[Inspector Abberline]

Kiss of Death (1947)
Victor Mature is Nick Bianco another loser petty criminal who gets shot by the police after a bungled robbery on xmas eve.Brian Donlevy (Mr Quatermass) is Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo who tries to get nick to grass on his accomplices for a lighter sentence.There's lots of arm bending by Donlevy to try and get Mature's Bianco to testify its only when he finds out that his wife and two kids were not looked after by his lawyer and the rest of the gang in fact his wife commits suicide worrying over money and the kids are put into a home.Bianco meets Tommy Udo( Richard Widmark) a rather disturbed and violent gangster.I have to say the plot is thicker than my old mum's gravy and just as bleak.Poor old Nick Bianco is really put through the ringer and especially when Udo is looking to kill Bianco for suspecting him off betraying him.Kiss of Death has an unusual feel almost documentary in style due to all the locations including interior shots being in real locales.Both Mature and Widmark are very good and Donlevy is his usual gruff self but none the worse for that.Overall a great film,and slightly different in style to most noirs's.Checkout the killing of the old woman in the wheel chair by Tommy Udo,a total nuter.

out 5