[ April 13, 2026 ]
Tonight's Saturday Night Cinema is the vicious and still shocking film noir crime drama, Kiss of Death. A taut thriller that is unusually attuned to its lowlife characters. Based in part on a true story, Kiss of Death is given a veneer of
reality by being filmed on location in New York, per the insistence of
director Henry Hathaway. This is the film in which
Widmark's character gigglingly pushes a wheelchair-bound old lady down a
flight of stairs. Reviewer James Agee said it best: "You feel that
murder is the kindest thing he is capable of". The film made Widmark a
star–and also convinced him to start lobbying immediately for good-guy
roles so that he wouldn't be typecast as maniacal killers for life.
Brian Donlevy, and Coleen Gray.
What really sets this noir apart…is a combination of Hathaway's
deliberate craftsmanship and the small crackerjack ensemble led by
Mature and WidmarkADVERTISEMENT
Victor Mature is terrific in his role as Nick Bianco. He balances a believable hood with a genuine guy who is motivated by his
kids to straighten up from his crooked ways.
As our film begins a narrator informs us over the opening shots of a
bustling Manhattan that, “Christmas eve in New York a happy time for
some people; the lucky ones. Last minute shopping, presents for the
kids, hurry home to light the tree and fill the stockings… for the lucky
ones. Others aren’t so lucky.” Here we are introduced to Nick Bianco (Victor Mature)
a former jail-bird, trying to fly the straight and narrow. After a year
of his prison record impeding his efforts to get a legit job, we see
Nick and a few cohorts enter a jeweler’s office and rob them because,
“this is how Nick goes Christmas shopping for his kids.”
Richard Widmark's bravura debut as snickering gangster Tommy Udo,
and particularly his infamous encounter with an old woman in a wheelchair,
enjoys such pop cachet that the movie itself has been somewhat underrated.
Mores the pity. Henry Hathaway's third entry in 20th Century Fox's
series of post WWII thrillers is just about the best of the bunch.
These films incorporated the semi-documentary techniques and wondrously
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