Samuel Fuller

The Naked Kiss

The Naked Kiss

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.

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Film Info

  • United States
  • 1964
  • 90 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.75:1
  • English
  • Spine #18

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis
  • Excerpts from a 1983 episode of The South Bank Show dedicated to director Samuel Fuller
  • Interview with Fuller from a 1967 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps
  • Interview with Fuller from a 1987 episode of the French television series Cinéma cinémas
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes and a new essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller’s autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking

New cover by Daniel Clowes

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis
  • Excerpts from a 1983 episode of The South Bank Show dedicated to director Samuel Fuller
  • Interview with Fuller from a 1967 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps
  • Interview with Fuller from a 1987 episode of the French television series Cinéma cinémas
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes and a new essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller’s autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking

New cover by Daniel Clowes

The Naked Kiss
Cast
Constance Towers
Kelly
Anthony Eisley
Griff
Michael Dante
Grant
Virginia Grey
Candy
Patsy Kelly
Mac
Marie Devereux
Buff
Karen Conrad
Dusty
Gerald Michenaud
Kip
Betty Robinson
Bunny
Breena Howard
Redhead
Sally Mills
Marshmallow
Edy Williams
Hatrack
Betty Bronson
Miss Josephine
Neyle Morrow
Officer Sam
Credits
Director
Samuel Fuller
Produced and written by
Samuel Fuller
Costumer
Einar H. Bourman
Art director
Eugène Lourié
Film editor
Jerome Thoms
Director of photography
Stanley Cortez, A.S.C.
Music
Paul Dunlap
A production of
Leon Fromkess
A production of
Sam Firks

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Explore

Samuel Fuller

Writer, Producer, Director

Samuel Fuller
Samuel Fuller

Crime reporter, freelance journalist, pulp novelist, screenwriter, World War II infantryman—Samuel Fuller was a jack of all trades before the high-school dropout directed his first film at age thirty-six. But once he was contacted by Poverty Row producer Robert L. Lippert, a fan of his writing, Fuller was turned on to cinema—his true calling. A singularly audacious visionary of the B-movie variety, Fuller would make muscular, minuscule pictures, starting with the one-two-three punch of I Shot Jesse James, The Baron of Arizona, and The Steel Helmet—the last a raw Korean War saga that was one of the few films of the period to address racism in America. Soon after, Fuller was scooped up by Twentieth Century Fox, but he was able to maintain his purposefully crude, elegantly stripped-down style and teeth-bared cynicism for such studio efforts as Fixed Bayonets! and Pickup on South Street. Eventually, Fuller returned to independent filmmaking, and in the sixties (after his artistic cred had been given a shot in the arm by the French New Wavers’ embrace of him as a major stylistic influence), he directed two of his most acclaimed titles, the pulpy and profound Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss, both corrosive satires of American culture. Even in his career’s twilight, Fuller didn’t shy away from controversy: his early eighties social horror film White Dog was shelved by the studio for more than a decade due to its provocative, bloody investigation of American racism.

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