On K List of Movie Reviews
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Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
6/24
6/24:
Burt Lancaster can now be safely added to the top tier of film noir male icons which had been populated
by only two actors: Humphrey Bogart and Robert Mitchum.
Think of the fantastic movies he starred in: The Killers,
I Walk Alone, and Criss Cross. Here's
another with a powerful title: Kiss the Blood Off My Hands. As Bill Saunders, Burt Lancaster is extremely
irresistible, and Joan Fontaine can't have enough of him, hence their rock-solid chemistry.
The story is interesting in the film noir sense: a doomed murderer who's always looking for a way out and
needs a good-hearted dame to believe in him. From start to finish, Russell Metty's photography is unbelievable;
it's not often that a genre is so well-represented this way. Equally rare is the ending that's left as an
open-ended question. My guess is the couple will find a way out as long as they've successfully escaped to
another country.
By the way, the cat o' nine tails whipping scene wasn't faked. Burt Lancaster insisted on it to achieve
realism, and he was in pain the following day.
All in all, thanks to Burt Lancaster's larger-than-life persona, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands is a
must-see for film noir lovers.