Amoral Bud Corliss pursues young heiress Dorie Kingship in the hopes of getting his hands on the fortune amassed by her father. When Dorie gets pregnant and is threatened with disinheritance, Bud stages her suicide, sending her plummeting from the roof of a high-rise. It's the perfect crime until her sister begins to unravel Bud's deadly scheme.
Oswald, who never graduated past B-movies and television, makes masterful use of the frame, pitting his dark thriller elements against a full-color, widescreen frame.
This is a fine adaptation of Rosemary's Baby author Ira Levin's dark tale about a social climber who kills his wealthy girlfriend when her pregnancy threatens her inheritance.
An excellent screenplay (unoriginal but full of tension), subtle direction by the overlooked and underutilized Oswald, and good photography help gloss over any weaknesses in the performances.
This multiple-murder story is an offbeat sort of film, with Robert Wagner portraying a calculating youth who intends to allow nothing to stand in his way to money... Gerd Oswald's restrained direction suits the mood.
