Robert Wagner stars as Bud Corliss, a seemingly all-American college boy whose practiced lines and soft-spoken seductiveness hide an interior of cold-blooded greed in this 1956 thriller. Joanne Woodward costars as his girlfriend, Dorie, daughter of an emotionally distant millionaire. When Dorie gets pregnant, Bud fears that she will be disinherited, so he schemes a murder designed to look like the suicide of a desperate and despondent girl and then moves on to his next heiress while Dorie's sister (Virginia Leith) searches for the mysterious boyfriend, with the help of a part-time police intern (Jeffrey Hunter). Mary Astor also appears as Bud's doting middle-class mother (who the social-climbing chameleon finds embarrassing as he hobnobs in high society) and George Macready is the millionaire father Bud is eager to impress with his carefully practiced humility and show of devotion. Based on the titular 1953 novel by Ira Levin, this glossy romantic thriller with notes of film noir is very much a product of its time, smoothly directed by Gerd Oswald with a modest style that anticipates the romantic thrillers of the 1960s (an inferior 1991 remake starred Matt Dillon). A strong optional purchase. (S. Axmaker)
A Kiss Before Dying
Kino Lorber, 94 min., not rated, Blu-ray: $29.95 June 27, 2016
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