, it's still good and well worth seeing.

Kiss of Death (1947)Three Reasons for Greatness: Plot, Polish, and Victor Mature1) Victor Mature gives a impassioned, inward-looking performance to die for. 2) The story is gripping, and reasonable, and pits the lone man trying to go right against all the forces that all of us face: the system, the bad guys, and our own mistakes. 3) The studio system is at its technical best and supports the story with polished, professional acting, camera-work, direction, and sound.In the general sense, these are actually pretty basic things that every movie might have: a lead we can identify with, a great story, and well made. Kiss of Death lacks only those rare qualities of originality in some other noir films, like we see in Sunset Boulevard or Detour, to keep it from the stratosphere. But it's better than most by far.Mature, throughout, is not portrayed as a criminal type, "One of those mugs that don't belong to human society," as Donlevy says as Assistant D.A. Bianco has good handwriting, he has composure, he loves his kids. And a great small reinforcement happens when he goes to the orphanage to see them and the nun looks at him and his two cop guards and asks, "Which one of you gentlemen is Mr. Bianco." The camera lets us pan over them and we see them as the same. And he mildly says, "That's me." Mature is really amazing in a role that could have been hammed up or stiffened up. His large, meaty presence is presented with a kind of innocence, as if he is the victim in this life process going on all around him that he has no control over. The movie asserts the truth in this at the start--he has tried to get work for a year as an ex- con, and social stigma stands in his way, leading to the jewel heist as an act of desperation. Furthermore, Mature is more principled than anyone ought to be, refusing to rat until he's been lied to by those he was protecting with silence. In a way, he gradually rises to a kind of folk hero status, in this very private, limited way, affecting only a handful of people, but doing so flawlessly.Of course, it's Richard Widmark (in his very first film) who makes Mature practically a saint by being an unrepenting psychopath. The ten seconds it takes him to grab an old woman in a wheelchair, tie her up with an electric cord, and roll her screaming down the stairs is justifiably famous. Even though you know it's coming, it's about as heartless as anything in the movies, and played with economy, not dwelling on it, just punching you in the stomach. And watch him contort and fall in the last scene where he's shot in the street. This is the kind of thing the French auteur directors drooled over.The photography is interesting for being ultimately conservative and superb at the same time. The camera is almost always level, framed with geometric precision, using light to create depth and complexity, sometimes shooting through windows or screens to add to the visual complexity, but rarely or never using strong angles off of vertical, or zeroing in on a face or hand so closely it fills the screen. These are all carefully executed shots, and scenes, and it is editing with equal precision. In all, the movie is a model not of daring and pizazz, but of adhering to the rules so perceptively, it sparkles. It's possible this was partly done to heighten its documentary realism, but Norbert Brodine is a conservative shooter at heart, so between him and Hathaway's workingman's approach, we would expect what we see here.The movie is not a great social commentary despite the suggestion at the beginning that it might explore the causes of crime, and despite its use of actual New York State locations for all the shooting. But it doesn't want to be. It leverages well worn clichés because that's the quickest way to get us to relate to the man trying to get his life straight. That's all its about, really. Even in the voice-over by his eventual new wife, heard at the beginning and end, we hear a tale about one man only.