Stanley Kubrick's second feature was pretty much a one-man show: as writer, producer, director, cinematographer and editor, he did everything but star in Killer's Kiss. In 1955, the stock plot is already almost an homage to noir: two lonely young people, a taxi dancer and a boxer, already beaten down by the city, are drawn to one another but their relationship is short lived due to the jealous machinations of a frustrated nightclub owner. But within this framework, Kubrick's experiments with atmosphere are striking. Shooting on location in Manhattan and in a small New York studio, he evokes a dark emotional nightmare in which love (as the title suggests) is polluted by sexual violence. In this early film Kubrick is equally adept at establishing the mundane in quick, telling detail as he is in creating a surreal mood using obtuse flashbacks and negative film stock.