Editing Kiss Me Deadly (section)

==Plot==
[[Mike Hammer (character)|Mike Hammer]] is a tough private investigator who, with the assistance of his associate and lover Velda, typically works on "penny-ante divorce cases." One evening, Hammer is forced to suddenly stop his sports car by Christina, an escapee from a nearby psychiatric hospital, who is running barefoot along the road, wearing nothing but a trench coat. Hammer gives her a ride. Christina asks him, whatever happens, to "remember me," alluding to a poem by [[Christina Rossetti]]. Thugs waylay them, and Hammer hears Christina screaming as she is tortured to death. The thugs then push Hammer's car off a cliff with Christina's body and an unconscious Hammer inside.

Hammer comes to in a hospital with Velda hovering over him. He decides to investigate Christina's death, believing that it "must be connected with something big." He retrieves a book of poetry from the dead woman's apartment and reads aloud several lines from Rosetti's poem, "Remember", as he tries to figure out what that something might be.

Hammer goes to the apartment of Lily Carver, who says she was Christina's roommate. Lily tells Hammer she is in hiding and asks him to protect her. She is after a mysterious box that, she believes, has contents worth a fortune. Hammer later arrives at the lavish mansion of gangster Carl Evello, who also seeks the box. Hammer fends off Charlie Max and Sugar Smallhouse, two of Evello's henchmen, and then confronts Evello, who is initially impressed by Hammer's brazenness and offers to work out a deal, but swiftly retracts the offer.

Hammer's friend, Nick the auto mechanic, who helped defuse bombs planted in Hammer's car, is then murdered. Carl's thugs kidnap Hammer and take him to an isolated beach house, where another of their associates, Dr. G. E. Soberin (revealed to be responsible for the murders of Christina and Nick), injects him with [[sodium pentothal]] before interrogating him.

Carl Evello comes in to question him, but gets nothing. Mike manages to work one hand free from the ropes. He calls out and Carl returns. He lures Carl over and knocks him out. Mike pretends to be Evello and summons Sugar in to kill Mike. Sugar enters the darkened room and stabs his boss, thinking it is Mike. Mike kills Sugar and escapes. 

Mike determines that Christina had hidden a key for him to find. In a locker at the Hollywood Athletic Club, he locates the suspiciously hot box, which burns his arm. But when he goes to his friend Lieutenant Murphy for help, Murphy warns him off, hinting it has to do with a top-secret government experiment akin to the [[Manhattan Project]].

Hammer goes back to the [[beach house]]. Before he arrives, Lily, now revealed to be an imposter named Gabrielle, is there with Soberin. They have the box, and have Velda locked in a bedroom. Gabrielle shoots Soberin to get the box for herself. With his dying words, Soberin urges the insatiably curious Gabrielle not to open it.

When Hammer comes into the room, Gabrielle says, "Kiss me, Mike," and shoots him. She then opens the box, which emits a blinding light and piercing sound. Gabrielle screams and bursts into flames. Hammer, wounded, struggles to his feet and looks for Velda. Together, the pair flee the burning house, helping each other along the beach to the ocean as the house explodes behind them and becomes consumed in flames.<ref name="Grdn">{{cite news |title=Top 10 film noir |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/nov/29/top-10-film-noir |access-date=24 November 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=29 November 2013}}</ref>