Killer's Kiss

Kubrick's second feature and very nearly a one-man job: he directed, photographed, edited and co-wrote it. The budget was 75,000 dollars, all privately raised, with most of it coming from Morris Bousel, a Bronx pharmacist who took a co-producer credit in return. It was shot guerrilla-style on New York streets, and Times Square, Penn Station and the Brooklyn waterfront are simply there in the frame. Kubrick tried recording sound on location, then fired his sound man and decided to post-dub the entire film because the microphone kept interfering with his lighting. The scene everyone remembers is the fight in a mannequin warehouse, two men swinging a pike pole and an axe among stacked torsos and arms. United Artists bought it for 100,000 dollars and put the same amount into Kubrick's next film, The Killing. There was a cost: against Kubrick's wishes, UA required it be recut with a happy ending. It won Best Director at Locarno in 1959. Who it is for: anyone who wants to see where Kubrick started. Who it is not for: viewers expecting mature Kubrick. The script is weak, and he dismissed the film himself later.