Strangers Kiss

Summary

“When I’m kissing her, it’s hard to stop.”

Fun City Editions consistently introduces me to films that I probably would not have discovered otherwise. Their focus is typically on dramas from the Seventies or Eighties (with some notable exceptions from the Nineties) that have artistic merit to them that makes them interesting. For example, their release of Rancho Deluxe introduced me to the works of novelist Thomas McGuane, or their release of Morvern Callar sent me back to listening to some of the ambient albums that I heard when I was working at CD Warehouse as a teenager. Their film releases have been consistently engaging for me, even if some of the genre films they pick may not be in my preferred niche. Jonathan Hertzberg has done an excellent job of curating his label, and some of my favorite releases of the last few years have been from FCE (If you haven’t picked up their excellent release of Cutter’s Way, you are missing out.) Strangers Kiss is another interesting pick for the label. The film stars Victoria Tennant, Blaine Novak, Richard Romanus, and Peter Coyote (whom had also appeared in FCE’s release of Heartbreakers.) Strangers Kiss is a fairly low budget film written by Blaine Novak and Matthew Chapman. Chapman served as the Director of the film. I was interested to check it out, largely because Matthew Chapman went on to write Color of Night, which is a maligned film that I happen to love. Blaine Novak had written the screenplay with Peter Bogdanovich for his film They All Laughed which starred Playboy playmate Dorothy Stratton. While that film was being edited, Dorothy Stratton was brutally assaulted and killed by her jealous manager and estranged husband Paul Snyder in a murder-suicide after Dorothy had left Snyder for Bogdanovich. Novak’s career did not really take off after appearing in that film or after his starring role in Strangers Kiss, but Matthew Chapman went on to have a solid career as both a writer and director. I watched Strangers Kiss last night.

Hollywood, 1955 – At Culver Studios, a group of actors stand waiting on the lot. A producer arrives and tells them the filmmakers have just enough money to make the film, but not enough to pay the actors. The director, Stanley (Peter Coyote,) and the producer, Farris (Dan Shor,) interview numerous unknowns for the role of a boxer in the film. Actor Stevie Blake (Blaine Novak) shows up to the audition and says that he can play anything. Stevie wins them over. They introduce Stevie to the pretty blonde actress Carol (Victoria Tennant) who will play the role of his onscreen romantic interest Betty. Carol’s boyfriend Frank Silva (Richard Romanus) is wealthy and is bankrolling the picture. Frank will front the film week by week in cash. He tells Stanley and Farris to keep Carol happy because she has been depressed and needs to build back her confidence. As the shoot moves forward Carol’s confidence builds as she does well in her role, but Carol begins to pay less attention to Frank. Frank has a mean side to him and is not above evicting the poor tenants of his housing projects. On set, Stevie develops a crush on Carol. Their offscreen flirtations put pressure on the filmmakers, as their source of funding becomes jealous of the attention that Carol is paying toward Stevie. 

Strangers Kiss is an interesting film. It has a lot of elements that work, but it has one major aspect of the picture that did not quite gel for me. First and foremost, I think the script overall is pretty well written and enjoyable. Drawing on Kubrick’s production of Killer’s Kiss as its inspiration, the screenwriters crafted a pretty good yarn with some solidly rendered characters. The dialogue in the picture works. I liked the overall story of the picture and the actions taken by the main characters seemed logical for the most part. The direction by Matthew Chapman is pretty good given his limited resources, and the cinematography by Russian born Misha Suslov is very good overall. They were able to get a lot of mileage out of the old lighting gear and props that were available to them at the soundstages of Culver Studios. I also thought the saxophone jazz played by composer Gato Barbieri was great and lent a lot to the picture.

Richard Romanus, who is probably best known for his role in Mean Streets, is well cast as the cuckolded Frank. Romanus had just the right mixture of power and sensitivity that the role required. He is very believable in a pretty melancholy part. I also really liked Peter Coyote in the film as Stanley. Coyote is a very good actor, and he steals the film whenever he shows up onscreen. His part has some of the best dialogue, and he delivers it with panache. Victoria Tennant first came to my attention when I watched her act in Steve Martin’s L.A. Story. It was nice to see her in the role of Betty. Matthew Chapman was dating her at the time, so it is safe to say that the camera loves her in the film. Dan Shor is also enjoyable in the smaller role of the film producer Farris. 

All of these elements of the picture work. Unfortunately, Blaine Novak struck me as completely miscast as Stevie. Blaine just does not have the look that someone would need to portray a leading man/ boxer type. I don’t think his acting in the film is bad. He delivers his lines well. I just don’t think he was right for the role. That really impacted the film for me, because his casting hurt the credibility of everything that unfolds from the love story to the film’s production within the film. This is a case where one casting decision really hurt the film’s overall impact. I think if he had been cast as Farris and they had looked for an excellent lead that could match better with Victoria Bennett onscreen, this picture would have been a resounding success. 

So – I enjoyed Strangers Kiss, but felt like that one casting decision could have been improved. I am still glad that I watched the film despite that issue.

Video

Strangers Kiss comes to Blu-ray in 1080p in 1.85:1 aspect ratio with an MPEG-4 AVC encode from a brand new 4K transfer derived from the film’s 35mm internegative. I think that what Russian cinematographer Misha Suslov was able to achieve on the micro budget they were working with was very impressive. In one of the special features Matthew Chapman discussed how Misha was able to use a number of the remaining lights that were still in existence in the soundstages of Culver Studios. This effect is particularly impressive in the sequences where the film stock turns to black and white for the film within a film. The grain is well resolved and color timing is natural looking. Fans should be very pleased.

Audio

Fun City Editions has provided a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track in English. The score by Gato Barbieri sounded really good to my ears, but I am a sucker for some of the saxophone jazz in Eighties films. Dialogue is clear and the track is a good representation of the original source material. 

Supplements:

• Booklet – features an essay by Peter Tonguette.
• Commentary features movie critic Walter Chaw.
• “Distributor to Producer” – Douglas Dilg discusses his career in film distribution which led him to Bertolucci, Bogdanovich, and Strangers Kiss.
• “An Enemy of Cliché” – this video conference interview with co-writer Blaine Novak will be of particular interest to anyone who knows the story of Bogdonovich’s doomed relationship with Dorothy Stratton. Blaine Novak introduced the two. Novak had an extremely interesting time in Hollywood where he started out distributing independent films with John Cassavetes, lived with Bogdanovich for a time, and also was mentored by Bernardo Bertolucci who essentially tricked Blaine into marrying one of his lovers so that unbeknownst to Blaine, Bernardo could continue an affair. Needless to say, this is a really interesting interview and well worth your time.
• “It Felt Magical” – in this interview with Victoria Tennant, the charming actress recalls how Strangers Kiss came together and her numerous memories of working on the film.
• “Comradeship and Love”- this is an excellent interview with co-writer/director Matthew Chapman who discusses his memories of writing and directing the film while he was dating Victoria Tennant, fundraising through deferment of pay in order to make the film for $150,000 alongside producer Michael White, and his memories of working with chainsmoking Russian cinematographer Misha Suslov on the Culver Studios lot.
• “Stanley’s Film” – a video essay by Chris O’Neill.
• Image Gallery
• Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 4.5/5

Overall – 4/5

Strangers Kiss has a lot of things going for it, but the miscasting of one of the lead actors hurt the film’s ability to achieve believability for me. I appreciate Fun City Editions for finding and championing this low budget drama that will be of special interest in particular to fans of Kubrick, whose film Killer’s Kiss served as the inspiration for the film within the film. The release has solid technical specs and some very good special features. For fans of Strangers Kiss, this release should be added to their library immediately. Fun City Editions has gone above and beyond to create an amazing release of this low budget romantic drama. For blind buyers, this release comes recommended with some slight reservations (which I mentioned already.)