January 7, 2017

Pssst. Gotta deal for you. Best deal in town.

A vintage classic. The real thing. Pure, uncut noir, smuggled in from 1955.

Slipped it through customs disguised as a nothing of a film, see? No budget. No big-name actors. A minor-league protagonist who was only mentioned in high society when Estes Kefauver's Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency put this film at the top of its list -- along with Horror Comics -- as contributing to the erosion of morals in America's youth. Hell, even the director, Robert Aldrich, sold his stake in it back to the studio.

Ugly and unwanted, it went underground, living on the run, eating and sleeping wherever it could. Trusting no one. Growing up fast and hard on the mean streets.

Until the 1970s, when the French figured out that "film noir" was an actual thing, and suddenly it started getting invited to big-time parties with uptown swells like Double Indemnity, The Big Sleep and Touch of Evil.

It also gave Quentin Tarantino the most famous MacGuffin since the Maltese Falcon, so it's got that going for it.

Not satisfied, doll? Check out "Eight Reasons to Love 'Kiss Me Deadly'" at Pulp Curry.

Enjoy, and whatever you do, don't open the box!

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