A Kiss Before Dying is a 1956 American color film noir, directed by Gerd Oswald. The screenplay was written by Lawrence Roman, based on Ira Levin's 1953 novel of the same name, which won the 1954 Edgar Award for "Best First Novel." The drama stars Robert Wagner, Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Joanne Woodward, and Mary Astor, among others. Wagner plays a psychopathic college student, who upon discovering that his wealthy girlfriend — played by Joanne Woodward in one of her first film roles — is pregnant out of wedlock, kills her and stages the murder as a suicide. Bud Corliss is... an ambitious student who is wooing Dorothy Kingship purely for her father's mining fortune. When he discovers that Dorothy is pregnant with his child, he realizes she is quite likely to be disinherited by her wealthy family. He assures Dorothy that he'll take care of her, yet he hesitates when Dorothy insists on marrying. Bud then murders Dorothy and stages it in a way that it appears to be a suicide. He then reaches out to her sister Ellen with the hopes of marrying her in order to ingratiate himself with her father.
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| Release date: | June 12, 1956 |
| Directed by: | Gerd Oswald |
| Runtime: | 94 Minutes |
| Music by: | Lionel Newman |
| Cinematography: | Lucien Ballard |
| Screenplay by: | Lawrence Roman |
| Adapted from: | A Kiss Before Dying |
| Genre: | Thriller |