The Naked Kiss

Samuel Fuller's harshest opening and one of the boldest first scenes in cinema: a woman beats a man while facing the camera, her wig comes off in the struggle and reveals a shaved head. She takes her own money from his pocket, takes nothing more, and leaves. Kelly is a prostitute who decides to stop. She settles in a small town, takes a job at a hospital working with disabled children, and gets engaged to the town's most respected man. The town appears to accept her. Fuller's subject is not the prostitute's redemption but the town's respectability. The later stretch opens up what lies under the clean surface, and Kelly's past is used against her as a weapon. Constance Towers plays Kelly and carries the entire film. Made cheaply, shot fast and coarse, and it does not hide any of that. An important work for anyone interested in American independents and the political use of genre; not for anyone looking for delicacy.