Sam Fuller’s The Naked Kiss: Part III “Tell me where is the blue bird of happiness found?”

The Naked Kiss (1965) Part III Meaning it bares no emotion. It’s empty of real substance. It has the taste of perversion to it.

Cross fade, Kelly and Grant are slow dancing at Grants house. Kelly tells him that she wants to talk about something. Asks him to sit down and listen to the words. “When I came to this town, the first day I came… I was a prostitute. My first customer was my last one, next morning I quit. Now I’m in love with a man who’s the dream of every woman.” Grant is seated looking puzzled Kelly continues “every woman who has the right to dream…but the man has got to stop seeing me before the volcano erupts.”

Grant looks up at her and grabs her hand. Pulls her close to him.”I love you Kelly.. .will you marry me?” She says “I’ve got to think it out.. .(now cheek to cheek) Oh I’ve got to think it out.”

Kelly’s in her room drinking from the blown Venetian glass from Venice that Grant gave her. She’s contemplating the marriage proposal. We hear a voice over, it’s Grant’s monologue “I wasn’t cut out to be a monk and you’re not the type to turn nun… but together we’ll prove our whole existence for each other, the only woman I want for my wife.”

Kelly gets up from the bed, sighs and walks over to the tailor’s dummy and asks “Charlie, what should I do?” Again we hear Grants voice “If they condemn you for your past, I don’t want them as my friends, Kelly darling…no one could forbid you tomorrow, and I’m all your tomorrows, all of them.”Kelly raises her glass and answers to Charlie “that’s right!…why should Grant want to marry a woman like me?.. .confidentially Charley, (her arm around the fake soldier now) we girls are always chasing dreams… why shouldn’t I have a right to catch mine?”

Now Kelly has an internal monologue “many woman had a past like mine, and they made out didn’t they?” She answers aloud asking the question “or did they?… ah, of course they did.. .and you know why, because there was always the Rock of Gibralta to give them strength” She raises the blown glass to Charlie in toast “That’s what Grant is…The Rock…The Rock of Gibralta.”

So Kelly needs a man to legitimize her self worth, otherwise she is still considered machinery. “Oh Charlie” now we hear Grant’s voice again “we’d be living an endless honeymoon”‘ she goes back over to Charlie, and hugs him “Oh Charlie, the dread of every woman in my business…is ending up alone…I know that world.”

She looks at the glass again and says “and I know his world(chuckles ironically)and that makes me a woman of 2 worlds… and that’s not good, or is it?” She looks at Charlies hat. She’s got her arm around his stuffed shoulders. “With him I’m complete, a whole woman” the voice over by Grant breaks in again”I’ll never strike at your past, not even with a flower”Kelly hugs Charlie closer, “oh Charlie, Charlie Charlie,Charlie…what should I do?” Fade to Black.

At Grant’s house, the door bell rings, and Kelly comes bursting in “Oh it’s a wonderful day Barney!… it’s a beautiful day!” Barney tells her that Grant is still asleep. She ignores him and yells “it’s a glorious day!” She goes to the stereo and puts on Beethoven’s 5th symphony and conducts. Barney still in his robe goes upstairs to get Grant. Kelly is conducting the music, she spins the large globe as if she’ll be able to see the world now.

Grant comes down in his silk pajamas, yawning and putting his robe on, he watches as she pretends to conduct the music. She runs to him and grabs his hands “I love you…it’s a deal” He looks oddly at her, pleased but more like he’s just sealed a business deal, not the reaction from a man truly in love.

Dusty gets help from Kelly. Who gives her $1,000 and tells her to keep the baby.

Kip’s gaze, the sadness shared with a child, as he watches Dusty crying. Sympathetic.

Now nurses and orderlies are bringing in the children in one by one. And a record begins to spin. Kip the little boy wearing the First Mate pirate hat begins to sing this song which has an eerily tragic poignancy.

“Mommy dear, tell me please, is the world really round” another little boy takes it from there, “tell me where, is the blue bird of happiness found” now a little girl sings “tell me why is the sky up above so blue” now they all sing in unison “and when you were a child, did your mommy tell you?”

All of the children standing like wounded soldiers with their hats and crutches singing this sad little song together. The song creates an element of melancholy,and pathos in the film. It’s the children asking the question where is happiness?

The children are a diverse group of races, the spirit of these children fuel the film’s angst and alienation, for they are like castaways in a world that is perfect, while they are broken and striving to be whole.

“What becomes of the sun when it falls in the sea” “and who lights it again, as bright as can be” together they sing again “Tell me why can’t I fly without wings through the sky” back to Kip who sadly sings “tell me why mommy dear…are there tears in your eyes?”

Now Kelly joins in as an answer to the songs questions singing “little one, little one, yes the world’s really round, and the blue bird you search for is surely is found… and the sky up above is so blue and clear (the staff including Mac is watching Kelly serenade the children they are so sullen, yet proud) so that you’d see the blue bird if it should come near… and the sun doesn’t fall in the sea out of sight, all it does is make way for the moon’s pretty light… and if children could fly there’d be no need for birds… and I cry little ones cause I’m touched by your words.”

The children surrounding Kelly sing the song together, she has left a mark on them, she has found a different way to have worth, she sees herself through these child’s eyes. They are ultimately truly innocent, yet they are the ones who don’t objectify Kelly.

“Tell me please mommy dear is it true the world’s round, I will search, round the world til the blue bird is found” then Kelly sings “little one there’s no need to wander too far, for what you really seek is right here where you are.”

Griff and Grant are walking out of a building. Grant has asked Griff to be best man at the wedding but Griff isn’t happy. Grant tells him to get it off his chest. Bunny comes running over to Grant with her dolly and he picks her up and spins her around. Griff still visibly upset, holding his cigarette and frowning. Bunny congratulates Uncle Grant on his wedding, and he kisses her cheek, she beams a smile half filled with baby teeth.

Now in the classroom back at the hospital, the children are getting a spelling lesson. Kelly is fixing Kip’s shoe lace. Griff knocks on the window glass to get Kelly’s attention. Through the glass panel in the door we see them talking seriously again a frame within a frame, symbolizing the entrapment of both characters who are stuck by their roles.They move into an empty room so they can continue to talk.

“Well, what is it Griff?… what’s the matter?” “Grant asked me to be best man… you’ve got 30 minutes to get out of town, (sighs deeply) and I don’t mean finding a bed at Candy’s across the river.” She asks if she can phone Grant, but he tells her he’ll tell him something for her. She says it’ll come a lot easier if it comes from her. Grant agrees and Kelly picks up the phone and dials.

Griff has his back to her, he can’t even face her, playing with the chord of the blinds, while she’s dialing. She asks for Mr Grant, and looks at Griff. “I told him all about myself Griff and about you, and the $20.” Now Griff turns and faces her, she shakes her head “No, I did not identify you…and I told him my track record as a call girl before he asked me to marry him” Grant is on the phone now  “Hello darling…hold on a minute…Griff wants to tell you something” she shoves the phone at Griff.

“Hello Griff” we hear Grant speaking. Griff looks defeated.”I just wanted to tell you one thing, you’re the luckiest guy in the world, congratulations” She hangs up the phone, and Griff says “so that’s that’s the big score, fall in love with the right person, and being loved” he turns to her now, lightens up and says” I’ll be best man Kelly…lots of luck Kelly…lots of luck” he walks out the door. She grabs a toy sailing ship and the scene fades into the next.

Miss Josephine putting Kelly’s beautiful white wedding dress and veil on Charlie. Then Kelly walks out of the house carrying a cardboard box with the wedding dress under her arm,Josephine comes calling after her, she’s forgotten the veil. Miss Josephine tells her “I still think it’s bad luck to show him the dress before the wedding… surprise or no surprise.”

We see Kelly walking from a far. Children playing jump rope, It’s a bright day in a clean town. A music box theme is playing, the tinkling of innocence. Then strings hover mimicking a nursery rhyme theme.Kelly passes the girls jumping rope, a little boy on his tricycle comes near. Kelly is newly born as a child, a fresh start to her stained past. She pats the little boy on the head.

Kelly opens the front door to Grant’s house, tosses the key up in the air and catches it with a triumphant grip. She belongs here. As she closes the door, and the house starts to become eclipsed in shadow, we hear the recording of the blue bird song, “mommy dear tell me please, is the world really round” Kelly walks down the front hallway, then looks up the staircase for Grant. She hears the music playing. Still holding the box with the wedding dress, she walks over to the bust of Beethoven and rubs his head, embracing this new life she has earned. The camera pans down, we see the reel to reel recording of the song spinning in it’s wooden drawer.

She smiles, the memory of making that wonderful recording stays with her, she walks a little bit further into the room and turns around still smiling, a close up of Kelly’s face, shows her expression turning to a withheld revulsion, then a close up of a little girl’s blank face partially obscured by a dark shadow, suddenly skipping away into a stream of light like a runway towards the archway of the room, hopping and skipping then going out the front door.

The little tune still playing on the reel to reel machine. Close up on Kelly’s face more visceral anger now, and quickly a close shot of Grant’s face, it appears less like shame and more of a willful defiance, perhaps exultation that Kelly now shares the truth, expressed in his gaze. His eyes meet Kelly’s. A back and forth until Grant’s eyes seem to request understanding from Kelly.The song plays on “Why mommy dear, are there tears in your eyes” Kelly steps closer to Grant holding the wedding dress in the white box. Half her face lit up and the other have eclipsed in shadow. Remember she said she was a woman who lived in two worlds.

As she steps closer, Grant’s face struggles to find some relief, he says “now you know why I could never marry a normal woman… that’s why I love you… you understand my sickness…. you’ve been conditioned to people like me…”his eyes open wider “you live in my world… and it will be an exciting world!”

Kelly’s stone face holding his gaze, he kneels before her, looking up at her. She looks down upon him, he begs “my darling…our marriage will be a paradise” she’s physically clenching her body as see looks at him, we still see her face but hear him continue his diatribe “because we’re both abnormal”

Kelly now picks up the white crosley phone and starts bashing Grant with the receiver. A harsh discordant piano plunk set against the blue bird song, clashes. She drops the white crepe material and it falls onto Grant’s still body. He lies there lifeless, covered in the wedding veil. The phone off the cradle next to him. We see Kelly’s shoes. We hear the dial tone, Kelly kneels down clutching the veil, then rolling up the dress and veil placing it back in the box, her face never changing the stone cold expression of betrayal,disgust and disillusionment.

She closes the box and sits staring straight ahead. The shot is framed, with the globe(the entire world) left of screen, Grant lying dead on the floor and Kelly sitting in the chair, with the only source of light mostly placed on her. A quick shot of the reel to reel, Beethoven’s bust and the front door. Doorways in noir often symbolize an entry to the unknown or perhaps here it shows the idea of possibility for Kelly now closed. The dream ended. Fuller frames the shot with an odd angle of the stairs. Symbolic of Kelly’s ascension being distorted, not quite right from the beginning.

Stairways in noir again, are symbolic of ascension to an unknown place, possibly dangerous,Kelly once aspired to climb upward toward a better life. The stairs are shot at such an odd angle, that we must assume, the chance Kelly had was never a straight rise upward. It was merely a distortion of the chance to climb out of her role as whore.

Quick shot back to the door and then Kelly in the chair, as the shadow closes in. Fade To Black.

Then in sensational soap opera style, we see Miss Josephine outside, reading the headline. She shares the words, GRANT then Mike reads, IS and the rest is given to Mac to reveal for us, DEAD; One of the nurses is overlapped by the word, SLAIN, switch to Candy blowing out the inhale of her cigarette BY, Buff reads PROSTITUTE. Sensational strings dramatically playing all the while.

Kelly’s sitting in a chair at the police station, she looks disturbed “Once before a man’s kiss tasted like that…he was put away in a psycho ward… (she grabs her dress by the chest, gives a gesture of revulsion) “I got the same taste the first time Grant kissed me”… (straining to say the rest) “it was a, what we call a(long pause) A naked kiss…(she puts her head in her hand clutching her hair, defeated and disgusted) “It’s the sign of a pervert.”

Kelly’s sobbing deeply,Griff gets up and walks onto the screen. “I’m gonna keep asking the same question until you tell me the truth… why did you kill him?” Kelly staring off,Griff is shot standing behind her.

“He was molesting a child” Griff comes and leans into Kelly and insists “he broke off the wedding” she says “the child ran out”Griff says “so you tried blackmail” Kelly cries, “he couldn’t marry a normal woman”Griff comes back “And he was going to have you pinched for extortion”she answers “he said I would understand his weakness.”

Griff comes around leans on the desk and gets closer to Kelly, “Kelly, we’ve had 2 cases of ravaged children in our county…if by some freak they buy your story, that means the pressure will be off the real criminal he’ll be free to attack other children!!”….now do you understand why you can’t use that stinking lie to save your neck!”She slams her hand on the chair  “my neck is in that little girl’s hands!”

Griff asks Kelly to describe her, Kelly can’t remember, she’s in shock, every thing was a blur.Griff argues that Kelly’s story stinks, that she can remember the conversation with Grant being called abnormal, but she can’t remember the child’s appearance. Kelly swears it’s the truth, Griff yells  “you swear on a call house roster!”

Now Kelly has to find that little girl who can identify Grant as her molester. Griff calls in Farlunde, Kelly’s pimp that she had bashed up in the opening scene. He’s going to be a material witness. Kelly explains to Griff why she had beaten him up, she convinced 6 of his girls to leave the stables, because he was holding out money from them.

Farlunde put knock out drops in her drink and when she awoke, he had cut off all her hair, she was bald. She waited until he was drunk and took exactly what was coming to her.Kelly tells Griff that  Farlunde has friends in the underworld, the word was out to throw acid in her face, so she ran. Farlunde is going to testify that Kelly blackmailed an elected official. As far as Griff is concerned Kelly’s credibility is weakening with each character witness.

Dusty shows up to talk to Griff explains that she’s left Mac and the hospital. She wants to help Kelly because Kelly helped her when she was having her baby. Kelly is now stuck in jail “why don’t you try the old Chinese water torture maybe that’ll make me change my story.” Kelly tells Griff not to use Dusty as a hammer, it would hurt her, he wouldn’t be that low, even for a cop. But Dusty wants to give the story to the papers thinking it will help.

Kelly looks out at the children playing from her cell window. Then Candy shows up. Kelly tells Griff “I was waiting for that slut to show up.” He wants to know why Kelly went to Candy’s.Kelly says “You really scraped the sewer to dig up your character witnesses didn’t you.”

Candy staring at Kelly gleefully from the other side of the jail cell bars.She says in a gravel tone “I hate being a fink sweetie but you put every call girl in the country right on the spot.” Candy lies and tells Griff that Kelly came to her to form a Crime Ring, that she was taking healthy pay offs from Grant,to get him right where it hurts, family name, philanthropist, hospital , crippled kids, the whole deal.She tells Griff that she had Grant so scared that he was even making with the wedding talk just to keep her quiet.

Open and shut. Griff asks Candy if she’ll say all that in court. She says why not it’s the truth. Finally Kelly pipes in “she advanced Buff $25 to become a bon bon,,,,I returned the money” gripping the bars. Then Candy says “Buff, who’s Buff? Griff says “a student nurse at the hospital”

“Are you kidding, you know I don’t have to Shanghai girls from your town to replenish my stock… what kind of a stable boss do you think I am,”she struts over to Griff “I’ve got no time to break in baby baggage.”

Griff brings Buff to the precinct, and asks if Candy advanced her the money to work in her stable. Candy’s eyes shoot bullets at Buff and Buff hesitantly says “No.”Kelly says “I made a mistake, wrong girl”Griff tells Buff he shouldn’t have bothered her. He walks her out and leaves Candy alone outside the bars of Kelly’s cell. Candy says in a deep wrathful tone “nobody shoves dirty money in my mouth.”

Kelly is alone, framed by the bars, trapped, we hear children playing, laughter. Kelly looks out at the little girls. One little girl drawing with chalk on the wall says “look what I made, look what I made” It’s the little girl that Grant was molesting.

Kelly grips the bars, and in a far off filmatic distance we hear the blue bird song once again, Kelly starts to make the connection. There is a obvious shadow over her mouth, she has been struck silent so far. Kelly shouts out “little girl please little girl I won’t hurt you, please come here.” But all the girls scatter. She calls to Griff. Tells him that she just saw the little girl playing in the alley. “I remember the little girl.” She grabs his arm through the bars. “Griff you’ve got to believe me she’s 6 or 7, Blond.” Griff walks out.

Now Buff is lying in bed holding a photo of her father, and crying “oh daddy I had to lie I couldn’t tell what I was going to be, forgive me forgive me.”

Knocking on the door. Griff gets out of bed to answer the door. It’s Buff. She asks him to let her in, she’s got to talk to him. Next we see a parade of little girls legs walking from the knees down. Then we see Griff and Kelly watching from the window. She is shaking her head no, the girl is not one of them. A police officer is slowly showing them one by one, little blond girls, but Kelly still says no.

Then triumphant strings lift the moment up The little girl Bunny is standing there holding the doll Uncle Grant had given her, smiling up at Kelly.She tells Griff with gestures, we hear only the music, but we see by Kelly’s body language that it’s the right girl.

The little girl Bunny sits on a bench in the police station. Kelly walks over to her and asks “Do you remember me?”first she says no but then Kelly grabs her by the shoulders and says “of course you remember me, you were at Uncle Grant’s house, you remember Uncle Grant don’t you, continues asking, while shaking her. Kelly is crying and begging “Don’t you remember me?”pleading gripping her chest, begging the little girl to remember. “You know me!” The little girl gets up crying. Griff tells Bunny, “now now Bunny nobody’s gonna hurt you I’m here.” Kelly is sobbing this was her last chance.

Griff asks Kelly “did you ever have a baby? she says “no, I can’t have a baby”Griff tells her, “pretend you had a baby, pretend that that little child in the next room is your little girl, be gentle with her, well make her trust you, like you” Griff gently pats Kelly’s shoulder, “talk to her as you would your own child…not as Kelly…but as a mother.”

This was problematic for me, it takes the patriarchy that has partial responsibility for the systemic problems in Grantville to give mothering lessons to Kelly? Not as Kelly he says, because she’s a prostitute she has no sense of mothering? Absurd that she would need lessons from Griff. But I digress yet again.

He brings Bunny back into the room. Kelly kneels down in front of Bunny. Bunny’s cheeks are wet with tears. She asks very slowly, and softly “do you remember Uncle Grant? Bunny says “Oh yes I love Uncle Grant, mommy said he won’t be back for a long time” Kelly asks “Did you ever go to Uncle Grant’s House without your mommy and daddy?” Bunny says “once.” Kelly continues “do you remember when you went there?” “Yes ma’am Uncle Grant gave me some candy, he liked the dress mommy bought for me…he was showing me a new game, he made me promise not to tell mommy or daddy or anybody because this was a special game….just for me…then you came in and I ran out, you’re the lady with the big cardboard box.”

Kelly breaks down and sobs and Bunny asks “why are you crying lady?” She brings Bunny close to her and hugs her tightly. Griff looks down, the reality of what Kelly had been telling him was finally sinking in. His friend Grant was a monster, and Kelly was not a liar.

Fade to Black.

Griff’s in Kelly’s cell reading Penal Code 113A5 dismissal of an action.”You’re off the hook Kelly.” Griff is so pleased but Kelly looks bitter hugging herself to the jail wall, clenched like a fist. The judge and the DA gave her a clean bill of health. The whole town’s got her on a pedestal for what she did for the children. Kelly chuckles with irony.”Yeah, you sure put up statues over night around here don’t you.”

Kelly asks Griff if her trunk is at the station, “well, thanks Griff” she bends in closer to his face, they kiss.”So long tiger” he says”good luck Muffin” She steps out into the light and fresh air of freedom.

All the towns people are standing outside waiting for her. Ominous music begins. The camera floats close up on various faces of varying ethnicities. Pull back, there are so many people standing there, waiting for Kelly to come out of the police station. She shoots a worried look at Griff who is leaning against the wall with another cop in uniform. Kelly turns to her left, there are Miss Josephine, Dusty, Buff and Mac. Josephine crying hugs Kelly, Mac is crying, and Buff, she goes over to Dusty and Dusty hugs her so tightly. Kelly has left her mark on the women of Grantville.

Wide shot of Kelly walking through the throngs of people from the community. Griff says to the cop, “She still owes me ten bucks” the cop says “then you’ll be seeing her again”He shakes his head, “she never makes change” Kelly walks along the sidewalk, passes a baby carriage, then stops. she hands the rattle to the same baby that she handed the bottle to in the beginning of the film.

The pariah has turned Heroine/Mother figure. Yet Kelly does not, or still can not be allowed to live amongst the clean people of Grantsville. She must remain in motion, without a place she can coexist with other “normal” people. She is destined to be in transition, because she is damaged goods.

Wide  Shot of the crowd watching her off screen. The music closes the film as Kelly from an aerial view is shown walking down that same street she arrived on the bus,getting smaller and smaller in view,from the Chamber of Commerce Banner. She walks off in the distance off screen, the coda finishes and the screen goes dark.

The End

Sam Fuller’s The Naked Kiss:Part II “I washed my face clean the morning I woke up in your bedroom”

The Naked Kiss (1965) Part II

The scene opens with Griff sitting at the bar in Candy Ala Cart’s girlie establishment with “bon bon” girls dressed sort of like hat check Playboy bunnies, wearing fuzzy hearts on their heads instead of rabbit ears. The girl behind the bar says “hello Griff” and he says “hello Marshmallow” Swing music is playing on the jukebox.” “Say Griff I can earn more from the refined types than the ones who work in this rat hole…I’ll put Grantville on the map”Griff turns to her “You will, you really think you can?”he says sarcastically, which goes above Marshmallow’s head.” “well sure, how can I lose with John ‘Law’ on my team.” another scantly clad girl comes over to Griff and touches his face.

Griff condemns prostitution in his town, but he frequents Candy’s club as a customer, as well as procuring girls right off the bus for Candy’s stable. That would make him pimp by proxy right?

There is a brazen double standard being perpetrated here. Women objectified, then women reviled. Even the use of nicknames for the call girls in Candy’s stable are demeaning and denigrating.Hat Rack, for instance,something you’d hang an item on. It dehumanizes these women. Candy even refers to Hat Rack clashing with her “upholstery.”Later on Kelly is called “new stuff”

The other girl asks “Are you sure you don’t want a bon bon Griff?” just then an older woman Candy dressed in a long sequined gown walks over. “Get back to the stable” she says in a sandy  voice that’s been abraded by years of smoking, reaches over and grabs Griff’s face and kisses his cheek. Marshmallow, tells Candy”he’s not buying your chocolates Candy.”

Candy played salty by Virginia Grey snaps back “Go count your money, check the stock.” “Who you looking for Griff?” “Kelly” she asks”Kelly?…no Kelly here, do I know him?” “Well I sent her here.” Candy looks slightly perturbed, “another female?” “a pro and she’s got class.” “Well we could use a little class in this shop.”

“Just get a look at my bon bons, they’re all a broken down flock of bimbies, all except Hat Rack.” Griff seems surprised, “Hat Rack?” “the name suits her alright, there ain’t a customer here that doesn’t want to hang his fedora on her.” Candy calls over to the tall girl. “Hey Hat Rack,come over here.” “Did I do something wrong?” asking in an ultra feminine tone. “The beautiful brunette realizes that it’s Griff at the bar, “Oh Griff! How are you Griff?” She puts on an even more seductively whispery voice, “So glad to see you again.” He looks confused “Do we know each other?” “we met in a park in Grantville, near the fountain…on a Thursday?”Pouting she adds “don’t you remember me?” Then a smile breaks free.

“Oh sure you came in by bus… (Sound Familiar?) sure I remember.” “It was very kind of you to recommend me to Candy… I just love selling bon bons.” Griff says “you were a platinum blond” as he puts his hands on her tray, Candy pulls him away and says “well she was, but the color clashed with my upholstery, I made her go back to her own natural peasant color.”

Then Candy points and tells Hat Rack “the customer in the booth has a sweet tooth.” “Are you going to stick around for a while Griff?” Candy interjects strongly “the customer!” Hat Rack bends over and kisses Griff on the cheek, walks away and says “bon bon sir?” Candy says “boy you sure pick em Griff.” Pleased with himself he says “I sure can”Candy asks “then why that hang dog look when you found out that this Kelly didn’t show?” He stays silent, she says “how about a snort in the office?” He looks at her with a gaze that means something else, and tells her “I’m not thirsty.”

We know from before that when Griff  uses this expression thirsty it is what he uses to mean “wanting sex” He used the same term with Kelly in the beginning. Candy gestures with her hand as if to say, she’s disappointed but what ever. Apparently Griff in the past has sampled some of Candy as well.

Back at Miss Josephine’s “Paris…have you been to those places?” looking at beautiful garments in her suitcase” Kelly says no, but the old woman says “but these are originals…ultra ultra expensive.” The trunk with the K on the side, almost like Kelly’s own scarlet A.After all she is a marked woman, like Hawthorne’s Hester Prynne.

“What about that factory outside of town?” “Oh I’m afraid there’s no job opening at Grant Mill.” “Grant” Kelly says “Grant this, Grant that.” Her hair pulled up in a lovely classic bun, looking through her wardrobe “he seems to own everything around here.” “His great great grandfather founded this town.” “JL Grant is our most famous citizen.”

Here is the developing back story of a founded patriarchy in Grantville. The old woman continues, “everybody calls him Grant” Kelly says “JL Grant,yes I’ve read about him, international playboy,chateau in Normandy, Villa along the Riviera, private Yacht in Monte Carlo, societies most eligible bachelor.” Josephine comes back “he’s a hard worker Miss Kelly… he’s no playboy, his very name is a synonym for charity… he’s got the biggest heart in the world. Why he built our hospital… he built the Orthopedic Medical Center, and sponsors it all by himself. And it’s open to all handicapped children, with no racial or religious barriers.”Miss Josephine equates Grants kindness with his fame and outward appearance, and reasons he’s beneficent.

Kelly starts to contemplate what the old woman is saying. She asks “Handicapped children?”Josephine says “It’s a haven of hope for those angels, so little, so helpless and so pitifully crippled.”

Kelly is telling the children the story of the White Swan Queen who wishes to be transformed into a woman. The film is predicated on the notion of transformation/redemption.

Cross fade from Kelly’s face to a single chiaroscuro shot of a nurse’s shadow, the central focal point is now on an empty wheelchair. Two nurses come into focus, the formidable Patsy Kelly (Rosemary’s Baby) as Nurse Mac, says in that broiled steak voice of hers “one more operation and that baby will have straight feet.”

They continue to walk and talk about the various children in the hospital, then we see an office with a nurse seated at a desk. Griff is standing.”That Kelly is some woman Griff” Nurse Mac comes into the room.”One day she walked in here out of nowhere and “Mac chimes in “I’ll fill in lover boy with all the facts June.” Griff turns to face her. He says “Hello Mac, Dusty, where is this new nurses aide I’ve been hearing about?”Mac says ” You Too?!”

Mac takes Griff for a walk down the corridor. Tells him that “she came out of the clouds one night, without a single reference” There are several allusions to angels in this film. Is Kelly a Whore or a Madonna? How do we perceive her character, how does she perceive herself. How do the towns people distinguish her? Is she a whore because she is beautiful? or is she an angel because she is beautiful.The messages are mixed.

Nurse Mac tells him that she hired Kelly on the spot. He thought orthopedics called for specialized training. He’s obviously upset that she didn’t take the job at Candy’s. Mac tells him that “it does, some people are born to write books, symphonies, paint pictures, build bridges, but (Mac holds up her hand to the sky), she was born to handle children with crutches and babies in braces.” He looks visibly skeptical “sounds like one of those sweet Florance Nightingales.”

Griff is clearly fixed on objectifying Kelly as a fallen, marked woman with no potential to be a woman of quality. There is a patriarchal hypocrisy in this town, where the the most influential man is actually a despicable pedophile and has most of the power. Kelly who is truly virtuous and compassionate is labeled a pariah even though the men who judge her are the very people who simultaneously use her, without taking responsibility for their own participation.

“Ha, Kelly she’s tough, runs her ward like a pirate ship… she makes Captain Bly look like a sissy.” Now we see framed in the scene from the knees down, the boy Kip is slowing walking with crutches along the floor. On screen we study the child walking for several seconds, and then we see a Kelly’s legs. Full screen shot now, the boy stands stiff in front of Kelly dressed in a nurses aide uniform. Kip drops to the ground.Kelly asks to see him touch his toes. Griff and Mac are watching them from the doorway.Kip is trying to touch his toes.He says “they’re too far away.” He takes a deep sigh and tries again and does it!Kelly seems so relieved.Kip looks at her smiling with pride. Griff is hiding behind the door watching all this in secret.

Cross fade Kelly is sitting at a table with a toy sailing ship. We hear Griff speaking off screen “That’s a new low, using crippled kids to front your trade”Kelly insists “I quit my trade” He grabs her arm,”you’ll have a problem breaking in those little girls to walk the streets on crutches”Kelly looks disgusted with this accusation and slaps Griff in the face. “I washed my face clean the morning I woke up in your bedroom.”

He says to her contemptuously “You got morals in my room?”She shakes her head reviling him “you had nothing to do with it…Nothing!…it was your mirror.”Griff says “You must have taken a long look.” She asserts “it was the longest look of my life…I saw a broken down piece of machinery.” Here Kelly herself objectifies her body as something that other people utilize. She continues “nothing but the buck, the bed and the bottle for the rest of my life…that’s what I saw!”

He turns away, “A hooker moving in with the town virgin, what an act.”He is so indignant “how much did you score honey?…how much did you tap at the hospital?” his hands in his pockets looking down on her like trash.”How much Angel Foam did you peddle?”Kelly’s furious now,”oh you ask, you ask the doctors if I made a play for any one of them, ask them!…You were the only buyer I had in this town and my last one.”

“Are you coming with me or I am going to talk to Mac myself.” She grabs his arm and pleads “Look Griff, I’m trying your side of the fence, is there a law against it, is there anything wrong with it?” All Griff says is “your face might fool a lot of these people, but not your body.”

Griff slams her with “Your body’s your only passport.”Kelly says “you’re right” instead of defending herself. She says “I can renew a passport, but I can’t renew my body…or my face” she shakes her head, tears in her eyes,”or my health, oh look Griff I’m trying to change, please help me” she beseeches him. “Give me a break.”

Fade To Black

Kelly is surrounded by children dressed up in costumes. She’s telling them a story of the White Swan, a story about wishing to be turned into something else. This is what lies at the core of and is the veritable crux of The Naked Kiss.

Kip, is fantasizing about doing cartwheels outside with Kelly.He is shouting “I have legs, I have legs.” We see a daydream sequence, every little girl and boy running as if they had no handicap. The idea of handicap being a metaphor for Kelly’s past.The film equates her being a prostitute with having an affliction, an illness, an abnormality? That question is put to us again, towards the end of the film.

Fade To Black

Now at Grant’s house. This is a very short scene introducing us to Grant. Griff is there, Grant has just come back from traveling. His servant Barney, has been given a gift. It’s a skull, used as a drinking cup from some ancient city. A rather bizarre item to give his servant. Barney seems uncomfortable with it as well. Grant asks if everything is set up for the party tonight, Griff and Grant go to make themselves a drink, and we Fade To Black

Fade in Kelly’s in a beautiful long black gown at the hospital. The camera views her from a distance, rows of wheelchairs lined along the walls. Kelly is framed in darkness with a single band of light along the floor, like a runway. She pushes a wheelchair up against the wall. Then she walks over to an infant sucking on a bottle. She strokes the babies hair so gently, looking upon her with  a maternal gaze, then gently touches her little foot in a cast,in traction.The baby looks up at her.We keep seeing glimpses of mothering in Kelly.

Cross Fade now at Grant’s party. Grant is quoting something in Italian, to a room filled with the elite socialites of the town, he says “this means, All things by gentleness may be made smooth“

Nurse Mac and Kelly arrive, and then Grant focuses his gaze on Kelly, he sees something in her. Their eyes meet. We hear romantic strings, something is stirring. Griff  looks up, the camera closes in on Kelly’s face, then Griff. The sensual motif of horns are there to remind us who Kelly really is. Kelly looks stopped in her tracks by Griff’s expression.

But we switch back to Grant and Kelly exchanging pleasant looks with each other. The romantic strings play once again. Mac hugs Grant and introduces Kelly to him by saying, she wants him to meet the lady that’s making history with orthopedics. He tells her everybody calls him Grant. Then Griff pipes in “And everybody calls her Kelly” obviously annoyed that she is at the party.Griff spells it “K E double L Y” A dig about their sexual interlude.

Griff still looks so bottled with anger.Grant hands Kelly a package and tells her it’s something she might like from Venice. It’s blown glass. He tells her it’s Venetian 17th century.” “From Venice?” Kelly is very impressed by his breeding, and worldliness. This is something that has been brewing in her all along. The desire for a life with finer things. Grant has an almost childlike exuberance. He is not an archetypal masculine/male figure at all. Not a naivete, yet an icy calculating kind of assumed innocence.

Cross Fade , we see a reel to reel analogue tape machine ( I can’t help it, I’m a musician) the music on the tape is playing once again Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata the camera pans to a bust of Beethoven, and then we see Grant and Kelly lying back on a leopard print sofa, taking in the beauty of Beethoven’s piece. eyes closed. Grant is waxing poetic about the moonlight and Beethoven’s hands playing the sonata. “he carved that sonata out of moonlight” Grant is wearing a silk ascot. There is something so plasticine about his appearance.

Kelly asks “was he in love when he wrote it?” “Yes” “Did he marry her?” “No, he never found the wife he was looking for” “How do you know he was looking for a wife?” “What man isn’t…a sweetheart is a bottle of wine, a wife is a wine bottle” Kelly turns and faces Grant “Did Goethe write that?” “Baudelaires (Flowers of Evil)” “Beethoven and Goethe were good friends”

Kelly sits up, Grant smiling says “Griff doesn’t go for Beethoven” Kelly spurts”Griff is tone deaf”Grant looks over at her”How did you know?”"Well I…I watched his face when we were singing the other night”Grant looks away from her, smiles again “you sang very well”she says “I was happy” Grant spouts some more verse, “Happiness was born a twin” Kelly turns to him, leaning on her arm, “Lord Byron” Grant looks over to her as if surprised and she says “my favorite poet.” Grant has been trying to impress Kelly with his knowledge of literature, art and music.

He sits up “Kelly you baffle me, intellect is seldom a feature of physical beauty”Grant is surprised Kelly is”a woman”, a “beautiful woman” who possesses an intellect and understanding of culture.

Grant continues”And that makes you a remarkable woman…the most interesting contradiction I’ve met in years, with a love of poetry, rare in this age of missiles…”

“Would you like to visit where Byron wrote many of his famous sonnets?” “Venice?”"I’m going to take you there right now. He shows her a movie projector with a travel reel from Venice, and men in gondolas and fishing boats. They sit and watch the movies which Grant took from a gondola. He turns to her, and says don’t you hear the man in the gondola singing. He tells her “If you pretend hard enough and if you listen hard enough, you can hear his fine Italian voice.”

Pretend is an active verb for the characters in The Naked Kiss, no one is what they seem to be. It comes down to image, embodiment,perception, class and gender.

She has been taken under Grant’s childlike spell. She smiles and we see her as she imagines the tenor voice singing Santa Lucia. Her desire to inhabit a world with culture and refinement blinds her to Grant’s true identity.She escapes into a daydream where a man in a gondola is rowing she and Grant are lying on silken pillows.Flower petals are falling on her, as they flow through the canals of Venice, and Grant is making love to her.

For Kelly,Grant is symbolic of worthiness,success and virtue. This is perpetuated by the town which is rooted in these beliefs. Grant is powerful and well bred, so he must be the epitome of integrity and virtue. She wakes from the dream her hands on Grants shoulders, we see now that they are kissing on the couch.

For a brief moment of clarity,she pushes him slightly away, something in her gut reveals his true nature.She has the most curious stare on her face, she senses a tinge of the unnatural.Her hands and fingers splayed like claws on either side of his face. He looks confused. She studies his face. There is a prolonged pause while we hear the travel reel clicking in the background. She’s breathing uncomfortably, and Grant is looking more concerned. His gaze turns almost dark.

Ultimately she dismisses her intuition and gives way. A smile comes over her face, and then Grant’s darkness begins to clear up. Her right hand holding his head now.He goes back in for an embrace, and the camera stops on Kelly’s long legs, her shoes have come off, set against the leopard skin fabric of the couch. We’re left with the movie projector’s blaring lights in our eyes as it spins off it’s reel. We are blinded and so now unfortunately is Kelly.

Back at the hospital the children are singing Old MacDonald. Kelly and the nurse Buff played by Marie Devereux are bathing 2 of the kids. Buff tells Kelly that the job is for the birds.”I”m not like you Kelly, I don’t got steel in my veins…I get sick just looking at these poor little babies, let alone handling them…I’m gonna quit, I’m gonna quit this job” she starts to cry,”it’s gonna hurt Griff, it’s gonna hurt Griff bad” Kelly asks “why Griff?”"he’s been like a father to me, ever since mine was killed in Korea…Griff got me this job, and he’s so damn proud of me”

All the women in this town, need approval from these men, in particular Grant and Griff, as Father figures.

Now we see Kelly pacing in her bedroom, in her nightgown. We hear a woman’s heels clicking outside.Kelly goes to the window and whispers “the door’s open Buff” In this scene Kelly is lit like an angel from the window light.Her white crepe gown flowing like wings, a huge divergence from the opening shot of her in black sexy underwear and shaved bald head. Like a mannequin, like an object. Like sexual “machinery” as she referred to herself earlier on.

Buff is wearing the lame’ gown that Kelly gave her, she grabs a box from downstairs as if it’s a tray and mimics the words “would you care for a bon bon” then she ascends the stairs to Kelly’s bedroom.

She enters Kelly’s room and tells her that she made $25 tonight,throws her bag on the bed, and shows Kelly the money. Kelly looks disapprovingly at Buff.”where’d you get that money?”"a woman gave it to me”Kelly steps closer to Buff “what woman?”"Candy she runs a club across the river”"What’s the $25 for?”"It’s an advance, I’m gonna be a bon bon”Kelly gets angry and shouts”take off my dress”, she spins Buff around, and starts grabbing at the zipper “I paid $350 for that dress, I’ll take it off myself”she then tells Buff, “those bon bon’s aren’t just there to serve drinks you know” Buff says “I know”Kelly spins her around to face her, then smacks Buff and she falls onto the bed. Buff starts to sob. Kelly says “you had that coming to you” but Buff says “Candy says I could make $300 a week.

Now Kelly sits on the bed next to her and sagely says “alright…go ahead…you know what’s different about the first night…?…nothing…nothing except it lasts forever that’s all. You’ll be sleeping on the skin of a nightmare for the rest of your life. You’re a beautiful girl Buff, young, oh, they’ll out bid each other for you ( Buff smiles)you’ll get compliments, clothes, cash. You’ll meet men you live on…and men who live on you ( now Buff frowns ) and those are the only men you’ll meet. And after a steady grind of making every john feel at home…you’ll become a block of ice.”

“And if you do happen to melt a little, you’ll get slipped a tip behind Candy’s back. You’ll be every man’s wife in law and no man’s wife. Well your world with Candy will become so warped that you’ll hate all men…and you’ll hate yourself, because you’ll become a social problem…a medical problem…a mental problem…and a despicable failure as a woman.”

Dressed in black Kelly shows up at Candy’s. A fight breaks out between one of the bon bon girls and Marshmallow, over a john. Candy rises from her seat and walks over to Kelly. She introduces herself and then walks around Kelly like she’s surveying merchandise. Candy says “Griff told me about you.” Then Candy asks where she’s been coasting. Kelly says she’ll tell her in her office. When one of the johns grabs Kelly, a bon bon comes over and says “Listen new Stuff” he’s my john exclusively, after she’s broken a bottle over his head. Candy remarks that he’s the 3rd guy she’s cold cocked this week.

Candy starts to tell Kelly to sit down to talk business, but Kelly sucker punches Candy with her handbag. She’s good at that, remember Farlunde the pimp in the opening scene. She keeps the onslaught going, bashing Candy with her bag, til Candy falls down on the couch. Kelly keeps hitting her, smashing the lamp.Candy pleads “cut it out” Kelly puts her knee on Candy’s chest and forces Candy’s mouth open. She counts the money like Buff did, reciting as she shoves the bills into Candy’s open mouth. “Ten, ten and five…now you stay away from Buff” and Kelly hits her in the face one last time.

Fuller’s gusts of brutal cinema veritae’ is as shocking as it is confrontational.Candy lies there whipped,pulling the money out of her mouth,looking destroyed like a beaten hag and not the powerful business woman who runs an entire stable of what she calls”Bimbies”

Continued in Part III

Sam Fuller’s The Naked Kiss (1965): Part I: “There’ll be no later, this town is clean”

The Naked Kiss (1965) Shock and Shame, the story of a Night Girl.

Let me say that this is one of my favorite films. I think that it’s such a bold concoction of visual style, specific alienation that we as spectators experience along with Kelly our female Protagonist. The undercurrent of sexual pathology of a perverse nature and a raw energy that fuels some crude reactionary moments on film. Normally I wouldn’t write about the ending of a film as not to ruin it for the viewer, yet Constance Tower’s remarkable performance and Fuller’s raw cinematic veritae must be experienced, the story will not lose anything by my relating it here. I actually consider this part of my women in peril series, but more aptly put, it’s a womanhood in peril film.

Samuel Fuller’s B post noir films are not like anyone else’s. Fuller’s work is often confrontational and visceral considered the kinkiest of all the B post noir auteurs.

From Alain Silver and James Ursini’s Film Noir Reader 2 “Fuller’s Naked Kiss “boldly offers a different kind of descriptive pause. Fuller takes on Patriarchy and directly assaults the spectator with a bizarre opening”

In their book they inform us that Fuller actually attached a camera to actor Monte Mansfield who plays Kelly’s pimp Farlunde, the guy she pummels in his swanky apartment right from the tip of the film.Thus creating an off kilter and disorienting mood. The opening of The Naked Kiss, is perhaps for me one of the most audacious beginnings to any cinematic work. It sort of punches you right in the face along with Farlunde.

The greater theme of the film is it’s narrative of womens’ role within society. In a way not unlike Elia Kazan, Fuller has created a sociological framework, to lay out questions of what womanhood, as well as motherhood, means discursively. While at the end of the film, Kelly is relegitimized as being a savior and not a whore, she is still not allowed to live amongst the clean town’s people. She is still an outsider. Silver and Ursini also correctly bring out in their noir reader the  fact that the context of the film is a “discursive-based attack on men and how they define women as well as the limits they place on them”. Also notable is the displaced female rage that only became better articulated later on with  feminists during the 60s and 70s.

The Naked Kiss written, directed and produced by Sam Fuller, opens wide like a steel trap, with Constance Towers as Kelly viciously beating up a pimp Farlunde in his swanky apartment, smashing away at him with her handbag. Hitting his face and neck, it’s like watching a brutal choreographed dance. Fuller creates this wavering movement to give us a sense of the dizzying brutality. Farlunde begs “I’m drunk Kelly please,” “enough Kelly please.” The savage jazz riffs underscoring the bashing. Her wig comes flying off, and now we see a bald Kelly still attacking the man relentlessly. The jazz more coherent with hyper active saxophone.

Stripped of her hair looking like a mannequin (perhaps to show us Kelly as an “object”) she beats him till he staggers to the floor, spraying seltzer water in his face. He’s wasted by the beating, she rifles through his pockets and grabs some cash from his wallet. “Eight hundred dollars… you parasite… I’m taking only what’s coming to me.” She starts counting out bills, throwing them down upon his chest, “fifty, sixty, seventy-five… I’m not rolling you, you drunken leech, I’m only taking the seventy-five dollars that’s coming to me.”

She crumples up her share, shoves it into her bra and kicks him while he’s lying there. She stares at us like we’re her mirror. Gratified she puts her wig back on and the title rolls, The Naked Kiss. Sam Fuller’s story of alienation, gender subjugation and the question of immorality and deviant sexual pathology, opens up in a big way.

The Paul Dunlop score becomes more dreamy, with melodramatic strings and Kelly brushing her wig. getting it right. The credits roll and Kelly is applying her eye pencil transforming herself back into a woman and not blood thirsty she-devil. Now the blush is applied, the music fades back into the jazz number and we see Farlunde knocked out, lying on the floor.The saxophone is hurling trills at us, Kelly grabs a photograph down from a collection of beauties and she starts tearing it up to pieces, throws them on the ground, the Farlunde stirs, coughs a bit and starts to get up, Kelly slams the door.

As he starts picking up the debris Kelly has left in her wake he puts crumpled up bills on top of a calendar and we see the date July 4, 1961. A quick cut, flash forward to a banner in the street touting August 12, 1963 and the melodramatic music is serenading us again. The camera pulls out for a wider angle, we can see the entire banner now, it reads 2 years later. August 12, 1963 Fashion Show for Handicapped Children Grantville Orthopedic Medical Center

The top of a bus moving through the street, a parked car, a mostly empty street, with a few people crossing it, and mulling about. This is the suggestion of a quiet, quaint American town.

Then a car horn toots, 3 men standing outside a Bus Depot, Griff (Anthony Eisley) says “Ten bucks, that right Mike?” Mike says “why spend your own money on that punk?” Griff turns to the young man and says while stuffing it in his pocket “Here’s your ticket” smiles at him and shoves some money into his pocket as well. All the time the young man is looking down as if ashamed. He says “Thanks a lot Griff… I’ll pay you back.” Griff looks at him sternly, “I’m giving you a break, cause your brother was in my outfit… I don’t want to see you in this town again.” The young man looks down again.

Then a Greyhound bus pulls over to the curb. We see the marquee of the movie theater is playing Shock Corridor, a nod to Fuller’s other psychologically wrenching film about a newspaper reporter going undercover in a lunatic asylum, only to become one of the patients.

The bus door opens, from our vantage point, we see a woman’s foot taking a step, long slender legs attached,the screen flirts with us, a little more leg with skirt now, the scene is taking it’s time, showing us the woman. Skirt holding suitcases and the characteristic horn plays a sexy VaVaVa Voom riff. The bus porter meets the woman we see her face in silhouette, wearing a nice lightly colored tailored suit. He comes to greet her and help with her bags. Griff’s expression looks interested. “Please check my trunk” she says. It’s Kelly, with what looks like a fully grown head of blond hair, nicely coiffed. She’s smiling pleasantly, “lady like”, “I’ll send for it later” she says in softly spoken tones. She tips Mike, he blushes and says “thank you ma’am.” She smiles back.

Kelly and Griff make eye contact. She inquires where the wash room is. Griff says as if gritting his teeth, “inside, to the right.” She lilts her head, using her eyes to convey her gratitude, “thank you.” She walks off, Griff’s eyes following her all the while. The VaVaVoom sax as signature theme which characterizes her sex appeal. Now Griff breaks his gaze and turns to the young man. “Get on it, and get lost.” He picks up his bags and gets on the bus, then a Mike the porter and his little girl Bunny with her mother walk over. Mike’s wife is holding a bag of groceries, “pot roast tonight Griff”, he says “oh not tonight” the man says “oh I wanted to finish that game Griff.”
“Danny’s been taken to the hospital…I’m pulling duty for him for tonight”

The little girl fingers the letter embossed on the trunk and asks “what’s this K mean?” Griff tells her, “that’s the name of the owner.” The little girl Bunny giggles “K is no name,Uncle Griff”Mike says “Bunny…don’t you fool around with that” the little girl says “yes dad” Mike’s wife says “see ya at home Mike.” Griff is smiling with pride, this is a lovely little family he’s thinking.”By daddy.” “Bye.”

Sensual washes of music bring Kelly back onto the screen. Coyly leaning up against the wall, shooting eyes at Griff and Mike, the sax flirting out tones.Kelly smiles over at them. Tilts her head and walks away, swinging her hips. Griff watches her walk, “that’s enough to make a bull dog bust it’s chain.” Griff starts to follow her. Kelly passes two little girls playing jump rope by a baby carriage. Kelly looks into the carriage and smiles placing a baby bottle into the infant’s mouth.

Does this sexualized figure have a mother instinct? Is this act of caring for the infant alluding to a maternal aspect to Kelly?

We don’t hear sexy horns anymore, now it’s sweeping strings, romantic swells, of the grandiose potential for the American Dream. A normal life ahead? Kelly continues to walk through the park with her bags. Passing yet another woman on a park bench with a baby carriage. The visual narrative lets us know that this is a family town. Now we see Griff still following her. Fixes his jacket and checks to see if anyone notices that he’s tracking Kelly.

The scene cross fades into Kelly and Griff sitting on a park bench. Kelly’s reading a book and Griff is leaning on her suitcase. He asks “traveling saleslady? she says” “uh ha” “Staying long?” Still looking at her book “long enough to cover this territory.” Griff says “Well there’s one Hotel in town, special rates for salesmen…” Looking down at her case “what’re you selling?” She puts her book down grabs the case and says “Angel Foam” opens up the case and reveals 3 bottles “champagne.” Griff seems delighted. Kelly tells him “best on the market.” He asks “what are the pens for?” She gives a little shake of her head “customers.” A strange undertone to the way she says “customers.” A few years back or as recently as present day “customer” means something very different for Kelly.

Griff asks “How ’bout a sample.” She slams the case closed. We hear the clasps jingle as she says “uh uh, no free sips.” He readjusts himself and leans in and tell her “well I’m pretty good at popping the cork…if the vintage is right.”

The sexual double entendre is blatant. Kelly’s looking at her book again, he’s trying to get her attention. He looks like he’s trying to find a word and says “Angel Foam… never heard of it.” She smiles but still doesn’t look at Griff. “It’s an exclusive line I’m introducing in this state.” Griff asks  “domestic or imported?” Now Kelly looks at him, with piercing eyes, as if to say you couldn’t handle my goods.

“Angel Foam goes down like liquid gold.. .and it comes up like slow dynamite… for the man of taste.” Again the sexual innuendo is clearly part of their dialogue. The cover of the book shows a woman in peril, trying to flee some unseen assailant the title reads. Dark Rage. Here the word rage is introduced subliminally, also the fact that Kelly is selling something associated with romance with a name like Foam…is this code for climax or ejaculation? For 1965 Fuller rips the surface right off the film, and doesn’t hint around the issue of desire, the male gaze and sexuality at all in Naked Kiss.

Kelly asks “Do you think you can afford it?” And Griff says “how much for a bulls eye?” “Ten dollars a bottle.” “Ten dollars, well that’s dirt cheap.” She closes the book. “Well we practically give it away to the first customer.” He looks puzzled she tells him “it’s called, good will in business” looking at him, still in control of the conversation.

Fade out, then fade into:

Griff lying on the couch drinking from a champagne glass. Kelly’s on the floor brushing out her beautiful blond hair. As she brushes she remarks “wonderful, just wonderful.” Griff bleets “thank you.” “Not you, I’m talking about my hair.” We hear Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata playing in the background. He says “you’re crazy mussing it up that way” she glows “you’ll never know what a thrill this is…it’s all new.” He furrows his brow “new?” Still brushing, “mmh hmm, it’s just grown back.” “Did it fall out because you were sick?” She shakes her head no “Uh uh.”Griff starts to rise up on the couch “don’t tell me you had your head shaved?” She turns and smiles “it wasn’t my idea.” He looks concerned and asks her “what happened?” She tells him “It’ll keep.”

Then the tension breaks and he smiles, puts his arm around her and kisses her neck. There’s a shot of money on a small table, next to a chilled bottle in an ice bucket.”Well at least you made a ten spot on Angel Foam.” “I thought you gave me a twenty?” “Isn’t that enough wine to make you see double?” he answers. He starts rubbing her neck and cheek and she says “Ah, Moonlight Sonata… my favorite.” He kisses her neck she says “I see myself in a boat when I hear that… a boat… on a lake… and the moonlight… leaves lazily falling on me… what do you see?” He’s still kiss her, hand on her neck, “I’m tone deaf” he says.

Kelly obviously aspires for better things. She has a sense of refinement. Appreciation for the classics. This is a woman with many layers. She is not just a whore.

Cross Fade, Griff is now getting dressed. He tells Kelly that she can sleep at his place, just for the night. She’s still sitting on the floor. Leaning up against the couch contemplative. She gets up and asks “How long have you been a cop?” He turns around after taking a sip of coffee “is my badge that obvious?” Kelly says “is mine?” Griff says “well I was taking no chances.” She says “in my business I have to.” These are two marked people, Griff and Kelly. The user and the used.

He puts his jacket on “Well I don’t see any battle scars.” Kelly says “that’s ’cause I practice the first rule of the house… end with the local law first, break the ice for later.” But Griff looks down at her “they’ll be no later… this town is clean.”

Kelly takes the remark like a slap in the face. She gets up angered “what do you mean by that?” “That means that you and me will get along like noise and a hangover if you pitch tent in my bivouac.” She looks so harmed by his insult. He has lost his lazy carefree demeanor and has now donned the cop uniform with Kelly. She tells him “for a cop, you oughtta read books… Goethe (she pronounces it Gotha, but at least she tries to appear intelligent) for instance.” “Go who?” “Goetha the poet… he said nothing is more terrible than an act of ignorance and mister you proved him one hundred percent right.”

She mispronounces Goethe but now we see a scrapper, who is trying to better herself, by opening up to philosophical ideas and poetry, looking for meaning in life. Representing her desire to improve her station in life. Griff’s insult isn’t lost on me either as the viewer. What hypocrisy, that she was good enough to use for his sexual pleasure, but now she’s not good enough for the town. As if Griff’s hands were clean. As if he isn’t a willing participant in the act of prostitution. This is one instance where Fuller challenges Patriarchy, and the double standard that it practices.

She continues “I’m not going to start the Bubonic plague here” Griff grabs her “Now listen, it’s nothing personal Muffin…if I let you set up shop in this neighborhood, people’d chop me like a ripe banana.” she comes back at him “then why’d you buy my merchandise.” She now joins in objectifying herself as a commodity. A thing she can sell. Her body and sex are equal components to her total worth.

Griff fumbles for the words “I, I was thirsty.” He puts his arm around her, she smiles a little, he starts walking her around the apartment like he’s about to give her fatherly advice.He says “Across the river, there’s a wide open town… Delmar Falls… it’s not in this state.. .there’s a salon there, and I don’t mean a beauty parlor.. .Candy Ala Carte…(he smirks)… Candy’s a personal friend of mine”. He grabs her neck affectionately tough, she looks at him, he says “I’ll buy a bottle from you now and then.”

She nods, and then he finally asks “What’s your name?” She answers “Kelly.” He’s still holding onto her with his hands. He barks at her “Your real name!” She jabs back equally on par with his tone”K E double L Y.” He tells her she’ll be his sounds like “ichi van” that’s a Japanese expression, he picked it up in Tokyo. She knows what it means, tells him “means number one..” He looks at her approvingly as if surprised that she’s intelligent. Now she asks”what’s your name tiger?” “Za, I mean Griff.” Now she says “your real name” as he puts his hat on he spells out “G R I double F.” She asks “rank?” “Captain.” She looks over his suit “no uniform?” “Everybody knows me.” He tilts his hat down over his eyes. Is that a gesture of shame?

Kelly hands him a pen “a reminder not to change brands.” Another innuendo, he reads the writing on the pen “Angel Foam guarantee’s satisfaction.” He snickers, “it’s almost as good as Candy’s trademark.” Kelly crosses her arms and looks skeptical “Oh what does Candy guarantee?” Griff answer “indescribable pleasure…(Kelly nods)… she got it out of a book, it’s stamped on all her glasses… tell her I sent you.” He tilts his head and looks at her and with a stern voice and says “Kelly” as if asking a question. She replies “Yes sir?” “Didn’t you forget something?” She pauses then acts like the light bulb just went on, “oh, thank you for the room Captain” she says in a wispy voice. Griff says “you owe me ten bucks change” she says “uh uh” as she fixes his tie. “I never make change” just then the sexy vava voom sax starts playing,

Kelly is identified again as call girl, night girl, as the DVD cover says “the story of a night girl.” Griff lightly thumbs Kelly’s chin and kisses her on the nose, nods to her and sticks the pen in his hat. The sexy music a little more playful and less seductive at this point. He walks away and Kelly smiles after him. Griff is very content having Kelly remain as she is “a night girl”.

We see a street scene again, this represents the town, the clean town. but we quickly switch to Kelly, stirring in bed. Left arm over her eyes to block out the light. It’s morning. As she starts to arise, she looks over at a newspaper clipping GRANT SAVES GRIFF IN KOREA; WOUNDED says the Grantville Gazette. She smells some of Griff’s cologne, approves and then splashes some on her neck. She stops by a mirror, then suddenly looks sullen, she touches under her eye and follows the cheekbone. She goes to the other side of her face. there shows a level of discontent at the image in the mirror. The music tells us she’s disturbed with harp chords that cascade, the contrast of light music rather than darker score makes the scene more powerful. Until now Kelly has exuded confidence and strength. What is Kelly thinking? Is she reflecting upon who she’s been, and where she’s going? The mirror symbolizes self-recognition.

Now from a distance, a far off lens, we see her walking down the sidewalk lined with trees, she seems so small in the scene. She’s closer now, we hear her heals clicking on the pavement. She looks up, there is a sign, Madam Josephine Seamstress. Kelly smiles, then we see that she is reading a sign Pleasant Room For Rent a closer shot, emphasis on the word Pleasant.

Kelly shakes her head and smiles with a joyfulness. She walks up the steps and rings the bell. With her back turned looking out over the town, she shakes her head like “yes, this is for me, this is the place for me.” An old woman Miss Josephine played by Betty Bronson, opens the door, and says good morning. Kelly says “you have a room for rent.” “Please come in” Kelly walks into the house, and looks pleased. The kindly old woman wearing an apron says”here let me take that” and grabs Kelly’s bag.”Thank you” “I’ll show you the room…this is the room…it has a beautiful view, it faces the river.” Kelly gets excited and walks around a four poster bed. “it’s a family heirloom…do you realize we spend about a third of our lives in bed?”

Kelly smiles ironically at that statement, she starts to comment then just looks down and loses the words. The old woman says “to sleep in comfort is very important…I used to say a little verse about it, like to hear it?” Kelly says sure, a little music box tinkling begins “Four corners to my bed, four angels round my head, one to watch, and one to pray, and two to bare my soul away.” Kelly beams, “I’d like to rent this room…and the four angels that go with it” “Oh I’m so delighted.” “I’m a stranger in town, don’t you need my character reference?” The old woman waves her finger to gesture no, and grabs Kelly’s hand and walks her to the mirror.” Again, the film is utilizing a symbolic mirror.

“Your reference is that face Ms Kelly.” Kelly laughs “Oh” the woman looks adoringly at her, still holding her hand.”Good heavens I forgot, I’ll have to move Charley out of your room”" Charley?”"I wouldn’t want him to bother you while you’re asleep” She move a screen to the side and exposes a dressing dummy with military medals and hat. “I named him Charley after a gentleman I was to marry… I kept this room ready for him ever since I got the president’s wire that Charley was killed in the war.” She’s holding his hat. “That was 20 years ago, oh I come up here all the time and talk to Charley.” She replaces the hat on the figure. “Last week I realized the president was right and Charley was dead, and I’d never get married.” Kelly looks sympathetically at her. “Well I’ll move him downstairs.” “Oh he won’t be in the way.” Kelly asserts with a kind smile. The old woman’s eyes brighten “you don’t mind?” “No in fact it’ll do me good to talk to him now and then.” “Well he’ll always agree with you.” Both woman laugh together.

Fade to black

Continued in Part II