Samuel Fuller has a cult following for his films that I think is on par with Japanese director Seijun Suzuki. Both directors were known for their stylish takes on "B" genre film material. Both directors were innovative iconoclasts who strove to make art from their second tier scripts and assignments. The Naked Kiss (1964) is remarkable in particular for a number of reasons. In the opening scene a prostitute, Kelly (Constance Towers) with a shaved head beats her pimp with a shoe and takes the $75 that is owed to her before going on the lam. She lands in a small town and after one last job with the town cop, Griff (Anthony Eisely), she decides to go straight and gets a job at a Children's Hospital. Fullers doesn't pull any punches as pedophilia, prostitution, and abortion get major screen time in the story. It must have been shocking for the striaght laced audiences of the time and could only be smuggled into a "B" film-I suspect these themes would never make the final cut in a major Hollywood production in 1964.
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