Taglines: Loving him was easy. Trusting him was deadly.
A Kiss Before Dying movie storyline. Sometime in the past, a copper refinery owned by Thor Carlsson (Max von Sydow) has metal shipped out on Carlsson Copper trains that run right behind a young boy’s house, who stares out forlornly at the tracks.
1987: The University of Pennsylvania. A blonde student, Dorothy Carlsson (Sean Young) doodles in her notebook during class, drawing herself being married to a suitor. After class, she changes into a more formal outfit, and runs into her friend Patricia Farren (Martha Gehman) on her way out. Patricia asks if she is going to meet her “mystery man”, but Dorothy claims she is just going to meet her father for lunch.
On her way across town, Dorothy asks the cab to wait while she buys a new pair of shoes. At city hall, she meets Jonathan Corliss (Matt Dillon). The couple go up to the marriage license bureau, but it is closed for lunch. They discuss how her father would disown her if he knew what she was doing. Jonathan convinces her to wait for the office to reopen on the roof of the building. Eventually, he tosses her over the edge, taking her gold lighter and cigarettes, leaving her purse and tossing her new shoes after her plunging body. In the lobby, he mails a letter and calmly walks past her body as the crowd gathers.
Thor and his daughter Ellen, Dorothy’s twin, are shocked to find out Dorothy was pregnant and to read Dorothy’s suicide note, which was mailed the day she died. Ellen cannot believe that her sister would kill herself. Jonathan returns to his working class home in Pittsburgh possessing a portfolio of clippings regarding the Carlsson family and fortunes, particularly the suicides of Thor’s wife and son. Promising his mother that he will make something of his life, he hitchikes to New York, getting a ride from Jay Farraday (Adam Horovitz) who reveals that he is a bohemian drifter whose parents had died on Korean Air Lines Flight 007.
Four months later, Ellen is working at Castle House, a shelter and outreach program working to help troubled kids and prostitutes. Ellen takes off from the night shift to visit Philadelphia and investigate Dorothy’s death. She meets Detective Dan Corelli (James Russo) and shows him the drawing Dorothy had made in class of her wedding. Because the drawing is dated on the day she died, and given the fact that the building houses a marriage license bureau, Ellen believes Dorothy had no motive to kill herself, and that the suicide note must have been mailed as a cover. As such, she believes that Dorothy must have been lured to her death with the promise of marriage, and that her killer was her boyfriend.
A Kiss Before Dying is a 1991 British-American neo-noir film. It was directed by James Dearden, and based on the novel by Ira Levin, whose book won the 1954 Edgar Award for “Best First Novel.” The drama features Matt Dillon, Sean Young, Max von Sydow and Diane Ladd. The story had been previously adapted under the same name in 1956. This was the last film to use the 75th Anniversary 1990s Universal Pictures logo.
A Kiss Before Dying (1991)
Directed by: James Dearden
Starring: Matt Dillon, Sean Young, Max von Sydow, Diane Ladd, James Russo, Yvette Edelhart, Martha Gehman, Briony Glassco, Adam Horovitz, Lachele Carl
Screenplay by: James Dearden
Production Design by: Jim Clay
Cinematography by: Mike Southon
Film Editing by: Michael Bradsell
Costume Design by: Marit Allen
Set Decoration by: Catherine Davis
Art Direction by: Kalina Ivanov, Rod McClean, Chris Seagers, Chris Shriver
Music by: Howard Shore
MPAA Rating: R for areas of strong violence, graphic sensuality, and some language.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: April 26, 1991
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