Friday, May 29, 2020

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET is Gerd Oswald’s The Natalie Wood Story, Better Known as A Kiss Before Dying (1956), Starring Robert Wagner, with Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Joanne Woodward, Mary Astor and George Macready

By David in TN
Friday, May 29, 2020 at 3:05:00 P.M. EDT

TCM’s Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at 12:15 a.m. ET and 10 a.m. ET is A Kiss Before Dying (1956), starring Robert Wagner with Jeffrey Hunter, Virginia Leith, Joanne Woodward, Mary Astor and George Macready. Gerd Oswald, who directed many TV shows, such as Perry Mason, directed.

Film Noir Guide: “A Korean War veteran (Wagner), now a college student, gets his girlfriend (Woodward) pregnant. Knowing that her wealthy daddy (Macready) would disown her if he found out, Wagner decides that the only way to marry into her rich family is to get rid of Woodward and romance her sister (Leith).

After making Woodard’s death look like a suicide, Wagner ingratiates himself with Macready and Leith but worries when Leith comes to the conclusion that Woodard was murdered. Hunter plays a homicide detective convinced that Leith is on the right track.

Astor plays Wagner’s mother. The tension-filled script, a horrifying rooftop scene and good performances, especially by Wagner (cast way against type as the handsome psychopath) makes this Technicolor noir a real nail-biter. Remade in 1991, with Matt Dillon and Sean Young.”

David: I wonder what Eddie Muller will do with this one. Will he wax lyrical over the director? Most likely he’ll talk up the 1981 drowning death of Wagner’s wife, Natalie Wood, with Wagner himself and Christopher Walken also present on the boat.

That being said, A Kiss Before Dying is a good thriller-type film.

N.S.: “Wagner (cast way against type as the handsome psychopath)…” or maybe not?


1 comment:

David In TN said...

TCM's Film Noir of the Week Saturday Night-Sunday Morning at Midnight ET and 10 am ET is Cy Endfield's The Underworld Story (1950) with Dan Duryea, Herbert Marshall, Gale Storn, Howard da Silva, Michael O'Shea, Mary Anderson, Gar Moore.

Film Noir Guide: "After Moore, the son of a wealthy newspaper publisher Marshall, kills his wife, he and the father conspire to frame their black maid (Anderson). Unethical reporter Duryea, fired from his previous job and now half-owner of a small-town newspaper, sees the murder case as an opportunity to make headlines and a few bucks. His partner (Storm), who went to school with Anderson, is more concerned with her friend's fate than with selling newspapers, much to Duryea's annoyance. While D.A. O'Shea is building his case against the innocent maid, Marshall and Moore approach a notorious gangster (da Silva) for help in disposing of the nosy reporter. Except for the presence of noir icon Duryea as the likable scoundrel, The Underworld Story (a.k.a. The Whipped) is a pretty standard crime drama."