Taglines: Smart Girls. Pretty Girls. Missing Girls.
Kiss the Girls movie storyline. Washington, D.C. detective and forensic psychologist Alex Cross (Morgan Freeman) heads to Durham, North Carolina when his niece Naomi (Gina Ravera), a college student, is reported missing. He learns from the local police, including Detective Nick Ruskin (Cary Elwes), that Naomi is the latest in a series of young women who have vanished. Soon after his arrival, one of the missing women is found dead, bound to a tree in a desolate forest, and shortly after that, intern Kate McTiernan (Ashley Judd) is kidnapped from her home.
When she awakens from a drugged state, Kate discovers that she is being held captive by a masked man calling himself Casanova, and she is one of several prisoners trapped in his lair. She manages to escape and is severely injured when she jumps from a cliff and into a river to escape from his clutches. After she recuperates, she joins forces with Cross to track down her sadomasochist captor, whom Cross concludes is a collector, not a killer, unless his victims fail to follow his rules. This means there is time to rescue the other imprisoned women, as long as they remain obedient.
Clues lead them to Los Angeles, where a series of gruesome kidnappings and murders have been credited to Dr. William Rudolph (Tony Goldwyn), a man known as The Gentleman Caller. Cross deduces he is working in collusion with rather than imitating his East Coast counterpart, but Cross’s efforts to capture and question Rudolph are foiled when Rudolph escapes. Upon returning to North Carolina, Cross traces up the river. Alerted by a gunshot, he discovers the underground hideaway used by Casanova, as well as his true identity. Rudolph is revealed to be Casanova’s partner. Casanova escapes, while Rudolph is shot by Cross. Cross rescues the kidnapped women, including Naomi.
After all that has happened, Kate invites Cross to dinner at her house to get away from work. Ruskin drops by Kate’s house and sends home the two officers guarding her. While Cross is at home preparing to meet Kate for dinner, he discovers that Ruskin’s signature on the arrest warrants matches Casanova’s handwriting. Cross tries telephoning Kate to inform her that Ruskin is the real Casanova, but Ruskin has already disconnected her phone line.
While conversing with Ruskin, Kate becomes suspicious of his creepy elaborations. Ruskin then drops his Southern accent, revealing he is Casanova. After a fight and attempted rape, Kate manages to handcuff him to the oven. Ruskin slashes Kate’s arm with a kitchen knife. In attempting to free himself, Ruskin pulls the oven away from the wall, rupturing the gas pipe.
Kiss the Girls is a 1997 American neo noir psychological thriller film directed by Gary Fleder and starring Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, and Cary Elwes. The screenplay by David Klass is based on the best-selling novel Kiss the Girls by James Patterson. A sequel titled Along Came a Spider was released in 2001.
Principal photography began on April 16, 1996. The film shot two weeks on location in North Carolina on the streets of Durham, in nearby County parks, and outside a Chapel Hill, North Carolina residence. The police station was constructed in a downtown Durham warehouse. The majority of filming occurred in the Los Angeles area, with locations including the Disney Ranch, The Athenaeum at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, a house in the Adams historic district of Los Angeles, and on the campus of the University of Southern California in University Park. Designed by American production designer Nelson Coates, the majority of the sets, including the tunnels and underground chambers, were constructed in sound stages on the Paramount Studios lot. Filming was completed on July 10, 1996.
Kiss the Girls (1997)
Directed by: Gary Fleder
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Ashley Judd, Cary Elwes, Tony Goldwyn, Jay O. Sanders, Alex McArthur, Brian Cox, Roma Maffia, Jeremy Piven, Helen Martin, Tatyana Ali, Mena Suvari, Gina Ravera
Screenplay by: David Klass
Production Design by: Nelson Coates
Cinematography by: Aaron Schneider
Film Editing by: Armen Minasian, Harvey Rosenstock, William Steinkamp
Costume Design by: Abigail Murray
Set Decoration by: Linda Lee Sutton
Art Direction by: Joseph A. Hodges
Music by: Mark Isham
MPAA Rating: R for terror, violence and language.
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: October 3, 1997
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