Kiss the Blood Off My Hands is a 1948 American noir-thriller film directed by Norman Foster. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Gerald Butler, it stars Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, and Robert Newton.Back cover of Kiss the Blood Off My Hands, Rinehart Publishing, 1946 The film faced minor opposition from fundamentalist groups in the United States and the Commonwealth, with regard to its gory title. In some markets, the film was released under the alternate titles The Unafraid (in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and smaller towns in the United States) or Blood on My Hands (in the United Kingdom)."Picture of the Month: Kiss the Blood Off My Hands", Modern Screen December 1948 p57"Mitchum Too Thin for Film He Started Before Jail", The Evening Independent March 18 1949 p10The Ottawa Evening Citizen Wednesday, November 2nd, 1949 p27The Sydney Morning Herald Monday, June 13, 1949, p8
The film was the first production by Lancaster and his agent Harold Hecht's new film production company, Norma Productions (co-produced through Harold Hecht Productions). Kiss the Blood Off My Hands was financed and distributed through a one-picture deal with Universal-International Pictures, in exchange for Lancaster appearing in the studio's production of All My Sons. The film was set in London, England but was shot almost entirely at Universal-International Pictures' Sound Stage 21 from March to May 1948.. Some exterior scenes were shot on location at Los Angeles' Griffith Park Zoo and the Hollywood Park Racetrack.
The movie premiered on Friday, October 29, 1948, at Loew's Criterion Theater in New York City, and opened to over three hundred theaters in the United States starting on October 30 and through November 1948. In promotion of the film, Lancaster embarked on a tour performing a trapeze and acrobatic vaudeville act with his partner Nick Cravat. Some of the pair's stunts would be recreated and filmed for Norma Productions' next picture, the swashbuckler The Flame and the Arrow.
Plot Bill Saunders 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. As the police pursue Saunders, he sneaks into the apartment of Jane Wharton, a nurse, while she is sleeping. Wharton allows Saunders to stay overnight. The next morning, Wharton leaves for work and Saunders returns to his apartment. He then waits outside the hospital to meet with Wharton. He introduces himself and follows her to a zoo, much to her annoyance. However, the sound of the zoo animals traumatizes Saunders and they leave together. He interests Wharton into attending a horse race, and with Saunders's confidence, she wins a horse bet.
As Wharton leaves to collect her winnings, Saunders is approached by Harry Carter, who had witnessed the pub fight. On the way home, Saunders and Wharton take the express train ride, where Carter reencounters Saunders and proposes a partnership. Tom Widgery, an English man, enters their cart and they play a card game. However, Saunders suspects Widgery of cheating and assaults him. Wharton pulls an emergency brake and they leave the train. Wharton disavows Saunders, and when a policeman arrives, Saunders assaults him.
Saunders is found guilty of robbery and assault, and is given six months of hard labor for each charge. The judge also orders Saunders to be flogged. Saunders completes his sentence and during a game of pool, Carter proposes they collaborate to steal and transport penicillin supplies. Afterwards, Saunders reconnects with Wharton outside her apartment. Still in love with him, she has Saunders hired as a truck driver. While at work, Carter blackmails Saunders into performing the robbery.
On the night of the robbery, Wharton decides to ride with him. However, Saunders backs out temporarily so he does not involve Wharton. Sometime later, Carter arrives at Wharton's apartment and reveals Saunder's real crime and demands her complicity in the robbery. When Carter forces himself on her, Wharton stabs Carter with scissors but he survives. Saunders arrives and takes Carter to his apartment, where Carter holds Saunders at gunpoint and threatens to tell the police. Saunders gains the upper hand, and Carter dies.
At the docks, Saunders meets with the boat captain to have the stolen penicillin pay for their escape. Haunted by Carter's words, Wharton leaves her apartment but Saunders finds her on the street. They discuss on whether Saunders had intended to kill the publican and how they will live should they flee. They reaffirm their love for each other and decide to stay in England.
Cast
Production 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."Burt Lancaster - An American Life", Kate Buford, Da Capo - Article on book: Burt Lancaster: An American Life 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.Louis Rantz IMDB Credits Hecht and Rantz set up their office at 324 South Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills, California."Edith Barrett Listing", Film Daily Year Book, 1947, p491
During a show-going holiday in New York City in late November 1945, Lillian Schary, Dore Schary's sister, suggested to Hecht that he go see a new Broadway play at the Lyceum Theater. A Sound of Hunting, which had opened off-Broadway a couple of weeks earlier, was showcasing brand new actor Burt Lancaster. Hecht was immediately impressed with Lancaster's performance. He later said of that night "When I saw Burt Lancaster in A Sound of Hunting on Broadway (in 1945), I knew he had it. I don't know how you could miss it. He was so dominating, so much larger than life".The Indianapolis Star, May 23 1967, p14 Hecht attended the play many more times before it closed after only twenty-three performances on December 8, 1945; it fared better once adapted by Stanley Kramer into the film Eight Iron Men in 1952, with Lee Marvin reprising Lancaster's role.Burt Lancaster Broadway Credits, IBDBEight Iron Men, Jeremy Arnold, Turner Classic Movies
When nearly all of the major Hollywood studios started coming at Lancaster with contract offers, his friend and A Sound of Hunting co-star Sam Levene, an established stage and film actor, offered to represent him.The Tennessean, May 22 1955, p63 Together, they were invited to restaurants, hearing offers from independent producer David O. Selznick, head of Selznick International Pictures, 20th Century-Fox Film scouts and Harold B. Wallis' new Paramount Pictures-financed production company, Hal Wallis Productions, which had recently signed such talent as Kirk Douglas, Wendell Corey, Lizabeth Scott, Barbara Stanwyck, Don DeFore, Ann Richards, Kristine Miller, Douglas Dick and Betsy Drake.
Lancaster was then approached by Hecht, who hoped to bring the new unknown star back to Hollywood. When Levene introduced Hecht to Lancaster in their dressing room on the last night of the play, Hecht opted for honesty. He told Lancaster "I know everybody, but I have few clients. If you sign with me, you'd be important to me. I'd work harder for you because I want to eat and I'd have to keep you working". Contrary to popular quotes from the parties, Lancaster signed with Hecht before the mention of producing their own films was even mentioned. Lancaster immediately signed with the Hecht-Rantz Agency in his dressing room and then went out to celebrate at a restaurant. It was once at this restaurant that they talked some more about the film industry and Hecht said "You know, I don't like being an agent. I want to produce pictures". Lancaster replied that he too would like to produce films, which led to Hecht retorting "Maybe in five years we can make it".
Through Hecht's negotiations, Hal B. Wallis' new offer to Lancaster included a seven-year contract (the longest term a studio was legally allowed to keep an actor under contract at the time), with an option for one outside independent picture each year, giving the agent and actor the opportunity to produce a yearly film. However, Wallis' initial contract also forced Lancaster to make two pictures a year for Paramount Pictures, on top of respecting loan-out agreements. Wallis first planned for Lancaster to star in Desert Fury and sent him to Hollywood in early 1946 for a screen test with director Byron Haskin. Before Desert Fury was set to be filmed, between August and September 1946, Lancaster was loaned out to Mark Hellinger's film production company, Mark Hellinger Productions, for the starring role in the film noir The Killers.
A few months later, in April 1946, Hecht and Lancaster were sitting in the bar of the Barbizon-Plaza Hotel in New York City, having a last drink before Lancaster was off to Hollywood for the filming of The Killers.Arizona Republic, June 24 1956, p42 Lancaster was worried about the kind of movies he would be getting in Hollywood, when Hecht jokingly told him "Well Burt, if you don't like what you get into out there, we'll just produce our own films. That's the one way you're sure to get what you want!". Throughout the 1940s, every actor, producer and director hoped to start their own film production company to achieve creative freedom, but few were able to accomplish it due to contractual or financial obligations. The few that did manage to venture into productions of their own, most often did not last long enough to make an impact and rarely produced more than a handful of films. As it turned out, Hecht and Lancaster were able to produce their first film only nineteen months after meeting and remained in partnership for seventeen years, producing twenty-three motion pictures.
The Killers was filmed in the spring of 1946 and was released mere months later, in August 1946, through the newly merged Universal-International Pictures (previously two separate film companies). The film was an immediate box office success and received critical acclaim, making Lancaster an overnight film star with his first movie. Though Desert Fury was next filmed between August and September 1946, the film was kept in Paramount Pictures' backlog for an entire year, until August 1947, as Wallis' other productions rolled out to the public. The same delay occurred with Wallis' next Lancaster projects: Variety Girl was filmed in October—November 1946, but only released in August 1947, and I Walk Alone was filmed from December 1946 to February 1947, but was not released until January 1948. Following the back-to-back filming of those three Wallis productions at Paramount Pictures, Lancaster was again loaned out to Hellinger for another successful film noir, Brute Force. The film was shot from March to April 1947 and released without delay in July of that year though Universal-International Pictures.
As early as April 1947, Lancaster wanted to break his contract with Hal Wallis Productions, but it took six months of negotiations (and star-power appeal) for Wallis to grant better working conditions to the actor. Lancaster's renewed, but improved, seven-year contract with Wallis, signed in early October 1947, resulted with a decrease to one annual Paramount Pictures-distributed Hal Wallis Productions picture, and an increase to two independent production options a year."Lancaster-Wallis Deal", Variety, Wednesday, October 8, 1947, p4 This allowed Lancaster to deal directly with Mark Hellinger Productions, with which he signed a three-picture contract.