You feel this could have been better, even thigh all the performances are solid and the camera moves well. There is a marvellous start with a female voiceover and a promise of real location shooting. Unfortunately most of these 'location' scenes are indoor and not outside on the streets. However interesting it might be to use the actual Chrysler building for the heist it doesn't really add much. Must be said though however stupid it was to arrange the getaway via a public lift some 24 floors up, the suspense or the bad boys being pressed up against each other and the constant stopping and starting while we see the jeweller getting closer and closer to his alarm is very well done. There is a similar, again near silent suspense scene in the restaurant at the end. Its just that in-between there is as much emphasis on Mature's little girls as there is on violent action. I realise that much had to be done to convince us that he would make the suicidal squeal but was a trip to the orphanage at the convent really necessary? Enjoyable with great performances from Mature and Widmark, maybe just one more person down the stairs and less little kiddies and it would have been even better.

"Kiss of Death" is probably best remembered for the scene in which Richard Widmark's character, Tommy Udo pushes a wheelchair bound woman (Mildred Dunnock) down a flight of stairs. But it is more than that.Shot on location in New York, Director Henry Hathaway use a documentary film noire style to give the film a reality not possible on a sound stage. He uses actual locations for the various prison scenes, buildings and offices which accentuates the realism of the story.The basic story line has small time crook Nick Bianco (Victor Mature) being arrested for a jewel robbery and being brought before Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo (Brian Donlevy). D'Angelo tries to get Nick to rat out his partners in crime. No go. Nick goes to prison with the promise from his lawyer Earl Howser (Taylor Holmes) that he'll get an early parole. On the way to prison he meets the sadistic giggling psychopathic killer Udo, a friendship doomed to failure.After a personal tragedy happens while he is in prison, Nick reverses his stand and decides to contact D'Angelo and turn states evidence. He testifies against Udo and thinks that it's all over. Not so.Along the way, Nick Strikes up a romance with Nettie (Coleen Gray) and eventually marries her.Hathaway seems to have slipped a couple of things past the censors. The fact that Nettie was Nick's former baby sitter suggests that she is quite a bit younger than he and that he may have had his eye on her as a budding teenager. And because Hathaway used real locations, one might almost miss Mature flicking a cigarette butt into a real toilet in a jail cell, a no-no in those days. But not to worry, Nick and Nettie sleep in twin beds.The ending is pure Hollywood and therefore unbelievable. I mean, count the number of slugs both Nick and Udo take at the film's climax, yet both survive.I had a problem with some of the time lines in the picture. For example, Nick meets Udo on the way to prison but we don't see him again for at least a third of the film and never in the prison. When Nick turns states evidence, we casually learn that he has been away for three years and in the interim, Udo somehow has been released. And Nettie appears out of nowhere and seems to be carrying a torch for Nick in spite of their age differences.Victor Mature was always, in my opinion, a much better actor than his "hunk" image allowed. In this film he gives a powerful performance as the tragic Nick. Widmark, in his breakthrough role, steals the picture with his over the top performance as the demented killer Udo. I can't say that I agree with his make up consisting of an exaggerated over bite and fright wig used to apparently enhance his animal like mannerisms.Others in the cast include Karl Malden and Millard Mitchell as cops and John Marley as a convict friend of Nick.

In the criminal world, a rat is a dirty word, and even in law enforcement, those who squeal on the criminals the police are desperate to catch are not always trusted or even liked. Paroled thief Victor Mature finds out that the best way to be a rat is to disappear, yet even that is not easy with the word of mouth spreading after he testifies against psychopathic murderer Richard Widmark, a trial that results in Widmark being acquitted because of his powerful defense. Widmark lies in waiting, like a hungry cat, waiting to pounce, playing with him like real felines do with their prey.This exciting New York City set film noir utilizes the beautiful Elmer Bernstein music "Street Scene" to unfold its story, showing the viewer what lead Mature to being imprisoned, his decisions to rat out fellow prisoner Widmark, and the impact it has on his family. Widmark, the most unforgettable film noir villain, possesses an evil laugh, which when it appears usually mean that a gun or some other method of murder will be appearing as well. This laugh becomes truly menacing in particular when he confronts the wheel-chair bound mother of another rat as to her son's whereabouts.Mature's character, while a crook, is certainly worthy of sympathy. His character witnessed the police killing of his father as a child, was forced by poverty into a life of crime, and his latest imprisonment was as a result of not being able to find a job because of his ex-con status. Then, there's his unseen wife, whom we find out can't take the pressures of poverty, the former baby sitter (Coleen Gray) who becomes Mature's new love interest, and the threat that Widmark imposes on them when his acquittal makes him a free man. This is where the suspense comes in, and a sequence where the sleepless Mature tiptoes around his house with concern for his two daughter's safety is like the ticking of the clock in "High Noon". The ending is unique in the sense that it leaves the viewer with a sense of both hope and justice.

No need to recap the plot. At first I thought those lovey-dovey scenes with Mature and Gray were just Hollywood working in a woman's angle in a man's picture. But, no, they're necessary for building the tension, so thick by movie's end, you can cut it with the proverbial knife. After all, what could be sweeter than the two little daughters and Gray, on one hand, and the pathologically sadistic Widmark, on the other. As a result, we understand why Mature risks life and limb to get the madman before he gets the little family.Also, the tension really works because we know Widmark's nutcase would slice-and-dice Santa, given half a chance. Just the thought of pain sends him into maniacally drooling giggles. Watch his girlfriend freeze up in fear when he even hints at anger. His world is divided into two, either Big Men or Squirts, and we know what happens to the latter. In fact, Udo's one of the most memorable of all Hollywood psychos and a really shuddery movie debut for otherwise nice guy, Widmark.It's also a good tight screenplay from Hecht-Lederer, the scenes building effectively on one another and the location filming. Note also, how they manage to sneak in the brief bordello ("perfume") scene at a time when such was taboo. Mature too, is surprisingly effective as the reformed crook, his scenes with the little girls conveying genuine emotion. And was there ever a slipperier mob lawyer than the great Taylor Holmes, one of those unsung personalities who always added color to whatever they were in. I guess my only gripe is the ending. Okay, I'll give the screenplay the implausible trap that Nick sets since it's so nerve-wracking. But five shots into Nick at point blank range, only to be hauled away to recovery. Come on! Five is just too many to survive. My guess is the reassuring voice-over from wife Nettie (Gray) was at the insistence of the censors. Nonetheless, the movie furnishes one of the best crime dramas of the decade and grist for a thousand celebrity impersonations.