A true Samuel Fuller classic! The new Criterion Collection DVD release of “The Naked Kiss” features improved picture quality, audio quality and more special features than the original. A definite must-own in your cinema collection!
Image courtesy of © 1964 F&F Productions. 2010 All Rights Reserved.
TITLE: The Naked Kiss – The Criterion Collection #18
RELEASE OF FILM: 1964
DURATION: 90 Minutes
DVD INFORMATION: Black and White, 1:75:1 Aspect Ratio, Monaural, Subtitles: English SDH
COMPANY: Janus Films/The Criterion Collection
RELEASED: January 18, 2010
Written and Directed by Samuel Fuller
Produced by Samuel Fuller
Executive Producer: Sam Firks, Leon Fromkess
Music by Paul Dunlap
Cinematography by Stanley Cortez
Edited by Jerome Thoms
Art Direction by Eugene Lourie
Set Decoration by Victor A. Gangelin
Costume Design by Einar Bourman
Starring:
Constance Towers as Kelly
Anthony Eisley as Capt. Griff
Michael Dante as J.L. Grant
Virginia Grey as Candy
Patsy Kelly as Mac, Head Nurse
Marie Devereux as Buff
Karen Conrad as Dusty
Linda Francis as Rembrandt
Bill Sampson as Jerry
The setup is pure pulp: A former prostitute (a crackerjack Constance Towers) relocates to a buttoned-down suburb, determined to fit in with mainstream society. But in the strange, hallucinatory territory of writer-director-producer Samuel Fuller, perverse secrets simmer beneath the wholesome surface. Featuring radical visual touches, full-throttle performances, brilliant cinematography by Stanley Cortez, and one bizarrely beautiful musical number, The Naked Kiss is among Fuller’s greatest, boldest entertainments.
When it comes to cinema, one of the more popular American director’s that have inspired many directors abroad is Samuel Fuller. From his first film “I Shot Jesse James†(1949) or as writer beginning with “It Happened in Hollywood†(1937), Fuller is a true auteur who can create a film with all closeups, tackling politics or racism in his films, he was not afraid to do things his way through his style of filmmaking and needless to say, it was that daring style that influenced directors such as French New Wave’s Jean-Luc Godard.
Film critic Andrew Sarris wrote the following of Samuel Fuller: “Fuller belongs in cinema, and not to literature and sociology.†(The American Cinema)
And if there is one word that Fuller emphasized, to even his talent and crew, it was “simplicity”.
With a good number of films in his oeuvre, from films such as “I Shot Jesse James” (1949), “The Steel Helmet” (1951), “Pickup on South Street” (1953), “House of Bamboo” (1955), “The Crimson Kimono” (1959) and “Underworld U.S.A.” (1961), Fuller had gained the reputation for being a filmmaker who created the films that he wanted to create, even if it meant not making much money (from his producers). But he was a director who knew what shot he wanted, knew what he wanted to get out of his talent and wasn’t afraid to take on politics, racism, etc.
In 1964, Samuel Fuller would write and direct the film “The Naked Kiss” which would star “Shock Corridor” actress Constance Towers, Anthony Eisley and Michael Dante.
“The Naked Kiss” was a film that was inspired by Fuller’s career as a journalist and as a journalist, he befriended many prostitutes (he would borrow the phone from a Madame to make calls) and got to see firsthand how many of them worked, their motivation and to see them getting away from that life. These experiences would influence him to write and create “The Naked Kiss”.
“The Naked Kiss” revolves around Kelly (played by Constance Towers) and the film begins with her beating up a man who then rips off her wig to show her bald head. She swings her bag at him, punches him, kicks him and pulls out his wallet and takes only $75 from the several hundred from his wallet.
Flash forward and we then see Kelly move on to the small town of Grantville and immediately, she catches the glances of some of the men including police officer, Capt. Griff (played by Anthony Eisley). Kelly explains to him that she is a door-to-door saleswoman selling champagne but it’s a front for her prostitution activities. But the law man ends up sleeping with Kelly and even offers her to get a job with a local madame across the river but for Kelly, after looking at herself in the mirror, she realizes that she wants to start life anew.
No more prostitution and living a legit life. She finds a room and lives with a seamstress and then she gets a job in which she really wants to do and that is to work with crippled children at the Orthopedic Medical Center. She impresses the head nurse as she has shown herself to be a wonderful nurse who embraces the children and wants to help them.
Meanwhile, Capt. Griff calls the Madame, Candy to see if Kelly got a job at her place as a prostitute and finds out that she didn’t. This causes concern for Griff and he begins to search for Kelly and eventually finds out that she has gotten a job at the Orthopedic Medical Center and it angers him. Even though the head nurse tells her how she has been excellent in helping the crippled children, Griff confronts Kelly one-on-one to admonish her and tell her that she is using her influence in order to sleep with the rich doctors because she is a prostitute.
Kelly cries and tells him that she wants to change her life and help crippled children. That she has not tried to get close to any male doctors and that she just wants a chance of starting her life over. Capt. Griff gives her a chance but if she slips up, he wants her out of the town.
While working at the Orthopedic Medical Center, Kelly ends up befriending several of the nurses. Caring for them like a big sister especially for Dusty who is pregnant (played by Karen Conrad) and Buff (played by Marie Devereux) who was offered a job to make more money by becoming a prostitute but Kelly admonishes her for even considering it.
Kelly seems to have made a change in her life and eventually catches the eye of the very rich doctor, J.L. Grant (played by Michael Dante), also a son of the family that founded the town, Grantville. The two are attracted to each other but Capt. Griff is not so trusting about Kelly and thinks that her motivation was to get to the richest man in town.
Meanwhile, as Kelly and Grant become closer to each other. He gives her a kiss and immediately, Kelly is at first startled and is concerned by his “naked kiss” but quickly passes it off and both fall in love.
Will Kelly eventually be able to leave her past as a prostitute behind?
VIDEO:
“The Naked Kiss” is presented in the aspect ratio of 1:75:1. Where the 1998 DVD release featured a transfer from a 35mm low contrast print (and presented in 1:66:1), the 2011 DVD version features a new high definition digital transfer created from a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm fine-grain master positive.
According to the Criterion Collection, thousands of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter and flicker were manually removed using MTI’s DRS system and Pixel Farm’s PFClean system, while Digital Vision’s DVNR system was used for small dirt, grain and noise reduction.
It’s important to note that the Criterion Collection is also releasing “The Naked Kiss” on Blu-ray, so if you want the best quality of this film, you definitely want the Blu-ray version. As for this 2011 DVD release, I can tell you right now that compared to the 1998 DVD, this version looks fantastic. The picture quality doesn’t look blurred, blacks are nice and deep and the grays and overall contrast looks very good and I can imagine that the Blu-ray release looks awesome.
This DVD shows no blurring, no sign of major DNR and even grain. I’m sure the details are much more noticeable in HD but for this DVD release, the picture quality blows the original 1998 DVD out of the water.
AUDIO & SUBTITLES:
“The Naked Kiss” features a monaural soundtrack remastered at 24-bit from the optical track. The original 1998 version featured a 35mm magnetic soundtrack, so the 2011 DVD version features a newer soundtrack.
According to the Criterion Collection, clicks, thumps hiss and hum were manually removed using Pro Tools HD. Crackle was attenuated using AudioCube’s integrated audio workstation.
As mentioned above, if you want an HD release, a lossless monaural soundtrack is included with the Blu-ray release. As for this newer DVD release, you definitely get a solid monaural soundtrack and the Criterion Collection did a magnificent job in removing any hiss or audio defects from this latest release.
Subtitles are presented in English SDH.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
“The Naked Kiss” (2011) DVD comes with the following special features:
- Cinema Cinemas Р(12:50) Interview with Fuller from a 1987 episode of the French television series Cin̩ma cin̩mas. Sam Fuller goes through various photographs from his movie past and talks about them.
- The South Bank Show: Sam Fuller – (31:02) Excerpts from a 1983 episode of The South Bank Show dedicated to director. A wonderful feature on Samuel Fuller, a look inside his home and discussing his past as a journalist and a filmmaker.
- Constance Towers – (28:44) New video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis from 2007 in Beverly Hills. Constance talks about “The Naked Kiss” and working with director Samuel Fuller.
- Cineastes de Notre Temps – (23:29) Interview with Fuller from a 1967 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps. Samuel Fuller talks about his past as a journalist and how he became a filmmaker.
- Original theatrical trailer – (2:00) The original theatrical trailer for “The Naked Kiss”.
EXTRAS:
Included is a 26-page booklet featuring the following essay “Fractured Fairy Tales” by Robert Polito (author of “Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings of Manny Farber”), “Want to be a Lindy?” by Samuel Fuller on “The Naked Kiss” (an excerpt from Samuel Fuller’s 2002 biography “A Third Face: My Take of Writing, Fighting and Filmmaking”).
When it comes to opening scenes for American cinema, there are two movies that I always hear about from fellow cinema fans and fellow film critics which are Orson Welles “Touch of Evil” and Samuel Fuller’s “The Naked Kiss”.
Immediately when you begin watching “The Naked Kiss”, you see actress Constance Towers as Kelly with anger as she looks towards the camera and is swinging towards it and you get this quick cut of her procurer being beaten and then back to Kelly again and then you see this beautiful woman’s hair being pulled off to reveal her bald. The attack continues until she gets her money that she has earned and the first thing that comes to your head is how vicious this woman is. What is her problem?
And as that opening sequence stays in your head, those emotions you first had start to dwindle away as we see a different Kelly far from what we have seen of her in the beginning sequence. Composed, compassionate and considerate… Was the scene at the beginning a flashback?
Once we see her step off that bus to the town of Grantville, Kelly looks absolutely angelic, beautiful and a caring individual. We see her taking care of crippled children and caring for her co-workers and we can only hope that this individual is successful in leaving her past behind.
Of course, that would be too easy. Even in modern films where a prostitute can achieve the fairytale romance ala “Pretty Woman”, this is not so with “The Naked Kiss”. Without spoiling too much, the twist that Fuller gives to the viewers is not easily predicted.  But it’s this twist and tragedy that makes “The Naked Kiss” so appealing because we do not expect it. And this is Fuller’s trademark, shocking, surprising and coming up with original storylines that leave us in awe.
Actress Constance Towers, the actress who plays Kelly, goes into detail of what Fuller expected of her. How he was able to use her effectively through the film and the comfort the two had of working with each other since “Shock Corridor”. Because this role was tailored towards Towers and every scene that would play out in the film, Kelly will be in that scene. And Constance Towers does a magnificent job. Where in “Shock Corridor”, her character was constantly weepy or concerned, we get a full range of emotions employed by the actress.  And as Antonioni had Monica Vitti and Godard had Anna Karina, although many talent had the chance to work with Fuller again, Constance Towers will be known primarily for her work on the Samuel Fuller films.
As for Samuel Fuller, In some ways, many may find Fuller’s work as audacious but that is what makes Fuller’s movies escape the banality of cinema. Fuller has said about his “The Naked Kiss”, “My story would delve into the small-mindedness that thoughtlessly points its fingers at sinners, fostering intolerance and hate.”
As a Samuel Fuller fan and owning a good number of his films on DVD, “The Naked Kiss” is a classic. I know that Fuller tends to have this bittersweet feeling to both “The Naked Kiss” and “Shock Corridor” knowing that both films are successful but at the same time always alluding to the promised residuals from the film’s producer that never came. But he was aware before his passing of how many people loved this film and “The Naked Kiss” would be a film (along with “Shock Corridor”) as a true Samuel Fuller film. No studio interference and done the way Samuel Fuller had wanted it.
This is rare in today’s cinema as original filmmaker intentions are often changed by studio execs but this is one of the few rare moments where both “Shock Corridor” and “The Naked Kiss”, they were done the original Sam Fuller way.
It is important to note that “The Naked Kiss” (along with “Shock Corridor”) are films that cinema fans have waited several years for a re-release from The Criterion Collection. As part of the earlier titles that the Criterion Collection released in the late ’90s, if you owned the previous DVD, I highly recommend this 2011 DVD release.
In fact, this latest release is more than just the film themselves, both “The Naked Kiss” and “The Shock Corridor” 2011 DVD’s (and even better on Blu-ray) are a celebration of the life and film career of Samuel Fuller. The featurettes and footage are wonderful and if you are a Sam Fuller fan, I highly recommend the purchase of both “The Naked Kiss” and “Shock Corridor”.
Both films are deserving to be in your cinema collection!
