Noir Alley

[Hibi]

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands was definitely worth the wait! I thought it was outstanding. Gripping, suspenseful noirish tale. I was expecting a more tragic ending, but at least it wasn't a happy one when you think about it. Robert Newton was great as was Lancaster and Fontaine. Great sets, photography, score. Class all the way. The chase scene in the beginning was shot/edited so well. So many gripping sequences. Glad to FINALLY see this film!!!

[jamesjazzguitar]

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands was definitely worth the wait! I thought it was outstanding. Gripping, suspenseful noirish tale. I was expecting a more tragic ending, but at least it wasn't a happy one when you think about it. Robert Newton was great as was Lancaster and Fontaine. Great sets, photography, score. Class all the way. The chase scene in the beginning was shot so well. So many gripping sequences. Glad to FINALLY see this film!!!

Yea, TCM (Muller) breaks out a Universal film it rarely shows. What you state here matches my POV to a "T".

[Hibi]

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands was definitely worth the wait! I thought it was outstanding. Gripping, suspenseful noirish tale. I was expecting a more tragic ending, but at least it wasn't a happy one when you think about it. Robert Newton was great as was Lancaster and Fontaine. Great sets, photography, score. Class all the way. The chase scene in the beginning was shot so well. So many gripping sequences. Glad to FINALLY see this film!!!

Yea, TCM (Muller) breaks out a Universal film it rarely shows. What you state here matches my POV to a "T".

LIKE!

[Hibi]

I loved Kiss the Blood Off My Hands. Outstanding cinematography by Russell Metty and a fine score by Miklos Rossa, not overbearing as some of his scores are. Good editing, too, and a brilliant opening.

Yes, there are some problematic elements, but the casting of the three leads takes care of some of this for me. Robert Newton as the oily slimy villain? Oh yes. He had some good dialogue, too. Burt Lancaster makes the protagonist much more sympathetic than he ought to be, given his actions, but this makes the story work. Russell Metty photographs Lancaster's eyes as if Burt were one of the great beauties of the screen, which he is. No wonder Joan Fontaine melts under his charm.

Which brings me to how Joan Fontaine makes the story work. Weak and lonely, but with an inner strength she doesn't recognize, including the strength to make bad choices, falling for an impossible man as she does in Rebecca and Letter From an Unknown Woman: this is one of her specialties in the 1940s. You may want to shake her and tell her to wake up and smell the coffee, but she won't do it. At first I wasn't sure if I was going to like her performance in this film, but by the end of the film the improbable combination of Joan and Burt had convinced me.

Yes, the early scene where Fontaine disobeys Lancaster and goes down to the street to get the milk, is a clue she's not a pushover.

[HoldenIsHere]

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands was definitely worth the wait! I thought it was outstanding. Gripping, suspenseful noirish tale. I was expecting a more tragic ending, but at least it wasn't a happy one when you think about it. Robert Newton was great as was Lancaster and Fontaine. Great sets, photography, score. Class all the way. The chase scene in the beginning was shot/edited so well. So many gripping sequences. Glad to FINALLY see this film!!!

The sweetie and I watched this one and really enjoyed it.
As Joan Fontaine and Burt Lancaster were in the truck on their way to the boat, we both remarked that we didn't see how the story could not end tragically.
****SPOILER*****
I guess the ending meant they were going to go to the police and hope for the best.

I agree that the opening chase sequence was amazing.
That sequence was filmed on a set!

[Dargo]

That sequence was filmed on a set!

Yeah, and in fact and as Eddie mentioned in his wraparounds, the entire movie was filmed on Universal's Hollywood set, and another aspect of this film which I found very impressive considering how well the look of the film never seems to belie this fact.

I also got to wondering which of SoCal's old horsetrack racing venues might have been used for those particular scenes where the races are shown being run in British clockwise fashion.

(...the old and now gone Hollywood Park or maybe Santa Anita, perhaps?...the IMDb webpage "filming location" page for this movie only specifies that the zoo scene was filmed at L.A.'s Griffith Park Zoo, but other than that just "Los Angeles")

[MilesArcher]

I noticed that the opening chase scene where Burt is running from the police showed off Burt's incredible athleticism with all of the jumping and
climbing that he had to do. Those skills were also showcased in "The Crimson Pirate" and "Trapeze" which have been shown on TCM in the recent past.

Eddie Muller made a remark that Burt's supporting cast was all British, but I noticed that the ship's captain was played by Jay Novello, who was an
American actor of Italian descent.

By the way, Wikipedia says that the horse racing scenes were filmed at Hollywood Park Race track.

[Dargo]

...By the way, Wikipedia says that the horse racing scenes were filmed at Hollywood Park Race track.[/b]

Thanks, Miles. Appreciate you finding this.

(...didn't think of looking for this info on Wiki, and considering that the IMDb website usually has a lot more specifics such as this sort of thing located there)

[Hibi]

I noticed that the opening chase scene where Burt is running from the police showed off Burt's incredible athleticism with all of the jumping and
climbing that he had to do. Those skills were also showcased in "The Crimson Pirate" and "Trapeze" which have been shown on TCM in the recent past.

Eddie Muller made a remark that Burt's supporting cast was all British, but I noticed that the ship's captain was played by Jay Novello, who was an
American actor of Italian descent.

By the way, Wikipedia says that the horse racing scenes were filmed at Hollywood Park Race track.

Yes, I noticed Jay in that small part.

[Dargo]

I noticed that the opening chase scene where Burt is running from the police showed off Burt's incredible athleticism with all of the jumping and
climbing that he had to do. Those skills were also showcased in "The Crimson Pirate" and "Trapeze" which have been shown on TCM in the recent past.

Eddie Muller made a remark that Burt's supporting cast was all British, but I noticed that the ship's captain was played by Jay Novello, who was an
American actor of Italian descent.

By the way, Wikipedia says that the horse racing scenes were filmed at Hollywood Park Race track.

Yes, I noticed Jay in that small part.

I might be wrong here, but I thought it was mentioned at one time during the film that he and his ship's registration were Portuguese.

[Hibi]

I noticed that the opening chase scene where Burt is running from the police showed off Burt's incredible athleticism with all of the jumping and
climbing that he had to do. Those skills were also showcased in "The Crimson Pirate" and "Trapeze" which have been shown on TCM in the recent past.

Eddie Muller made a remark that Burt's supporting cast was all British, but I noticed that the ship's captain was played by Jay Novello, who was an
American actor of Italian descent.

By the way, Wikipedia says that the horse racing scenes were filmed at Hollywood Park Race track.

Yes, I noticed Jay in that small part.

I might be wrong here, but I thought it was mentioned at one time during the film that he and his ship's registration were Portuguese.

Yes, I guess that gave them an out!

[Bronxgirl48]

I saw KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS years ago but (mercifully) hardly remembered any of it. Seeing it Sunday morning after all that time made me realize why, lol. Outre, bizarre, awkward, silly, just plain weird. The cinematography is outstanding, though, and certainly contributes to the overall surreal, nightmarish quality of the story. "Sure, Burt, come right in through my window as I'm sleeping, do some gentle, goofy terrorizing then greet me politely the next day with "Hello, would you like to go on a date?"

I cannot get over the medieval punishment he receives in post-WWII England. Were they really whipping first-time offenders with cat-o-nine tails in 1948?

[Dargo]

Hi Bronxie! Glad to see you're feeling better now. Welcome back.

And in regard to this question of yours here...

I cannot get over the medieval punishment he receives in post-WWII England. Were they really whipping first-time offenders with cat-o-nine tails in 1948?

...I'd say Burt's character would have probably been one of the very last to have suffered this type of punishment, as it seems according to what I was able to find on the internet, this practice was surprisingly only abolished in England the same year of 1948 that this film was released.

From the Wikipedia page entitled "Flagellation":
In some circumstances the word flogging is used loosely to include any sort of corporal punishment, including birching and caning. However, in British legal terminology, a distinction was drawn (and still is, in one or two colonial territories[citation needed]) between flogging (with a cat o' nine tails) and whipping (formerly with a whip, but since the early 19th century with a birch). In Britain these were both abolished in 1948.

[Andree]

Burt, being the professional he was, insisted that only an authentic whipping could produce the facial contortions he
wanted to make the whole thing look real in KTBOMH. In the name of practicality he did agree to a cat o' nine tails lite.

Lancaster was known for executing his own stunts throughout his career and in Kiss the Blood Off My Hands he wanted to perform the cat o' nine tails whipping scene as authentically as possible. He knew that his facial expression could never replicate the pain unless he was truly experiencing lashing and he insisted that actor Harold Goodwin (playing the role of the whipper) "really lay it on him". The scene was not done with an actual leaded cat o' nine tails, but rather with a split leather belt. Still, Lancaster's back was so blistered and welted the next day that he was unable to wear a shirt.
{Wiki}

Wiki has a very long entry on KTBOMH which covers every aspect of the movie.