Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly is rich with symbolic allusions, complex plot threads, and nuclear paranoia about the atomic bomb. It has all the elements of great film noir - a stark opening sequence, destructive femme fatales, low-life gangsters, an anti-hero, expressionistically-lit night-time scenes, a vengeful quest, and a dark mood of hopelessness. (Filmsite Movie Review)

Mickey Spillane’s pulp fiction story, featuring the private eye Mike Hammer, becomes, in Aldrich’s hands, a film noir thriller which provides a glimpse at the horror of the atom bomb. ‘It’s the roughest, least compromising film noir of them all.’ (The Guardian)