1956 film by Gerd Oswald
A Kiss Before Dying is a 1956 American color film noir,[1] directed by Gerd Oswald in his directorial debut. The screenplay was written by Lawrence Roman, based on Ira Levin's 1953 novel of the same name, which won the 1954 Edgar Award for Best First Novel.[2] The film stars Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Mary Astor, and Joanne Woodward in one of her first film roles. It was remade in 1991 under the same title.
Plot
Bud Corliss is a charming and ambitious university student who is wooing fellow student Dorothy Kingship solely for her father's mining fortune. When Bud discovers that Dorothy is pregnant with his child, he realizes she is quite likely to be disinherited by her father, Leo Kingship. She does not care about this, saying she feels free of her father's control for the first time in her life. Bud assures Dorothy that he will take care of her, but hesitates when Dorothy insists on getting married soon, and then seemingly agrees to it.
Bud spends the days leading up to their wedding formulating an elaborate plan to make it appear that she has committed suicide. He is agitated when this plan fails, but has another idea: on the day they are to be married, Bud purposely has Dorothy meet him at the Municipal Building during the lunch hour when the registry office is closed. He suggests they go to the roof for some air. There, he maneuvers her to the edge and pushes her off the building; her death is considered a suicide because of a letter, supposedly from Dorothy, that he had mailed to her sister in anticipation of his original plan working.
After a couple of months, Bud is dating Dorothy's sister, Ellen; he is trying once again to ingratiate himself with Leo Kingship. Ellen has no idea of Bud's previous relationship with Dorothy; however, she has always had doubts about her sister's suicide. She realizes that if she can find out who her sister's boyfriend was, he might be her killer. For help, Ellen contacts Gordon Gant, who tutored Dorothy. Ellen soon believes she has identified the boyfriend, Dwight Powell. Bud learns of the investigation and shoots Powell. His death is also taken to be suicide.
Ellen is satisfied that Powell was the man who killed Dorothy, and she and Bud become engaged. Gordon shows up during the engagement party to tell her that he has discovered that Powell could not have committed the crime. On his way out, he is introduced to Bud; while driving home, he stops at a phone booth to call his uncle, the Chief of Police, and tells him that he believes he had seen Bud with Dorothy at the university. Gordon returns to Ellen's and informs Leo Kingship that he is certain Bud was dating Dorothy and is likely her murderer. They give Ellen this news, which she rejects outright.
The next morning, the couple drive to the Kingship mine so Bud can see the family fortune being made. Meanwhile, Gordon's uncle confirms that Bud was Dorothy's boyfriend.
During casual conversation, Bud lets slip both that he knows more about the mine than he should, considering he has only talked with Ellen about her family; and that he had frequently gone to concerts in the university town at the same time as Dorothy. He admits to Ellen that he knew her sister, and that he "even had a few dates with her". He tries to tell Ellen that he was being considerate of her emotions by keeping it a secret; they argue and Bud stalks to the edge of the open mine pit. Ellen goes after him, still hoping he is not a murderer. They continue to talk and he refers to Dorothy as "Dorrie", a name only he called her; it becomes obvious that he is guilty. Her father and Gordon arrive and witness Bud struggling to throw Ellen into the pit; in a desperate attempt to kill her, Bud shoves her in front of an oncoming truck, but to his shock, the truck swerves and instead hits Bud, knocking him over the edge to his death, while Ellen is safe.
Production
Darryl F. Zanuck bought the rights to the book in August 1953, following the bidding of many studios. His public announcement revealed that Wagner would star in the lead.[4] The role of Dwight Powell, played in the film by Robert Quarry, was initially to be played by Martin Milner, but Milner had to drop out because of schedule changes.[5]
In 1955, it was announced the film would be made by Crown Productions and distributed by United Artists. It was the second film from Crown following The Killer Is Loose; an executive for the company was Robert Jacks, Daryl Zanuck's son-in-law.[6]
Three members of the cast – Wagner, Joanne Woodward and Jeffrey Hunter – were loaned to United Artists by Twentieth Century-Fox.[5] The film was the directorial debut of Gerd Oswald, and was filmed in Tucson, Arizona.[5]
The film's use of the word "pregnant" caused controversy: it was cut during its preview in Chicago, and United Artists was not allowed by the Hollywood censors to use the word in any advertising.[3]
Critical reception
Contemporaneous response
When the film opened, the review in Variety commented: "This multiple-murder story is an offbeat sort of film, with Robert Wagner portraying a calculating youth who intends to allow nothing to stand in his way to money ... Gerd Oswald's restrained direction suits the mood ... Wagner registers in killer role. Woodward is particularly good as the pregnant girl, and Virginia Leith acceptable as her sister. Jeffrey Hunter is lost as a part-time university professor responsible for the final solution of the crimes. Mary Astor and George Macready are okay as Wagner's mother and the girls' father."[7]
Modern assessment
Time Out Film Guide liked the script and the direction of the film, and wrote, "An early Ira Levin thriller, predating Rosemary's Baby...superbly adapted as an icily acute nightmare...by the great Oswald, giving a criminally myopic Hollywood its first glimpse of a unique visual talent, idiosyncratically developed from that of his father, German silent director Richard Oswald."[8]
Film critic James Crawford praised the film for direction and inventiveness. He makes the case that the film's long second shot functions as a foreshadowing, an organizing principle, a statement of purpose in the film. Crawford wrote, "It’s not remarkable for what it reveals – it’s essentially exposition of narrative and character traits – but for its movement, length, and the way it approaches space, viewer identification, and power dynamics." As for the creativity of the film, he compares the three minutes, 26 seconds length of the shot and likened it to the "granddaddy of all tracking shots," the one that kicks off Touch of Evil – the most apropos comparison, given that it was released in 1958, two years later.[9]
Noir analysis
According to film critic Alain Silver, a theme used in film noir is the disruptive force of the "maniac" in society. The threat to the family and social values is apparent in these types of films. Gaining dominance and disrupting the family is a central theme of A Kiss Before Dying. Robert Wagner's character pursues one path to his true target in Dorothy, then kills her and pursues her sister, all with the objective of reaching their father and his fortune.[10]
Remake
An adaptation directed by James Dearden was made in 1991 using the same title. Called "insanely inept" and "bereft of suspense" by Entertainment Weekly,[11] the film earned two Razzie awards. The movie was unofficially remade in Malayalam as Moonilonnu (1996), and in Hindi as Baazigar (1993) starring Shah Rukh Khan.
