This is not your average 50's noir. Instead we have a low-down manipulative killer (Robert Wagner as Bud) set against the leafy backdrop of a college campus instead of the usual grimy cheapjack one. And from the clothes and cars down to the shotgun wedding ethic, it practically screams mid 1950s.
Mary Astor is Bud's predatory mother who wants her son to marry into wealth and social position, and Joanne Woodward is Dorie, Bud's sweet and naive girlfriend who believes he really loves her and wants to marry her. But Dorie gets pregnant and dad is the unforgiving type, and Bud is afraid Dorie will be disinherited and Bud will become just another schlemiel working his way through college with a wife and baby in tow with no dough. Thus since Bud actually is in love with Dorie's dad's fortune, Dorie must go, and I don't mean to another college. But Bud is careful. He is clever and makes Dorie's death look like a suicide - poor girl never saw it coming. And since Bud has learned so much about Dorie's sister, Ellen, from Dorie, that is his next romantic stop.
But like so many killers, Bud has overlooked some things. For one thing Dorie wrote Ellen right before her "suicide" saying that she had met somebody and was very happy. Thus Ellen is just not buying the suicide angle and goes looking for the truth, even though the killer is now her boyfriend! How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.
George McReady is Dorie's and Ellen's rich father who is willing to believe the worst of anybody, especially his own children, and he is great as always. I recommend this one if it ever comes your way.
Mary Astor is Bud's predatory mother who wants her son to marry into wealth and social position, and Joanne Woodward is Dorie, Bud's sweet and naive girlfriend who believes he really loves her and wants to marry her. But Dorie gets pregnant and dad is the unforgiving type, and Bud is afraid Dorie will be disinherited and Bud will become just another schlemiel working his way through college with a wife and baby in tow with no dough. Thus since Bud actually is in love with Dorie's dad's fortune, Dorie must go, and I don't mean to another college. But Bud is careful. He is clever and makes Dorie's death look like a suicide - poor girl never saw it coming. And since Bud has learned so much about Dorie's sister, Ellen, from Dorie, that is his next romantic stop.
But like so many killers, Bud has overlooked some things. For one thing Dorie wrote Ellen right before her "suicide" saying that she had met somebody and was very happy. Thus Ellen is just not buying the suicide angle and goes looking for the truth, even though the killer is now her boyfriend! How will all of this work out? Watch and find out.
George McReady is Dorie's and Ellen's rich father who is willing to believe the worst of anybody, especially his own children, and he is great as always. I recommend this one if it ever comes your way.