This is not your average 50's noir. Instead we have a low-down manipulative killer (Robert Wagner as Bud) set against the leafy backdrop of a college campus instead of the usual grimy cheapjack one. And from the clothes and cars down to the shotgun wedding ethic, it practically screams mid 1950s. Mary Astor is Bud's predatory mother who wants her son to marry into wealth and social position, and Joanne Woodward is Dorie, Bud's sweet and naive girlfriend who believes he really loves her and wants to marry her. But Dorie gets pregnant and dad is the unforgiving type, and Bud is afraid Dorie will be disinherited and Bud will become just another schlemiel working his way through college with a wife and baby in tow with no dough. Thus since Bud actually is in love with Dorie's dad's fortune, Dorie must go, and I don't mean to another college. But Bud is careful. He is clever and makes Dorie's death look like a suicide - poor girl never saw it coming. And since Bud has learned so much about Dorie's sister, Ellen, from Dorie, that is his next romantic stop. But like so many killers, Bud has overlooked some things. For one thing Dorie wrote Ellen right before her "suicide" saying that she had met somebody and was very happy. Thus Ellen is just not buying the suicide angle and goes looking for the truth, even though the killer is now her boyfriend! How will all of this work out? Watch and find out. George McReady is Dorie's and Ellen's rich father who is willing to believe the worst of anybody, especially his own children, and he is great as always. I recommend this one if it ever comes your way.

I decided to watch this today because the story is written by Ira Levin, and, I've always enjoyed his novels and the movies made from them - "Rosemary's Baby;" "Sliver;" "The Boys From Brazil;" etc.The protagonist is a mean, selfish, and, ruthless young man, but, very clever in a self-serving way.The victim is a sweet and beautiful young lady who became involved with the wrong man.The victim's sister is a smart, beautiful, and, determined young lady who doesn't see her sister's demise as do the police.This is a very good movie of selfish love and lust, and, doing anything and everything it takes to marry into a wealthy family...much like in "A Place in the Sun" (1951).

A Kiss Before Dying is directed by Gerd Oswald and adapted to screenplay by Lawrence Roman from the novel of the same name written by Ira Levin. It stars Robert Wagner, Joanne Woodward, Virginia Leith, Jeffrey Hunter and Mary Astor. A CinemaScope/De Luxe Color production, music is by Lionel Newman and cinematography by Lucien Ballard.Plot basically finds Wagner as a scheming pretty boy willing to commit murder in order to reach the riches of an inheritance. Story bubbles away nicely as Bud Corlis (Wagner) and Dorothy Kingship (Woodward), he sly and distant - she vulnerable and love struck, both hold court with performances of merit. The spiky edge comes by way of knowing what Bud is up to, and that poor Dorothy is completely oblivious, and when the key moment comes, it's shocking and really perches ones expectation levels to the edge of the seat.Sadly the second half of the movie doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first, for here the focus shifts from a twist into an investigation by Dorothy's sister, Ellen (Leith), who refuses to accept the official party line surrounding her sister. It's all very competently mounted, but the pervading sense of menace has dissipated and in place is just an average murder mystery.Wagner and Woodward are very good, Leith not so much, while Hunter as a pipe smoking professor is badly miscast and Astor is under used. Oswald's direction is fine, with some nifty long takes and some very cheeky visual jokes that only become apparent once story has run its course. Ballard's Scope photography is impressive, managing to make the bright colourful city surrounds always appear as threatening, and Newman's musical arrangements are indicative of the murder mystery splinter of 50s film noir.The themes at the core of the picture are daring and interesting, though more should have been made of the hinted at fact that Bud is a troubled war veteran. It's not all that it can be, the second half diluting the whole as it were, but this is still a tasty noir thriller worthy of catching. 7/10

They should have made the director watch some Hitchcocks before making this poor attempt at a thriller. He obviously hadn't the shadow of a clue how to make this exciting or create the right tension. The garish color photography and snazzy jazz score don't help either. " A kiss before dying, bababie bababoo". Really gets you in the right mood. The against-type casting of Robert Wagner as the socially ambitious killer was an interesting move, but doesn't pay off because of his total lack of acting skills. The moral ambiguity this role needs to work is completely absent in his performance. Not that the other actors are much better, in fact they're worse. My personal Razzie goes to the ludicrously stilted father figure, although the bookish college don complete with pipe and glasses is hot on his heels. Only Joanne Woodward's character earns some sympathy, but maybe that's because you know she's gonna get bumped off. This movie limps from one ludicrous scene to the next. For fans of cheesy movies i especially recommend the scene in which the killer forces another guy to sit down and have his head blown off, only to have the victim oblige without so much as an attempt at attacking his murderer. Maybe they actually were more polite in the Fifties. The final scene is also unforgettably corny and.... oh well, i've wasted enough time in both watching and complaining about this overcooked turkey. Not bad enough to be campy, but worse: just plain bad.