A KISS BEFORE DYING (1956)

 

Directed by: Gerd Oswald

Based on the novel by: Ira Levin

Starring: Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Joanne Woodward, Mary Astor, George Macready, Robert Quarry, Howard Petrie, Molly McCart

94 minutes

(NR - adult themes)

PLOT:

State-run Stoddard University students Bud Corliss and Dorothy Kingship are secretly dating, they not having told anyone for fear of working-class Bud not being accepted by Dorothy's hyper-critical father, wealthy businessman Leo Kingship, owner of Kingship Mines. Mr. Kingship's hard and critical nature led to him divorcing his wife solely for a "mistake" on her part years earlier and has led to a strained relationship with both Dorothy and her sister, Ellen. Bud even calling her Dorie instead of Dorothy is one thing she loves about him in distinguishing him from anything in her past life. Bud aspires to get out of his working-class situation. Their relationship hits a major bump when Dorie informs him that she is pregnant with his child. While Dorie wants to get married, she sees it as an inevitability in them loving each other, Bud, stating the problem of her father, sees, unstated, almost anything else as preferable to marriage, especially at this stage of his life in it jeopardizing getting out of that working class life. Without any viable option that Dorie would agree to, Bud ends up with the idea of murdering her. While he seems committed to killing her, what happens is affected by Mr. Kingship in his relationship both with Dorothy and Ellen, Ellen in falling under the spell of a man herself, and Gordon Grant, Dorie's math tutor who has another part-time job which makes him naturally questioning and suspicious.

TRAILER: