Jeffrey Hunter & Virginia Leith - “A Kiss Before Dying“ 죽기 전에 키스를1956

In 1956, Bud Corliss (Robert Wagner) is an ambitious university student who is wooing fellow student Dorothy Kingship (Joanne Woodward) 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 father, Leo Kingship (George Macready). She does not care about that, saying she feels “like me“ for the first time in her life, free of her father’s control. Bud assures Dorothy that he will take care of her, hesitates when Dorothy insists on marrying, but then seemingly agrees to it. After an initial attempt to harm her, which Dorothy registers as an accident, Bud spends the days leading up to their arrangement establishing an elaborate staged plan for what would appear to be her suicide. He is stunned into near panic when this fails. On the day they are to be married, Bud purposely has Dorothy meet him at the municipal building within the lunch hour when the pertinent office is closed. He suggests they go to the roof for some air. There, he manipulates her into position and murders her; her death is considered a suicide because of a letter he had forged and mailed in anticipation of his original plan working. After a couple of months, Dorothy’s sister, Ellen (Virginia Leith), is dating Bud; he is giving himself a second shot at ingratiating himself with Leo Kingship. Ellen has no idea of Bud’s previous relationship with Dorothy; she has, however, always had doubts about the death. She has an idea that if she can find out who her sister’s boyfriend had been, it will be proven that he killed her. For help, Ellen contacts Gordon Grant, who tutored Dorothy. Shortly, Ellen believes she has identified the boyfriend, Dwight Powell (Robert Quarry). Bud learns of the investigation and manages to eliminate Powell from the equation. This, too, is taken to be a suicide. Ellen is satisfied that Powell was the man who killed Dorothy. Bud and she become engaged. Gordon shows up during the engagement party to tell her that he has discovered that Powell could not have committed the crime. On his way out, he is introduced to Bud; while driving home, he stops at a phone booth to call his uncle, the chief of police, to reveal that he believes he had seen Bud with Dorothy at the university. Gordon returns to Ellen’s and informs Leo Kingship that he is certain Bud was dating Dorothy and is likely a murderer. They give Ellen this news, which she rejects outright. The next morning, the couple drive to the Kingship mine so Bud can see the family fortune being made. Meanwhile, Gordon’s uncle confirms that Bud was Dorothy’s boyfriend. During casual conversation, Bud lets it slip both that he knows more about the smelter than he should, considering he supposedly has been talking only with Ellen about her family, and that - concurrent with Dorothy - he had gone frequently to concerts in the university town. He admits to Ellen that he knew her sister, that he “even had a few dates with her“. He tries to tell Ellen that he was being considerate of her emotions by keeping it a secret; they argue and Bud stalks to the edge of the open mine pit. Ellen goes after him, still hoping he is not a murderer. They continue to talk and it becomes obvious that he, indeed, is guilty. Her father and Gordon arrive and witness Bud struggling to throw Ellen into the pit; in a desperate attempt to kill her, he shoves her in front of an oncoming truck, which swerves and instead hits him, knocking him over the cliff.