Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

JLRMovieReviews Would you murder for money? Would you murder to get ahead? Would you marry someone you don't love for a piece of the pie? Robert Wagner is only too eager to do something, anything to get what he wants. What does he want? Mary Astor is his mother, who thinks he's a genius. Joanne Woodward thinks he's sweet and a nice person. Jeffrey Hunter tries to help the police unravel the puzzle that lets victims fall where they will. "A Kiss Before Dying" is a tale of one who thinks he's above suspicion, above the law. This suspenseful and lavishly produced film is a cross between a melodrama and horror, as you're taken on a ride, you can't get off until the end and leaves you wondering, was it all worth it? All we want out of life is security and happiness, but at what price? Forget plausibility and forgive the loopholes. "A Kiss Before Dying" is one movie that you should learn from or else....

bandw Robert Wagner plays Bud Corliss, a pathologically ambitious young college student at "Stoddard U." Bud is twenty-five years old, living at home with his mother. From a newspaper article mounted in a picture frame in his room, shell casings on his desk, and a reference to his being wounded, it is implied that Corliss is a decorated Korean War veteran. It was never clear to me what significance this war hero business had, unless a reason had to be given for Wagner's being a little old to be a college student. I don't see it going to motivation. Corliss sees a path to riches by taking up with Dorothy (Joanne Woodward), the daughter of a rich copper mine owner, but his intentions are thwarted by an unwanted pregnancy that he knows Dorothy's father will not accept. Not to be deterred, Corliss will do anything to achieve his goal, yes even murder.With many recent movies setting their stories in the 1950s ("Far from Heaven," "Pleasantville," "Revolutionary Road," and so forth) it is refreshing to see the real thing. Instead of wondering where they got that pristine 1955 Ford Thunderbird, or all of the other old cars, you know that they are for real. This was filmed in and around Tucson, Arizona and that, together with the clothing (did men really wear coats and ties to their classes in the 50s?) and hair styles, makes for an authentic feeling. The production in color CinemaScope is lush, although the color balance on the DVD I watched shifted on occasion.All of the things this had going for it, including having the two attractive young stars on board, should have amounted to something special, but the whole is less than the sum of its parts. I know that love can blind you, but Dorothy is so naive as to be unbelievable. Wagner plays Corliss as quite emotionless, which I suppose is in keeping with his character, but he never creates any sense of menace that I think is necessary to involve us in such a story (consider Anthony Perkins in "Psycho"). The music tries to compensate for Wagner's lack of menace with its ominous fulminations, but it came across as overly intrusive to me. I could never get beyond the feeling that the actors were acting.We are in Hitchcock territory here and I think that under his direction this might have been memorable movie rather than the modest entertainment it is.

whpratt1 For some reason I missed viewing this film and was taken by surprise at how very young Robert Wagner was in this picture. Wagner plays the role as a playboy looking for a rich young girl with a father who has plenty of money. Wagner is very tricky about his plans and at the same time makes some very big mistakes. Wagner finds himself with two girls who he has on the hook and he finds himself in a deep trap until he goes to the municipal building in town for a marriage license and at this point the film becomes a triller and we begin to become very interested in the plot and just how will it end. Enjoy a young Wagner, he was so young I did not recognize him.

seymourblack-1 "A Kiss Before Dying" is a tense crime thriller in which a cold, calculating, psychopathic student, who is determined to be rich, ruthlessly pursues his goal without any concern for those who suffer as a result of his actions.Bud Corliss (Robert Wagner) is the son of an absent father who never did well financially and is powerfully driven to take a different route and become wealthy. Having carried out some research on a local mining company, he pursues a plan to make a fortune by becoming a part of the family who own the business. To this end, he has been courting Dorothy (Dorie)Kingship (Joanne Woodward), but a problem arises when she becomes pregnant and marriage is not a viable proposition because her stern, puritanical father would be certain to disinherit her. Dorie doesn't care about being disowned by her father and quite relishes breaking away from his influence but for Bud, this would defeat the purpose of his relationship with her. Bud pretends to be equally keen to go ahead and marry but murders Dorie in a spectacular fashion after having tricked her into writing a note which gives the impression that she's committed suicide.A little time after Dorie's "suicide", Bud starts to court her sister Ellen (Virginia Leith). This is possible because his relationship with Dorie had always been carried on in secret. Unfortunately for Bud, Ellen has never been fully convinced that her sister would have taken her own life and she starts to come across further information which supports that view. When she is led to believe that Bud knew Dorie, her doubts about him grow.Corliss is intense, crafty and full of guile and at the same time lacks any sincerity, passion or spontaneity. Robert Wagner in one of his early screen roles, portrays this complex mixture of qualities well and it's perfectly understandable that his rather dour, downbeat, demeanour would seem quite acceptable to Dorie because of her father's similarly cold nature. Joanne Woodward (also in one of her early roles) is convincingly naive, vulnerable and gullible. It's also rather ironical that a conflict between the two characters should exist in a situation where both are attracted to the idea of marriage to the other because such a move would remove them from their existing circumstances.The scene at the sports field where Bud and Dorie are in the seated area discussing their predicament is visually quite striking as the almost abstract background seems to be closing in on them and in so doing, reinforces the strong sense of despair and entrapment which Bud is feeling at that time. The manner in which Bud is visually revealed as Ellen's new boyfriend and the way in which Dorie's murder is depicted, are just two further highlights of this interesting and absorbing melodrama.