Areli Galvez

HUM 310
December 8, 2014
Can Change be Better?
Ira Levin was born in New York City on August 27, 1929. He died at the age of 78 of a
heart attack on November 12, 2007, in his New York City apartment. He started as a television
writer who became a best-selling author in 1953 with his first novel, A Kiss Before Dying. The
novel won the Edgar Allan Poe award for best first novel in 1954. More thrilling works followed,
such as Rosemary's Baby in 1968 and The Boys from Brazil in 1976, which were later turned
into films. Levins novel A Kiss Before Dying was first made into a film in 1956. Gerd Oswald
directed the film while Lawrence Roman wrote the screen play using Levins novel as a model;
keeping most of the initial story as is, but combining a few characters and eliminating a sister. A
remake of the film was later made in 1991 by screenplay writer and director James Dearden. In
his film Dearden does not only eliminate a sister, but he creates a dead brother. He also makes
the two sisters twins creating a bigger bond between them. Not emphasizing certain objects and
eliminating or combining characters can create either a positive or negative effect on the story
being portrayed.
The novel being a guideline for both films has eight important characters which are Leo
Kinship, his three daughters Dorothy, Ellen and Eliot, Bud Corliss who was the daughters
boyfriend, Annabelle who helped by providing what seemed unimportant information to the
Kinship family, Dwight Powell who was Ellens ex-boyfriend and Gordon Gant, a handsome guy
who was interested in Ellen.

In the novel we begin with Dorothy telling Collins she is pregnant, then in chapter two
Levin allows us to meet Collin in a deeper level we learn about his ambitions which are later
shown with more detail throughout the story. In chapter two we also learn of his unstable life,
how often he changed jobs, his unwillingness to finish school and his moving around from place
to place only to return to his mothers home. Levin also gives us a brief description of why
Collin behaves the way he does, his experience in high school, his parents involvement in his
obsession for money and power and his experience on killing a man while he was in war. After
introducing Collin, Levin continues with the plot of the story; planning Dorothys death allowing
us to understand Collins motives.
Having the plot in order can be beneficial since it creates no confusion on why an event
might be important. The 1956 film follows that layout, beginning with Dorothy being pregnant,
then moving on to Collin trying to murder her. Since there is no story in between describing
Collin nor does the plot begin with Collins life the viewer has no idea of Collins motives. We
learn of Collins ambitions by paying attention to things he said to Dorothy, such as you had to
ruin everything before pushing her off the roof top. However, it is not until the end of the film
when Collins admits to Ellen he was seeking ownership of the family company that the viewer
is told of Collins motives.
While keeping the same characters as in the 1956 film, Dearden decided to change some
of the characters names. Ellen and Dorothy remained the same changing only their last name to
Carlson, Bud Corliss became Jonathan Corliss or Jay, Leo Kinship was changed to Thor Carlson,
Annabelle to Patricia, Dwight Powell to Tommy and Gordon Gant to Dan Corelli. Changing the
characters name had no impact on the story being portrayed, it made it unique. The film begins
with a young boy looking out his window while a train passed by. The viewer must pay close

attention to all the small details the director provides such as the name displayed on the train,
Carlson, which was carrying material to the sisters fathers company. The director chooses not to
show any stories in between since the beginning of the film starts off with a young boy looking
out the window, we are not told who the young boy is until the end of the film we learn it was
Jonathan and by analyzing the small details one is able to realize the reason for his obsession.
In the novel Ellen and Eliot have different personalities, Ellen blames herself for the
death of her sister Dorothy, she tries to investigate and prove it was not a murder while Eliot is
hurt about her sisters death, she focuses more on her career and future, happiness with Corliss
regardless of what she is told about Corliss not being honest about who he really is. It is not until
prove are shown to her that she begins to panic and wants to know what really happened. In the
novel Ellen discovers Dorothy bought new gloves the day of her death, she also borrowed a belt
and was wearing a blue scarf (something new, something borrowed and something blue), the fact
that the so called suicide occurred outside a civil marriage office was a strong motive for Ellen to
believe it was not a suicide but rather a murder. After discovering the truth she is then murdered
by Collins and as I mentioned Eliot does nothing to find the killer.
In the 1956 film Ellen is interested in investigating what really happened to her sister
Dorothy yet she is also focused on her future. As in the novel she believes it was not suicide but
rather a murder due to the new gloves she had purchased that day, borrowed belt and blue
handkerchief once again something new, something borrowed and something blue. Ellen is then
easily convinced it was a suicide and continues to her wedding preparations, it is not until
detective Gordon recognizes Bud as a former student at the university Dorothy attended, that she
decides to investigate once again and discovers that Bud was the murderer.

In the 1991 film Ellen belief for her twin sister not committing suicide is vague, Ellen
constantly claims that Dorothy had bought shoes the day of her death and drawn a picture of a
couple getting married a few days before, making her argument week. Her investigation is also
quickly stopped and she continues with her wedding. It is not until months later after wedding
that someone called Jonathan by his real name that Ellen begins investigating and ones again
discovers the truth.
An important object both films did not emphasize on much was the golden lighter the
sisters had. Throughout the novel, Levin constantly mentions how the sisters and Collin smoked
cigarettes, he also always mentions how they would take out their golden lighter to light up their
cigars. In the 1956 film there are two smoking scenes and they are both with Dorothy and Bud.
The lighter are only shown in a glance making it seem un important. In the 1991 film we see the
lighter only once towards the end of the film. Ellen discovers the golden lighter with her sisters
name on it Dorothy linking Corliss to her murder. The lighter is suppose to portray the sisters
wealth and since Corliss loved the lighter it also showed his ambition towards money. I believe
having had put more emphasize in the lighter would have showed Corliss ambitions more clearly
throughout the film.
In other words changing certain objects and combining characters created
negative effect on the story being portrayed by having weaker arguments. Even though I enjoyed
both films, I would rather reread the novel since I found it to be more interesting. Eliminating
Eliot from the film caused Ellen to seem confused and uncertain of whom she is. James Welsh
claims that the James Dearden remake, starring Matt Dillon as the killer and Sean Young as the

victim, is better, hands down while Peter Rainer said, It shouldn't have been all that difficult to
transpose an Ira Levin thriller to the screen-the same book, in fact, was filmed far more
successfully once before, in 1956. Both films had different important things the novel
contained, but they both lack important events making it tough to decide on which film was
better.

Work Cited Page

A Kiss before Dying. 1956. Videocassette
A Kiss before Dying. 1991. DVD.
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.biography.com/people/ira-levin-20703551#synopsis>.
"Gerd Oswald." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0652631/>.
"James Dearden." IMDb. IMDb.com. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0213139/>.
Levin, Ira. A Kiss Before Dying. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1953.
Rainer, Peter. "MOVIE REVIEW `A Kiss before Dying': Worst-Case Thriller." Los
Angeles Times (pre-1997 Fulltext): 8. Apr 26 1991. ProQuest. Web. 7 Dec. 2014 .
Welsh, James M. Film Reviews. Films In Rview 42.7/8 (1991):260. Academic Search
Premier. Web. 12 Nov. 2014.