The New Pictures, Nov. 8, 1948

Kiss the Blood Off My Hands (Universal), from the British thriller of the same name,* is told in a despairing cinematic monotone almost as dismal as its title. A beached merchant sailor (Burt Lancaster) cracks the skull of a London pubkeeper, for no very good reason, and escapes the bobbies by climbing into the bedroom of a prim nurse (Joan Fontaine). With more kindness than gumption, she concludes that a young man so desperately weary is worth protecting. From the moment Nurse Fontaine makes this silly decision, her fate is hitched to...