The idiomatic expression the kiss of death refers to:
- a fatal or destructive relationship or action; as in
The support of the outlawed group was the kiss of death to the candidate. (Origin 1945-1950)
(Random House Dictionary)
Etymonline confirms the date of origin as 1944 an the Billboard as the possible source:
- Kiss of death in figurative sense "thing that signifies impending failure" is from 1944 (Billboard, Oct. 21), ultimately in reference to Judas's kiss in Gethsemane (Matthew xxvi.48-50).
The following site makes an interesting assumption about the origin suggesting that it comes from a Mafia custom which was popularized in movies (but it doesn't cite sources):
- From the fabled Mafia practice. A kiss from the Don meant curtains for the receiver.
No doubt popularized in this country by Mafia movies, but the practice goes back much, much further, at least to Roman days. And let's not forget Judas kissing Jesus's cheek to identify him to the guards.
(www.englishforstudents.com)
Questions:
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Did the the figurative usage of the expression "the kiss of death" really originate in Mafia movies of the forties?
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What does the 1944 Billboard citation refer to?
Best Answer
Here's the quote from The Billboard (10/21/44):
The term "electrical transcription" means recorded. Radio audiences initially disapproved of musical programs that didn't broadcast live music.
Did this phrase originate with the mafia (or with the mafia as portrayed in 1940s gangster films)? If it's the mafia, I'd expect there to be an Italian equivalent, and if Wikipedia's source is to be believed, there is, but it's
that is, the kiss of Judas. The Italian for kiss of death is "Il bacio della morte", and the google shows that Italians employ it in the same figurative sense, but my patience and Italian aren't good enough to get beyond modern usage. Wikipedia reports the claim of an unnamed Italian source that the kiss is given not to a victim but to his assassin as a green light for the killing. But of course, I can't check that. Wikipedia also relies on L'espresso to claim that the expression goes back to the nineteenth century. I assume that's the Italian newspaper, but it's from 1979, and I can't check that either.
For English, the Ngram viewer finds the earliest use from 1807 in the play Percy: A Tragedy by Hannah Moore:
But this is the personification of mortality, and it can be found well past the 1940s, e.g., a paper in a 1961 volume of Psychoanalysis and the Psychoanalytic Review uses the phrase to describe Othello's line from the eponymous Shakespeare play
In the sense of betrayal, we know that the phrase had currency in the 1940s because of the film noir Kiss of Death (1947) starring Victor Mature and Brian Donlevy (and which gave Richard Widmark his first role). The plot concerns criminals and betrayals, and all the important characters have Italian last names. But there is no portrayal of a literal, fatal kiss in the movie.
The heyday of early gangster movies was the 1930s, with Little Caesar (1930), The Public Enemy (1931), and Scarface (1932). Only the first and third had villains with Italian names (Edward G Robinson as Rico and Paul Muni as Tony Camonte, respectively). Even given the prominence of Thomas Dewey, who successfully prosecuted mafioso head "Lucky" Luciano in 1936, crime dramas by the Forties had become film noir, like The Glass Key (1942) and The Big Sleep (1946). The earlier films concentrated on the shock value of criminal acts, and the later ones on atmosphere. Neither types of film told the story of mafia life and custom, and I don't believe the kiss appears in any.
We have the kiss from two sources. The first, The Valachi Papers (1968 book and 1972 film), in which mob boss Vito Genovese kisses the title character to signal the former's acknowledgement of the latter's betrayal. The second from The Godfather, Part II (1974) in which Michael kisses Fredo.
But these are long after the supposed origin. For now, we'll have to go with the Scottish verdict.