Best movie of this year hands down!

Instant Favorite.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is a film very much of its time and it is almost impossible to convey the surprise it would have engendered back then in audiences when it gave us Robert Wagner as a cold-bloodied psychopath, Mr. Wagner having previously been cast, usually to excellent effect, only as admirable and good-looking (very) young men. Reviewers keep comparing its story line to PSYCHO's, but that is pure nonsense. First viewing PSYCHO when it came out, you had no idea that teen semi-idol Anthony Perkins was the killer; the only non-narrative shock element in it was having star Janet Leigh killed off by the end of the film's first half. Seeing Wagner as a psychopath back in 1956 had that same kind of stunning non-narrative shock for viewers, especially since we know he's the bad guy almost from the opening frame. Also, although the story is pretty dark, it is not a noir because noirs almost always depend on an innocent, or at least anti-heroic, male lead who gets into trouble because of, and is often destroyed by, a femme fatale. In this film, there is only one fatal character and it is the male lead. Wagner does it very well, Joanne Woodward is moving as his (first) victim, and even beautiful Virginia Leith comes over pretty well. Jeffrey Hunter as a young, pipe-smoking college professor comes over basically, given his later career identification, as a young pipe-smoking and beardless Jesus Christ, with glasses! But the film is quite good. What keeps it from being truly memorable or even great is that it is based on one of the very great mystery novels of the period by Ira Levin (his first success, and long before ROSEMARY'S BABY, THE STEPFORD WIVES and THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL, it quite literally made his name), and that novel has one of the greatest of all surprises in a mystery novel midway through it, one that could make you drop the book in shock while exclaiming, "Oh, my God!", but it is that effective because you are reading a narrative in which the author can disguise certain plot elements in words, and the shock cannot be duplicated on the screen by virtue of the fact that you can actually SEE the characters going through all their machinations, so that such surprise elements cannot be hidden from the viewer. Too bad, though, because if a writer/director could come up with a way to duplicate Levin's written surprise, he might have a totally brilliant mystery film to offer. In fact, it's nearest relationship to many of Hitchcock's later films is that it is a beautifully filmed daylight thriller. Indeed, most of the worst things in the film happen around noontime, in broad daylight and in glorious Technicolor, and that can be hard to pull off. It is pulled off very well here, indeed. Finally, since I am of the film's period, I can attest to the fact that this movie really does provide a legitimate 1950s atmosphere - visually, ethically and morally. You wouldn't really be all that surprised to see Dwight D. Eisenhower walking through Robert Wagner's college campus!

This one seems like artifact. Artificial as well, it just cannot escape the boundaries of its time no matter how wide the screen. Everything here, while attractive and colorful, is layered with a coating of calm and melancholy. The sort of ambiance that exuded in the safe and sterile Fifties.This was not conducive to Thrillers so much as Romantic Comedies and Farce, Musicals and Westerns. It is given a good try by the Filmmakers but in the end it is an unsatisfying affair that is only so much presentation. Robert Wagner is a fitting Stiff as the lack of emoting is rather indicative of His chilly, heartless Character. The other Actors are placed throughout as so many Pawns, void of much personality and as boring as Hell.There is a lot of eye-candy and it is a pretty Picture. But it is a framing that very rarely works unleashing Mystery or mayhem, with Psychos and Detectives. In fact, one could point at the ridiculous Police procedures and personnel (contrived to a part-time Nephew "on the case"). Only in the most accepting of Fiction could this be considered normal.Overall, this is Worth a Watxh as an antique. A Hollywood showpiece of the Mid-Fifties with its Color, Cinemascope, dress-up clothes, and ultra-attractive People all presented with an inordinate amount of adornment and shine.

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.