A Kiss Before Dying [DVD] [1956]

MGM/UA's disc has a good 2.35:1 transfer and the original theatrical trailer.

Watching A Kiss Before Dying however is a wholly different experience from Sirk's ironic stagings of smug Eisenhower society, despite the presence of a clean-cut, pipe smoking Jeffrey Hunter. His academic character Grant, perhaps the least convincing in the film, is more of a stereotype than the German director managed, acting as a counterweight to Corliss' callous misuse of his own good looks and intelligence. Self-satisfied and entirely free of remorse, the student is a much more modern figure his presence undermining Grant's rather ineffectual 1950s' decency. Oswald's film focuses on this cold heart - an individual whose ambition, and eventual downfall, might have found its roots in such earlier films as Ulmer's Ruthless (1948), just as it anticipates some of Hitchcock's work.

Corliss has obviously been affected by his experience in the war ("It's my side where I was wounded," he says briefly at one point, and one of the first things we see are military photographs.) The implication, typical of noir, is that the conflict has affected his mental state. Intriguing similarities exist between A Kiss Before Dying and Psycho of four years later: both films begin with furtive discussions of lovers discussing the implications of illicit sex, go on to feature the premature demise of a blonde before the investigation of mystery by a determined female relative. There are echoes of Vertigo (1958) too, in the dangerous heights of City Hall where Budd finally commits his heinous crime, and more than a taste of Hitchcock in some of the of the suspenseful machinations of the plot - especially in the chemistry supply room scene where Corliss furtively steals his poisons.

It's somehow apt that Mary Astor, who played the calculating Brigid in The Maltese Falcon (1941), should be cast as Corliss' mother here - although even she is much reduced, manipulated by him, facing a final humiliation on the doorstep of the Kingship residence. Her son is a ruthless social climber, for whom the earlier 'problem' posed by Dorothy was just another obstacle to his inevitable rise just as his mother's dress sense is then another. As a schemer he leaves little to chance, evidenced by his careful arrangement of events in the first half of the film and detailed knowledge of the Kingship mining operation casually revealed at the close. When he is undone, it is by misfortune rather than carelessness - a fact that makes his success all the more frightening, being compromised by chain of chance more than anything else. Wagner is entirely convincing in a ruthless part that, at first sight, would have been ideal casting for Dennis Hopper. Beneath the familiar clean-cut image lies a calculating blackness. He suggests this by effective mannerisms, such as the throwaway, amoral shrug reflected in the jeweller's shop window after his second meeting with Dorothy, or by holding his arms high and clear, as if in supplication to his own genius, as she makes her final descent. Years down the line, after the amiable dross of such later work as Hart To Hart (1980-5), it is a shock to see the actor create such an impact in such a unique role.

Oswald's direction is frequently distinguished by long takes: the first scene, which contains a fair chunk of dialogue, consists just of a pan over some photographs and one other extended set up. Part of this can be put down to necessary economies of shooting. In those scenes alone between Corliss and Dorothy, this refusal to cut away acts as if to trap the participants in their own moral universe, the unflinching lens demanding that the viewer make judgement. (There are sly visual jokes contained within shots too, as when at the conclusion of Corliss' second meeting at the sports ground, after her 'trip' down the bleachers, he is framed under a 'speed kills' road sign, or when Corliss and Ellen later flirt - in the wrap up shot they have been chatting under a tombstone-shaped rock.) This is not altogether to the film's advantage; in the middle section of the film, when Corliss is largely absent, some scenes drag a little. Occasionally Oswald changes pace, such as when he uses a fast dolly-in on the suicide note. But one senses that this exposition would have benefited from shorter cutting, as the earnest Ellen and nice-but-dull Grant when alone are not very dynamic. However this is a minor quibble in a film that relishes a broad mise-en-scène, typical of 1950s' melodrama.

George Macreedy, gives excellent, grouchy support as the character who undergoes the only real metamorphosis in the film. His daughter of course learns that things are not really what they seem, discovering what Budd is really like under his tailored surface. Kingship Senior's education is far more profound, as he almost loses her through his over-protectiveness and intransigence. In one respect he is like Corliss: both have seen the nexus of family ties fray, leading to personality problems. At the end of the film, escorting his daughter away from the last encounter, Kingship does so more in sorrow than with the previous anger. Here, as events take a final turn, the desolation of the mines provides a physical corollary for the stark moral drama being played out between the principals.