“Kiss the Blood Off My Hands” (1948) starring Burt Lancaster & Joan Fontaine / Z-View

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (1948)

Director:  Norman Foster

Writer:  Leonardo Bercovici (screenplay),Walter Bernstein, Ben Maddow (adaptation), Hugh Gray (dialogue), Philip MacDonald (uncredited) based on the novel Kiss the Blood Off My Hands by Gerald Butler

Stars: Joan Fontaine, Burt Lancaster, Robert Newton, Jay Novello and Reginald Sheffield

Tagline: “A Hunted Man! A Love-Haunted Woman! Caught! With Every Kiss More Reckless, More Dangerous Than the Last”

The Plot…

Bill Saunders (Lancaster) is a former POW suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. He’s on the run for accidentally killing a man.  In order to escape the police, Bill enters a window. Jane Wharton (Fontaine) wakes to find a stranger in her room.  Jane believes Bill that the man’s death was an accident.

Bill and Jane slowly develop a relationship.  All is going well until, Harry Carter (Newton) a local hood, recognizes Bill from the fight that killed a man.  Carter says he will go to the police unless Bill helps him with a planned robbery.  Bill wants no part of the deal, but knows if he goes to jail he’ll lose Jane.

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands was ahead of it’s time in the portrayal of PTSD.  Yet, the love affair and ending of the film is right out of the 40s.

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands earns 3 of 5 stars.