brilliant actors, brilliant editing

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Seen for the first time close to sixty years after it was made this film fails to register on almost every level and it's yet another movie where a cast comprising several 'names' of the day appear to be reading from different hymn books. The starring role, a social-climbing sociopath, goes to Robert Wagner, a Fox contractee who'd been groomed for stardom via a series of 'pretty boy' roles until, presumably having attained some clout, he persuaded his studio to let him have a stab at something more substantial. Joanne Woodward, an excellent actress, who had slowly but surely carving a reputation, turned in arguably the worst performance of her career as the first victim, whilst Jeffrey Hunter doesn't really cut it as a pipe-smoking academic. If you think these last two were miscast get a load of George Macready as Daddy Gotrocks, father of both Joanne Woodward and Virginia Leith, the next prey in Wagner's sights. It's watchable but only just.

I rarely rank a film as high as an 8 but Joanne Woodward's work here merits it.She is amazingly touching and convincing as a naive and idealistic pregnant coed who would like to believe her boyfriend loves her for who she is, and not for her father's fortune.It's painful to watch as Robert Wagner says things that belie his true, predatory nature, and Dorie takes each subtle blow with silent consternation. Suspense builds inexorably until the trusting Dorie finds herself perched on that rooftop, the ultimate sitting duck. Bud's push must constitute a classic moment of film horror.Also compelling was Robert Quarry as an innocent man -- looking far too old to be a collegian bunking in a dorm -- who plays perfectly into Bud's machinations.Several puzzling questions distracted from the film's overall fine quality. I questioned Dorie's reaction to having tumbled down the bleacher steps. Clearly she was lovesick and gullible; however, it strained credulity for her not to notice that something had been just a tad suspicious. (And she pulled herself together too easily from what would have been a significant body blow.) Nor did I get how Bud entered into the surviving sister's life, without so much as mentioning that he had known Dorie. This was a superb thriller and it leaves me curious to see more of both Ms. Woodward and Wagner.

Who wrote the musical score for this film? When the opening credits are given, the music played makes it appear that you will never be in for such a picture.Nevertheless, this is a good one with Robert Wagner as a 25 year old veteran in college, with much more than studying on his mind. Joanne Woodward is good in a totally supporting role as his first victim. As is the case with murder, once you start it can never stop and Wagner follows through with a second victim-to make the suicide theory look good.The next phase of the film is a real surprise when we see who Wagner really liked. George MacReady is not his usual sinister self. Here, he plays an embittered father who doesn't trust women. Surprised to see that Mary Astor was in such a rather benign role, but it's 1956 and her career was evidently on the wane.This is a good thriller.

1956 marks the year Robert Wagner went over to the dark side. In The Mountain he plays Spencer Tracy's spoiled younger brother and in A Kiss Before Dying, Wagner is a charming, but quite ruthless young man looking to better himself through bedroom skills.In fact impregnating Joanne Woodward might have done the trick in many cases. Normally they'd have gotten married and a reluctant father would have been happy just to protect his daughter's good name. However in Joanne's case and in her sister Virginia Leith's case, their father is puritanical George MacReady who long ago tossed their mom on the street because of an ancient indiscretion. Joanne knows full well that this could be her fate. Wagner knows if he's exposed as the dirty dog who knocked her up, MacReady will give him problems too.So to extricate himself Wagner plans a quite deliberate murder of Woodward. When it happens Leith isn't convinced its suicide even with a cryptic note. But young police detective Jeffrey Hunter likes her anyway. The story begins when Leith begins her own investigation and Wagner starts courting Leith.Robert Wagner shows his acting chops in this film. He was like that other contract player at 20th Century Fox Tyrone Power who kept pressing for roles to show what he could do as well. Both of course eventually got them. Joanne Woodward is a year away from her career breakthrough in The Three Faces Of Eve and she's sweet and tender as the naive kid in the clutches of a ruthless charmer. And George MacReady can be as evil as a puritan as well as the most diabolical of villains in which he's usually cast.A Kiss Before Dying is not a bad film, but with someone like an Alfred Hitchcock directing it would have been great. As it is, it's entertaining, but falls short of being a classic.