Seeking redemption in the small town of Grantville, Kelly (Constance Towers) leaves behind her street walking lifestyle and finds a job as a nurse helping handicapped children. Her upbeat and dedicated personality make an immediate impact and she's able to start building a new life of her own.
But barriers lie in her way, established by Police Captain Griff (Anthony Eisley), who, having spent the night with her upon her arrival in town, passing his days watching new women arrive on the bus, seducing them, and then recommending that they find work at a sleazy night club, refuses to give her a fighting chance and consistently threatens her with full disclosure.
The situation erupts after her hand is sought by a wealthy local bachelor who has been instrumental in building the town, yet has a few secrets of his own.
Samuel Fuller's The Naked Kiss is blunt, bold, and bellicose, plunging headfirst into the inferno and intensely categorizing its flames. It proceeds at an accelerated pace, quickly moving from one scene to the next, confidently building a momentum whose volatile reactions simplify and complicate its rhythms.
Kelly's transformation is definitive and she uses her newfound energy to combat the forces which once constituted her moribund vitality. She thereby carves herself a place on the other side of the tracks whose foundations are troubled by the stereotypical baggage attached to her former way of life.
Some of the sharp distinctions maintained by The Naked Kiss could have used some more elaboration, but deviating from the film's over-the-top charge would have disoriented its ballistic aesthetic. Thoroughly advocating for personal transformations, it still oversimplifies what is necessary for these transformations to take place.
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