Kiss of Death (1947) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

Nick refused to name his partners because he believed they would take care of his wife and two young daughters while he served his time. He trusted that his lawyer Earl Howser and his fellow criminals would look after his family, so he chose to protect them instead of cooperating with the prosecution. This decision backfired spectacularly when he received a twenty-year sentence instead of the leniency he had hoped for.

• nick bianco
• accomplices
• cooperation
• testimony
• sentence

Nick received a twenty-year sentence because he refused to cooperate with Assistant District Attorney Louis D'Angelo by naming his accomplices. When D'Angelo offered him a lighter sentence in exchange for naming his partners, Nick declined, believing his family would be cared for by those he protected. The court responded with the maximum penalty, treating him as an example and denying him any sympathy for his refusal to cooperate.

• twenty year sentence
• court
• punishment
• d'angelo

Nick's wife took her own life after three months without any word from him in prison. The isolation and despair of being abandoned, unable to reach her husband and receiving no communication, overwhelmed her. She had been struggling to care for their two young daughters alone while Nick was incarcerated, and the lack of support reportedly drove her to suicide.

• wife suicide
• depression
• prison
• family
• children

Nettie Cavallo, who had previously babysat for Nick's daughters, visited him to deliver devastating news: his children were now living in an orphanages after their mother died. She also came to urge him to consider cooperating with D'Angelo to win his freedom so he could care for his daughters. Her visit rekindled Nick's sense of responsibility toward his family and pushed him toward becoming an informant.

• nettie cavallo
• orphanage
• daughters
• visit
• family

Tommy Udo was sent by lawyer Earl Howser to eliminate Pete Rizzo, a former associate of Nick who had turned state's witness. When Udo arrived at Rizzo's tenement, Rizzo had already fled. Instead of leaving empty-handed, Udo targeted Rizzo's mother, a mob-connected woman, to send a brutal message. He bound her to a wheelchair and pushed her down a flight of stairs, killing her as a demonstration of his ruthless willingness to silence anyone connected to loose ends.

• tommy udo
• rizzo mother
• murder
• wheelchair
• violence

D'Angelo kept Nick as an informant rather than using his testimony to reduce his sentence because too much time had passed. By the time Nick learned of his wife's suicide and his children's situation, the opportunity to trade his confession for a reduced sentence had expired. Instead of freeing Nick, D'Angelo maintained him in the city jail and exploited him as an informant, using Nick's inside knowledge to build cases against other criminals while keeping Nick trapped in the system.

• informant
• d'angelo
• police
• betrayal
• system

Tommy Udo was acquitted at trial despite Nick Bianco's testimony against him. The exact reasons for the acquittal aren't fully explained in the film, but it underscores Udo's cunning and the weakness of the prosecution's case without stronger evidence. The verdict leaves Nick vulnerable, knowing that Udo remains free and dangerous, a threat that will eventually force Nick to take extreme measures to protect his family.

• tommy udo trial
• acquitted
• verdict
• nick testimony

Nick sent Nettie and his daughters out of the city because he feared Tommy Udo would seek revenge after being acquitted. Knowing Udo's violent nature and psychopathic tendencies, Nick understood that his former associate would come after him, and by extension, his family. By relocating them to the countryside, Nick hoped to remove his loved ones from Udo's reach while he confronted the danger remaining in the city.

• nettie
• children
• country
• safety
• revenge
• udo

Nick tracked Udo to Luigi's restaurant in East Harlem to end the threat permanently. Recognizing that Udo would never stop hunting him, and with his family safely away, Nick decided to draw Udo into a final confrontation. He called D'Angelo to bring police within two minutes, positioning himself as bait to ensure Udo would be caught or killed. Nick wanted to eliminate the danger hanging over his family once and for all.

• luigi restaurant
• east harlem
• confrontation
• police
• trap

Yes, Nick survived being shot during the confrontation with Tommy Udo. Though badly wounded when Udo fired at him outside Luigi's restaurant, Nick was still alive when police arrived. The film ends with Nick recovering alongside Nettie, who has returned to be with him. While the future remains fragile and marked by the trauma they endured, the couple looks toward a potentially peaceful life together.

• nick shot
• survival
• ending
• wounded
• nettie