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Mar 29, 2020 · Kiss The Blood off My Hands has a great scene with Burt, in his prime and shirtless, being flogged senseless. It ostensibly was an approved system of punishment handed out by the courts in post-war Britain, where the film is set.
- Masculinity
Mike Mills stated has stated “feelings are my genre.” 20th...
- Errol Flynn
Kiss The Blood off My Hands has a great scene with Burt, in...
- Masculinity
- Plot
- Cast
- Production
- Distribution
- Reception
- External Links
Bill Saunders (Burt Lancaster) is a Canadian former prisoner of war now living in England, whose experiences have left him unstable and violent. He gets into a pub fight in which he kills the publican and then flees. He hides out with the assistance of a nurse, Jane Wharton (Joan Fontaine), who believes his story that the killing was an accident. S...
Origin of Norma Productions
After serving in World War II, former theatre actor, film choreographer and literary agent Harold Hecht returned to Hollywood with plans to head his own talent agency. In September 1945, he formed the Hecht-Rantz Agency with his friend and former Goldstone Agency employee, Louis Rantz. Rantz had also worked in Hollywood during the mid-1930s, as an associate producer at Metropolitan Pictures, George A. Hirliman Productions and B.F. Zeidman Productions. Hecht and Rantz set up their office at 32...
Development and casting
Hecht and Lancaster's first independent film production was revealed to the press simultaneously with the announcement of their new film production company. As co-producer, Lancaster could have picked any type of role to play for his independent debut, but chose to stick to the crime dramas that had made him famous. Kiss the Blood Off My Hands would be a film noir adaptation of the 1940 British best-selling novel by Gerald Butler. The story could have just as easily been chosen by Mark Hellin...
Lawsuit
On March 1, 1948, two weeks before filming was scheduled to start, lawyer-turned-agent-turned-producer Charles K. Feldman filled a $1,000,000 damage lawsuit against ten people and companies associated with the production of the film: Universal-International Pictures, Norma Productions, Eagle-Lion Productions, Phil Berg-Bert Allenberg (Berg was Fontaine's agent, who had little to do with the film but was reputable enough to attract more attention to the suit), Harold Hecht, Burt Lancaster, Joa...
Preview and release
When heading into production in March 1948, Universal-International Pictures had scheduled to release Kiss the Blood Off My Hands in October of that year. Everything remained on schedule and the film was previewed in various cuts during the summer of 1948 to gauge audience reaction. Once the film was ready for general circulation, Norma Productions previewed the film in eleven key cities for members of the press from mid-to-late October 1948. The film officially premiered on Friday, October 2...
European distribution
On September 24, 1948, The Film Daily reported that Joseph H. Seidelman, head of foreign operations for Universal-International Pictures, took Kiss the Blood Off My Hands and eleven other Universal-International Pictures films (including Rampart Productions' You've Got to Stay Happy and Lancaster's next film Criss Cross which had been filmed from mid-June to mid-July 1948 during Kiss the Blood Off My Hand's post-production) over to Europe for distribution through markets in France, Holland, S...
Marketing
The film benefited from great publicity, mostly headed by Lancaster as Fontaine was indisposed after giving birth to her daughter. Lancaster wanted to raise awareness for his new production company and made himself available for all of Universal-International Pictures' publicity plans, spending from mid-October 1948 to early January 1949 promoting the film. Two weeks prior to the opening of the film, Hecht and Lancaster, accompanied by Norma Productions' advertising and publicity director Wil...
Box office
Although later downplayed as a commercial failure with lukewarm critical reception (perhaps only in comparison to Norma Productions' later films), the film did fairly well at the box office for an independent production and was driven by Lancaster's quick rise to fame. At the time, Lancaster was considered a sound investment, guaranteed for at least $1,000,000 in box office revenue. Within its first week, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands had grossed over $44,000 at Loew's Criterion Theater in New...
Critical response
Kiss the Blood Off My Handsreceived a consistently positive critical reception. Critics variously praised every aspect of the film, from its direction and photography, to its production values, its musical score, the strength of the script as well as the acting skills of Fontaine, Lancaster and Newton. 1. Boxofficewrote on October 16, 1948: "This first Harold Hecht-Norma production scores a bullseye with an exciting, romantic and plausible story against striking backgrounds of bomb-shattered...
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands at IMDbKiss the Blood Off My Hands at AllMovieKiss the Blood Off My Hands at the TCM Movie DatabaseKiss the Blood Off My Hands at the AFI Catalog of Feature FilmsAug 23, 2020 · Arnold researched the film's production schedule extensively and offers background information on the flogging scene, which already was outdated by the time the film was released. Such punishment was abolished by Criminal Justice Act 1948, an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, signed by King George VI on the 30th of July.
- Eric Somer
Kiss the Blood Off My Hands: Directed by Norman Foster. With Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, Robert Newton, Lewis L. Russell. Fugitive Bill Saunders and lonely nurse Jane Wharton are crossed by fate when he hides out in her apartment.
- (2.2K)
- Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
- Norman Foster
- 1948-10-30
KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS (1948) With such an evocative title, Kiss the Blood Off My Hands stood out like a beacon on my list of not-yet-seen film noirs. With A-listers like Burt Lancaster and Joan Fontaine at the top of the bill, I assumed it was locked up for legal reasons and would never be available for viewing.
Some exterior scenes were shot on location at Los Angeles's Griffith Park Zoo and Hollywood Park Racetrack. Burt Lancaster 's flogging ranks forty-third in the book, "Lash! The Hundred Great Scenes of Men Being Whipped in the Movies."
Nov 5, 2021 · 92 subscribers. Subscribed. 1. 302 views 2 years ago. A blackmailer (Robert Newton) hounds a World War II veteran (Burt Lancaster) hiding from the police with a nurse (Joan Fontaine) in London....
