A Kiss Before Dying (DVD)

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Good
How does it compare to similar films?	Good

Advantages:	Suspenseful, compelling
Disadvantages:	Some bad performances

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Dory Kingship is in love, but she has to keep it secret from her family and friends because she knows that her father will disapprove. Then she finds out she's pregnant and is thrown into a panic, trying to force her lover to marry her. He is unwilling, thinking that Dory will tie him down, but promises to marry her nevertheless. Then he tries to poison her, but his attempts are unsuccessful. Determined he will not marry Dory, he takes her to the roof of a municipal building and pushes her to her death, before disappearing and allowing everyone to presume it was a suicide. But Dory's sister Ellen is sure that Dory would not have done such a thing and starts delving into her sister's past. Can she find out the truth?

The mysterious lover, who is eventually named (but doing so would ruin one of the twists in the story) is played by Robert Wagner. An incredibly young Robert Wagner, who looks nothing like his older, heavy-set self. This isn't a completely perfect performance by any means; there are times when his words sound wooden and it is a miracle that Dory doesn't work out that he is a major creep. However, he does have a certain amount of charm and he is very good to look at, so he just about manages to get away with it. By the last half of the film when his true colours are shown, it is fairly easy to believe that he is a lying, cheating, selfish womaniser.

Joanne Woodward plays Dory and gives the performance of a very fragile, needy woman who just wants to get married and having children. She is a University student, but still sees no need to have a career. A modern audience will find this annoying - I know I did - her apparent naivety when her lover is around is painful to watch. However, it is important to remember that, in the fifties when the film was made (1955 to be precise), society was very different and Woodward was only behaving to suit the manner of the time. Taking that into consideration, she does give a reasonable performance, but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch her in anything else.

Ellen is played by Virginia Leith and gives a completely different performance. Ellen really has her wits about her and is a lot less annoying. She only comes into the story in the last half of the film, but hers is the performance that I will remember the most out of the two female leads. The fact that she also looks stunning helps too. Jeffrey Hunter, who plays Gordon, the son of the local police chief who helps Ellen with her investigation, gives a rather embarrassing performance with some rather horrible over-acting. I really cringed each time he came on screen; there was much leering and sucking on a stupid pipe like Sherlock Holmes - he really made a mockery of the whole film.

In a lot of ways, this is a great thriller, which is based on a book by Ira Levin (who also wrote Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives). I first watched it about four months ago when it was shown on TV and enjoyed it so much, I bought the DVD. However, there is a real need to suspend disbelief at times. It is just so unlikely that Dory, who is a rich, beautiful young woman, would be able to have a lover that no-one ever saw. As it is, plenty of people saw them together, but the information somehow manages to remain undiscovered until the last minute. However, plenty of films have unrealistic threads in them and, in this case, I think that the story is good enough to over-ride it. And, of course, forensic science was nowhere near as advanced at the time, so certain aspects of the investigation are impossible to prove. Ultimately there is little to really scare or offend, so I'm quite surprised the rating is a 15 in the UK.

Although the film was made in 1955, it is in colour, although I must admit that the quality of the DVD is not great and the picture looks slightly faded. It isn't all that distracting, however, until one part where Ellen and the killer are wearing white and cream against the background of a limestone quarry and it is quite hard at times to work out what is going on. This is perhaps deliberate - the director may have wanted the audience to struggle to see what is happening, but it does look a bit shoddy. I certainly would have preferred some more vibrant colours.

Disappointingly, there is not much in the way of extras - just a theatrical trailer.

This film has quite a lot wrong with it - poor performances, the need to suspend disbelief and the rather washed-out colours. Nevertheless, it's still a film I'm glad to have in my DVD collection. This isn't exactly Hitchcock - Director Gerd Oswald doesn't really provide any clever or interesting camera angles - but it is very watchable nevertheless and I think that anyone who enjoys thrillers or films from the period will enjoy this one. I certainly think it deserves to be better known than it is. Recommended.

I bought the DVD from Borders in Glasgow for £3.99. It is also available from play.com for £2.99.

Classification: 15

Running time: 91 minutes.