from Gerald Butler's popular novel, the film has Lancaster accidentally kill a man in a bar brawl. [...] But a warped and oily character, played with considerable skill by Robert Newton, gets the pair in his clutches. [...] Lancaster and Miss Fontaine are effective in the leads. Under Norman Foster's direction, the camera frames many interesting touches. Richard Vernon produced, from the screenplay by Leonardo Bercovici". The New York Times wrote on October 30, 1948: "The process of humanizing Burt Lancaster obviously is not going to be easy and it is going to take time. Mr. Lancaster is handy with his fists and speaks most eloquently when using them. But to develop fully as an actor and to come over to the right side of society he will have to make a break someday, for there are only so many variations on the theme of being misunderstood and Mr. Lancaster has just about exhausted them all. In Kiss the Blood Off My Hands," which opened yesterday at Loew's Criterion. Mr. Lancaster is again fighting an uphill battle against society and "forces" which pressure him into a mood of sullen belligerency. Notwithstanding its gruesome title, "Kiss the Blood Off My Hands" is not a lurid crime picture. It is, rather, a thoughtful, sombre drama of an ill-starred couple and their plaintive struggle for happiness. It is a conventional drama, but a surprisingly interesting one that builds steadily toward a third-act climax (something few films do these days). Leonardo Bercovici has written an orderly screen play, though his central character is not sharply defined. Bill Saunders, a former soldier who developed a violent aversion to taking orders after spending two years in a Nazi prison camp, appears to be more of a born misfit than a man warped by circumstances. Quick-tempered and pugnacious he accidentally kills a man. In a frantic effort to elude the police he breaks into the apartment of Jane Wharton, wins her sympathy and convinces her of his innocence. This is put to a strong test when he gets into subsequent trouble and is sentenced to six months in jail, but by now love has conquered reason. Were it not for the restraint and intelligence that Joan Fontaine brings to the role of Jane Wharton the drama no doubt would come apart at the seams. For one cares more about what is likely to happen to Jane Wharton