Naked Kiss, The | Blu-ray

Back when double-bills used to be common at the theater, and a ticket might buy you a seat for the day if you had nothing else to do, there was a real art to the B-movie. The A-side picture would be your star vehicle, your high budget money maker. The B-movie was there to give fans something like what they were already keyed up to watch, for a lot less money. There was less pressure to make something stellar, but a lot more freedom to make something fun, after all it wasn’t like the movie cost much of anything to make.

In that system, certain directors became masters at delivering cheap thrills to audiences all across the world. Roger Corman and Ed Wood both carved out their own slices of fame producing low-budget monster movie thrills and chills. But there may be no truer artist of the B-picture than Samuel Fuller.

Fuller was a master at crafting roles for whatever talent he had on hand. Operating largely on noir and crime scripts, his films were unfailingly unique, and often ahead of their time sociopolitically.

Released in 1964, the Naked Kiss looks a lot more like a 90s indie darling than it does something produced on the tail end of the Old Hollywood system. The story of a former sex worker who moves to the suburbs, where she struggles to overcome her past while fighting against the depravity of the middle class. It’s a film that presages John Waters’ work in the 70s and 80s and one the director has often championed as a fundamental text.

Special Features (via criterion.com)

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• New video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis
• Excerpts from a 1983 episode of The South Bank Show dedicated to director Samuel Fuller
• Interview with Fuller from a 1967 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps
• Interview with Fuller from a 1987 episode of the French television series Cinéma cinémas
• Original theatrical trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes and a new essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller’s autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking