The Naked Kiss (1964)

In writer/director Sam Fuller's unorthodox, bold and raw, feminist B-film and sordid, film-noirish melodrama - it provided a treatise about the abuse and exploitation of women by perverse, misogynistic men and women, and the hypocrisy of middle-class morality:

• in the violent, fierce and striking pre-titles opening scene (with a jazzy score and great alternating POV shots), call-girl Kelly (Constance Towers) beat her abusive, drunk pimp Farlunde (Monte Mansfield) with her handbag and spike-heeled pump, when he suddenly pulled at her hair - and revealed her bald and shaved scalp [Note: Cheating Farlunde had cut off her hair in retaliation for her urging of six prostitutes to walk out on him and leave his "stable"]; after he fell to the floor, she sprayed him with seltzer water, took only $75 cash that belonged to her (of the $800 dollars in his wallet, emphasizing her morals: "I'm taking only what's coming to me") and called him out: "You parasite!"; she stuffed the cash in her bra, adjusted her wig and makeup, ripped up her clientele photo, and then strode away, as he struggled to get up - there was a view of a calendar marking July 4th, 1961 (Kelly's 'independence day')!
• about two years later, Kelly arrived by Greyhound bus in the seemingly wholesome and idyllic suburban community of Grantville; the marquee of the town's theatre advertised the showing of the director's previous film Shock Corridor (1963) - about madness in a mental hospital; at the bus station, she spoke to future love interest - low-life town Police Captain Griff (Anthony Eisley) who remarked about her appearance: "That's enough to make a bulldog bust his chain"; she was posing as a traveling saleslady for "Angel Foam" (champagne); Griff responded with sexual innuendo: "I'm pretty good at popping the cork if the vintage is right"
• after an interlude of sleeping together (he was her first customer - for $20), he already had suspected that she was a call-girl, and firmly suggested that she find a job "across the river" in the wide-open town of Delmar Falls across the state line; he proposed that she work at a "salon" run by his personal friend, Madam Candy Allacarte (Virginia Grey), whose full name was Candy a La Carte; the salon was a front for prostitution selling "bon-bons" that looked like it was populated by Playboy Bunnies; he suggested he could become a frequent 'sex' customer there: "I'll buy a bottle from ya now and then...You'll be my Ichiban" (meaning "number one"), since it advertised "Indescribable Pleasure"
• Kelly decided instead to completely reform herself - with a "do-gooder" job in town as a pediatric nurse at the Grantville Orthopaedic Medical Center, specializing in helping handicapped and crippled children; Head Nurse Mac (Patsy Kelly) recalled hiring her to Griff: "She came out of the clouds one night without a single reference. I hired her on the spot... Some people are born to write books, symphonies, paint pictures, build bridges. But Kelly - she was born to handle children with crutches and babies in braces...she's tough! Runs her ward like a pirate ship! She makes Captain Bligh look like a sissy"
• Kelly resolutely told Griff about her turnabout and complete transformation from her old way of life: "I saw a broken down piece of machinery. Nothing but the buck, the bed and the bottle for the rest of my life. That's what I saw"; she was angry at his insinuations: "You were the only buyer I had in this town, and my last one!" - and emphasized she had really changed and would no longer use her body for her livelihood
• in a fantasy sequence, Kelly worked with the children - she exhorted them to pretend that they were healthy and could run without physical impediments
• Kelly became involved in a romance with Griff's war hero-partner - the most respected, charitable and wealthy citizen of the community - philanthropist bachelor J. L. Grant (Michael Dante), the wealthy grandson of the town's founder who had single-handedly built and sponsored the Medical Center; in a gondola fantasy sequence, Kelly joyfully imagined herself with Grant lying back on cushions on a canal boat in the fabled city (after viewing 16 mm footage of his recent trip to Italy), with a gondolier singing in the background; Grant told her: "If you pretend hard enough, and if you listen hard enough, you'll hear his fine Italian voice"
• Kelly gave puritanical advice to her young nurse friend Buff (Marie Devereux); she slapped her and vehemently urged her to not accept a position at Candy's club for $300/week:
  • "All right, go ahead. You know what's different about the first night? Nothing. Nothing, except it lasts forever, that's all. You'll be sleeping on the skin of a nightmare for the rest of your life. Oh, you're a beautiful girl, Buff. Young. Oh, they'll outbid each other for you. You'll get compliments, clothes, cash. And you'll meet men you live on, and men who live on you. And those are the only men you'll meet. And, after a steady grind of making every john feel at home, you'll become a block of ice. And if you do happen to melt a little, you'll get slipped a tip behind Candy's back. You'll be every man's wife-in-law, and no man's wife. Why, your world with Candy will become so warped that you'll hate all men. And you'll hate yourself! Because you'll become a social problem, a medical problem, a mental problem! And a despicable failure as a woman!"
• to retaliate against Madam Candy, Kelly repeatedly bitch-slapped the vampirish salon owner with her handbag in the club office, then stuffed Buff's first night's cash earnings of $25 into her mouth, and warned her to "stay away from Buff"
• Kelly also helped a single nurse's aid who became pregnant, and borrowed money from Grant to assist the woman in leaving town rather than having an abortion
• eventually, Kelly revealed her own sordid and secret past to an indifferent Grant - he didn't flinch and immediately proposed marriage to her, but she hesitatingly responded: "I've got to think it out"; one night while drinking, she commiserated about her dilemma with a dress-making mannequin in her bedroom named "Charlie" (her landlady seamstress Josephine (Betty Bronson) had created the substitute for her lover who died in WWII); Kelly asked the dummy the question: "What should I do?"

Grant's Proposal of Marriage to Kelly

Kelly Commiserating with a Mannequin ("Charlie")

• during a sappy musical number, various disabled children sang: "Bluebird Of Happiness" (replayed later during the climactic revelation scene)
• Kelly paid a visit to Grant's home to show him her wedding dress and veil, when she was surprised to discover Grant's perversion as a predatory pedophile (with a tape of "Bluebird of Happiness" playing) - she saw Grant's young niece Bunny skipping out the front door from his place (after the girl was threatened with molestation (off-screen) during a "special game"); Grant was prompted to again propose marriage, claiming that he had forgiven Kelly for her past, and that his problems should also be overlooked: "Now you know why I could never marry a normal woman. That's why I love you. You understand my sickness. You've been conditioned to people like me. You live in my world, and it will be an exciting world! (He sank to his knees) My darling, our marriage will be a paradise because we're, we're both abnormal"

The Moment that Kelly Discovered Grant Was a Pervert and Pedophile

Grant Again Proposing Marriage to Kelly: ("We're both abnormal")

Kelly Accidentally Murdering Grant With a Phone Receiver

• in a stunning scene, Kelly accidentally murdered Grant when in anger, she picked up a phone receiver and bashed him in the head; the following day's headlines were superimposed - in bold white letters: "GRANT IS DEAD; SLAIN BY PROSTITUTE"; Kelly surrendered herself for arrest by Griff and explained her motive for killing the sexual deviant: "Once before, a man's kiss tasted like that. He was put away in a psycho ward. Oh, I got the same taste the first time Grant kissed me. It was, what we call a naked kiss. It's the sign of a pervert"
• without providing the little girl's identity, Kelly was charged with murder; Griff didn't believe Kelly's explanation, and suspected that Kelly killed Grant to silence him about her sordid call-girl past with former employers Farlunde and Candy; Kelly continued to argue that the murder was justifiable homicide
• character witnesses (including Farlunde, Candy and Buff) were called by Griff to testify against Kelly, to refute her claims and defame her, and to accuse her of blackmailing and extorting money from Grant; Candy even spitefully shouted: "Nobody shoves dirty money in my mouth!"
• during her incarceration, Kelly identified Grant's young molested niece outside her jail cell to help prove her case to Griff, although she at first forcibly coerced a confession from the young girl while shaking her: "Do you remember me?...Of course you remember me. You were at Uncle Grant's house. You remember Uncle Grant, don't you? Don't you remember Uncle Grant? 'Course you certainly remember Uncle Grant. You know him. You were at his house. Don't you remember that? Look at me! Don't you remember me? You know me!"
• after Kelly urged the girl to admit to her presence in Grant's home, the case against her was dismissed and she was vindicated: ("The judge and the DA gave ya a clean bill of health. The whole town's got you on a pedestal for what you did for the children"); triumphant, she thanked Griff with a kiss and departed from the town
• Kelly walked through a crowd of silent onlookers from town - presumably forever, as Griff noted: "She still owes me $10 bucks" Cop: "Then you'll be seeing her again" Griff: "She never makes change"; as she walked down the sidewalk, she admired a baby in a carriage