THE KISS BEFORE DYING talks about The men who are too much ambitious are always very
dangerous in movies. They are hungry for revenge, for that ready for suffer, and
allow nothing and no one to get in their way or stop them. When asked to show on
screen resentment, pain, and ambition all at once, the average actor exaggerates.
One of his abilities in James Dearden’s A Kiss Before Dying is Matt Dillon’s ability
to make his characters withdrawn, lethargic, and thus even more dangerous.
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Remember the preppy murders of the 1980s? This filthy rich man, horribly self-
a righteous college dropout, drug addict, and sociopath, allegedly having rough sex in
Manhattan’s Central Park. What brutally murdered one of their teenage dates? It’s a
beacon on the most terrifying aspects of humanity and how wealth and privilege
feed an over-entitlement that poisons and corrupts our nation’s youth.
Now, more than 30 years before this heinous crime, writer Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s
Baby”) made a similar and very prescient wrote a story that won critical acclaim
and an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. The 1956 film adaptation of A Kiss
Before Dying, which omits several notable episodes from Levin’s book, is a
surprisingly straightforward, uncompromising, and ruthlessly ambitious social
climber. And he continues to be someone who will go to any lengths to get what he
wants.
The director of movie always knows the choice of his audience and according to
their choice they always come forward with the great efforts. Such movies where
everything is just perfect and to the mark audience also shows their love and
affection. It is true that there are different choices as people. Some likes adventures,
some would like love stories, but the movie which has several aspects as THE KISS
BEFORE DYING will be loved by all of these.
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BACKGROUND OF THE KISS BEFORE DYING
A Kiss Before Dying is a famous novel which is written by Ira
Levin. She also won the Edger Award in the year 1954 for Best First Novel. This
novel has been converted twice for the purpose to make movie. firstly in 1956 and
later in 1991.
Now in a modern time for showing any crime classic novel, Levin’s story
concentrates on an ambitious, charming, intelligent man who could not be stopped
by anyone even murder, to reach where he wanted to be and get what he wants.
When he observed that a pregnant woman who loves him can be an obstacle in his
journey of revenge, he decided to kill her without any second thought, also he never
regrated about his act.
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When in 1956, the novel converted in the movie named Kiss Before Dying it was
very loved by audience. Those who were unaware about the fact that It’s a movie
based on a novel, also knows about it and interested ones also read novel. It’s a
story of a young man who wants to take revenge for his father’s death who was
died in accident while working in automobile industry and he held responsible for
this situation the wealthy builders. He decided to take revenge his first target was a
daughter of a famous business copper tycoon for his lust, anger, revenge and
money. He decided to trap her but when she became pregnant he got scared that his
will be in danger thus he convinced her for suicide and he writes a letter from her
and when they met on the terrace of a building he pushed her then when he thinks
that everything is normal after hiding all the evidences he started doing the same
with her sister but her sister was very confident that her sister cannot take such step
so she started investigation and in the end he finally got caught, he insanely confess
everything and begged to forgive him but in the end where he was standing he
himself slipped in the vat.
CONVERSION OF THE KISS BEFORE DYING
The main requirement for a successful movie is the cast. While
converting the novel into the movie the director needs to work very hard on the
each and every character of the movie. The novel was converted for two times in
Hollywood. Firstly in 1956, introducing the main lead actor Robert Wagner as Bud
Corliss, Virginia Leith as Ellen Kingship, Joanne Woodward as Dorothy (‘Dorie’)
Kingship, and Mary Astor as Mrs. Corliss. The director of the film was Gerd
Oswald, also as per the novel he did not remove the third sister Marion, he followed
the novel fairly.
Turning towards the second edition, audience senses a huge change in the story of a
movie. It was introduced to the audience in 1991. It was filmed as some
contradiction with the previous on starring Matt Dillon as Jonathan Corliss, Sean
Young as twin sisters Ellen and Dorothy Carlsson, Diane Ladd as Mrs. Corliss,
and Max Von Sydow as Thor Carlsson. James Dearden is the director of the movie.
The Indian Hindi film Baazigar seems to be made with the inspiration of this
movie. It was a kind of movie remake and not lies on the novel. Massive changes
were seen in the character of main lead who was Ajay Sharma. In the film,
Sharma’s family is ruined by the father’s employee, Madan Chopra. Thus, Ajay
Sharma wants to take exact revenge by robbing Chopra’s company from him by
trapping his two daughters. In this fashion, Sharma is more like an anti-hero than a
candid villain, and the aspect of retaliation influence much of the film. This
conversion was a really successful because in this era people mostly like to watch
movies rather than reading books or novels. But it does not mean that novels have
less importance in the society because the there is a huge number of reading lovers
included in the audience. The novel was also taken a special spot in heart of the
readers.
STORYLINE OF THE MOVIE THE KISS BEFORE DYING
In the very first scene of the movie, we can see a little poor
boy who thinks that only money is the way to live on this planet also faced many
inhuman issues which will leave huge impact on the mentality of such small kid.
He always held responsible all those wealthy, rich and arrogant businessmen who
do not care about the people who are not competent to their class. They are the
main villains in the eye of Jonathan.
After Jonathan’s father’s death, Jonathan goes back to the United States and starts
college. There, he met Dorothy and deceives her and make her believe that he is
genuinely in love with her because her father is a copper industry tycoon. He used
her as a ladder to his success, as the connection to become wealthy himself but he
kept their relation as a secret and did not disclose about it to anyone while he was
planning out his strategies.
Dillon plays the role of Jonathan, a poor kid from the other side of the railway
tracks who, as a child, sat in his room staring sullenly at a ceaseless freight train
adorned with the Carlson Copper logo. One day he apparently told himself that
these trains would belongs to me. Then in further scene we see him at the
University of Pennsylvania. There he started dating Dorothy (Sean Young).
Dorothy is daughter of a feisty old Thor Carlson (Max von Sydow), an arrogant
billionaire.
Dorothy’s twin sister, Ellen, is also played by Sean Young, after the death of
Dorothy soon Ellen and Jonathan fall in love and trap of Jonathan. Both work for
homeless, needy and children on the streets. However, Jonathan does not have any
interest to continue it as a profession he wants to become a businessman. After
getting a piece of advice by a stranger old man and agreeing with everything he
said, he started a family business.
Ellen is in love with Jonathan, but she was very sure about her sister that she could
not commit suicide. Because she noticed her sister when she saw her for the last
time before her death just like she wore new shoes which she bought just before her
death. Really a person who is going to commit suicide will act like this. Isn’t it
fishy? also Dorothy’s friend was died mysteriously.
Did he know anything? Was their death really an accident? Veteran moviegoers
familiar with the rules of character economics would have estimated that Jonathan’s
role was not for just to stand by when Ellen caught the actual killer. The movie
constantly shows us and make us believe that that Ellen doesn’t know about
Jonathan. But contrary to this she was constantly trying to find the truth behind her
sister’s death. Ellen also got successful in finding the criminal who was none other
than her own fiancé. This fact surely broke her heart but she was satisfied that she
gave justice to her sister, Dorothy.
It is simply means that his life was in danger from the woman he loves. Deadly
attraction added a twist in mind of the audience as they ware curious to know more.
but the strength of the movie was the character of Matt Dillon’s. because his
character was very suspicious, private and dominated by his inner needs.
Apparently In the film, he seems like two different personalities.
PUBLIC OPINION ABOUT THE KISS BEFORE DYING
This was the first film of Matt Dillon after
Drugstore Cowboy and again he proved that he is one of the best actors. He well-
versed that how much efforts should be given to the particular work or act. Also it
was so difficult to distract him by any chance. Dillon was the actor who never took
any training of becoming an actor but directly found this talent in front of the
camera. The short period also he faced jeopardized by teen idol status, but he was
consistent with his work and he always chose challenging and interesting roles and
best directors. Today, he and the slightly older Sean Penn are the best actors in their
age group. The Sean Young was very best in very means like her best work “The
Boost” (1988) she is convinced her audience with her various talents and skills –
anger, obsession and fear. But here her character shows that she knows too much
about the story. The distance from her is not appropriate. It’s a way of knowing
what the actual result will be. It curtails the concern audience really feel for them.
Still, for most scenes, “Kiss Before Dying” works because it’s driven by Dillon’s
character’s pain. The director of the movie Dearden helps it work because he
doesn’t force his case. In The film first and last scene was all about the that kid who
was watching a train passing. It’s like start to end the movie is roaming around the
actor.
And what he really wants is money. Meet (Joanne Woodward). She is the daughter
of a tough-guy copper mining tycoon (George McCready of Gilda). At the
beginning of the film, Dorothy informs Bud that she is pregnant. (The “p” word hit
quite a jolt in 1956, and was actually cut from the film for Chicago previews.
Dorothy is willing to take risks, but the last thing Bud wants is living in a poverty
cell with his wife and baby. He pretends to be concerned about Dorothy’s well-
being, but Bud now sees her as an obnoxious woman who sabotaged his master
plan, and wants to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible, without a shred of
soul-searching. Bud hatches an elaborate plan to make Dorothy’s death look like a
suicide, but several obstacles threaten his success. When he finally does the deed,
he thinks he is free. (He had always promised Dorothy to keep their relationship a
secret, so no one would ever suspect him. A police intern (Jeffrey Hunter) suspects
she is her murderer.) It helped me research what I believed to be.
STORY OF A PSYCO IN “THE KISS BEFORE DYING”
The very young Jonathan as a child from the village of
the damned, staring from his bedroom window at trains passing and later, a brutal
murder of a couple. The most heart-wrenching thing is the demise of Dorothy.
Jonathan cleverly pushed her while knowing the fact that she was pregnant with his
child. After his revelatory outing in drugstore cowboy, he doesn’t reveal any new
angles here, but is, however, rather scarily functional within the gentle expectations
of this genre piece.
As smart as Robert Wagner’s good looks, the movie is also very well blended
with the flavors of all the emotions. There are some surprises with the best
direction, and perfect and winning performances differentiate this suspense story and
dark tale of a person with evil intentions. Unfortunately, Kino Lorber’s Blu-ray
the presentation seems mismatched in the quality of the film.
In its initial stages, ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ seems to blatantly mimic George
Stevens’ ‘A Place in the Sun,’ in which a conflicted social climber (Montgomery
Clift) considers bumping off his pregnant girlfriend (Shelley Winters) so he can
continue wooing a drop-dead gorgeous debutante (Elizabeth Taylor). Director Gerd
Oswald is no Stevens, but in his first feature film he builds tension well, supplies a
few notable jolts, and never sugarcoats the grisly storyline. Gore is absent (an
effective choice), but the shock quotient is fairly high for a film of that period. And
though ‘A Kiss Before Dying’ predates ‘Psycho’ by four years, it’s tough not to think
of the Hitchcock horror classic during the movie’s second half when Dorothy’s
sister Ellen – shades of Marion’s sister Lila in ‘Psycho’ – teams up with a hunky hero
to try and solve the crime.
And much like Janet Leigh’s Marion, Joanne Woodward’s doomed Dorothy is a far
more interesting character than her rather stiff sibling. Surprisingly, Woodward
later called “Kiss Before Dying” her “worst movie”, and she has little chemistry
with Hunter (best known for her starring role opposite John Wayne in The
Searchers, released the same year). Wearing her horn-rimmed glasses and often
resembling Clark Kent in “Superman,” it’s a thankless, slightly boring part, but
Hunter does what she can. After looking at the boring side of the movie it is also
true that it was very commendable film in that era.
VIOLENCE, SEDUCTION, AND REVENGE IN “THE KISS BEFORE DYING”
This ‘unaware’ part is key to the film’s problems (Rated R for
language, violence, and sexual context). There’s no tension in the suspense because
we know from the start that Jonathan von Dillon is the killer. Instead, the audience
feels the pain of the sister when she started investigating her sister’s suicide. she
gathers all the clues which will be helpful. Ellen was the only surviving heir of her
wealthy father but apart from this, she was so grounded and concerned about social
problems. She also works for needy and homeless people to provide the best
facilities.
Jonathan isn’t very smart either, but he’s clearly not. The only reason he carries out
his plan is that everyone else in the movie is stupid as hell. Ellen’s grandfather
played by Max von Sydow. Anyone who has a double-traded lifetime for his
business. Everyone should believe that he never doubted the intentions of his
only daughter’s fiancé.
In the movie, A Kiss Before Dying, being rich or wealthy means you are brainless
and stupid, and being in a class of poor is ready to become rich in just some time also
with extreme ideas. One of the Parts of this movie seems like it is playing between
An American Tragedy and Sleeping with the Enemy – the wrong part.
Jonathan, who showed poor is tricked into stepping into the Copper Empire. Thus,
Dearden tries his best to modify the material of the 50s. since the film itself is a part of
all absurdism. All think Everything is working fine. But nothing works.
FINAL THOUGHTS ABOUT “THE KISS BEFORE DYING”
As sophisticated as Robert Wagner’s good looks, Kiss Before
Death is a compelling enough thriller to be picked up from today’s headlines. A
few surprises, tight directions, and a few successful performances make for a
devious social climber who lets nothing or anyone stop him from achieving the
wealth and greatness he craves madly. At the some part where people get confuse
about the movie but still it engages the audience in the question of suspense with a
object to know what will happen in the climax. characterize a dark tale. It was a
great combination of all the feelings as anger, love, lust, care, revenge, pain and
violence. Unfortunately, the Blu-ray presentation by Kino Rover doesn’t even
come close to the quality of the film, with below-average image and sound
transmission and a lack of supplementation diminishing the appeal of this release.
It remains a worthy and formidable noir thriller, but the quality of the disc should
make even die-hard fans consider buying it.
SUBMITTED BY
MS. VAISHNAVI KRUSHNA PARATE
REFERENCE LINKS
MOVIE REVIEW : ‘A Kiss Before Dying’: Worst-Case Thriller – Los Angeles Times
(latimes.com)
A Kiss Before Dying (1956) Blu-ray Review | High Def Digest
A Kiss Before Dying movie review (1991) | Roger Ebert
A Kiss Before Dying – Movie Reviews and Movie Ratings – TV Guide
ECOSYSTEM
Positive growth.
Nature, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf. Art is applied to the mixture of his will with the same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue, a picture. But his operations taken together are so insignificant, a little chipping, baking, patching, and washing, that in an impression so grand as that of the world on the human mind, they do not vary the result.
Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. Every man’s condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put.
Open Spaces
ECOSYSTEM
Positive growth.
Nature, in the common sense, refers to essences unchanged by man; space, the air, the river, the leaf. Art is applied to the mixture of his will with the same things, as in a house, a canal, a statue, a picture. But his operations taken together are so insignificant, a little chipping, baking, patching, and washing, that in an impression so grand as that of the world on the human mind, they do not vary the result.
Undoubtedly we have no questions to ask which are unanswerable. We must trust the perfection of the creation so far, as to believe that whatever curiosity the order of things has awakened in our minds, the order of things can satisfy. Every man’s condition is a solution in hieroglyphic to those inquiries he would put.
