2 black-and-white movies wicked enough for Halloween

Angelus News highlights two black-and-white films by American director Robert Aldrich for the Halloween season: Kiss Me Deadly (1955) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962).

Kiss Me Deadly features Ralph Meeker as Mike Hammer, a blunt private investigator based on Mickey Spillane's pulp fiction character. The film follows Hammer, a violent vigilante who operates a firm. The story includes an opening sequence where Hammer encounters a woman named Christina Bailey on a deserted road. After being forced off the road by another vehicle, the pair is taken to an abandoned house where Christina is tortured to death and Hammer is beaten unconscious. The film concludes with their car being pushed over a cliff and bursting into flames, though Hammer survives.