Compulsion (1959)

Director:

Richard Fleischer

Writers:

Meyer Levin (novel) (play)
Richard Murphy (writer)

Release Date:

May 1959 (West Germany)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

Sometimes murder is just a way to pass the time.

Plot:

Two wealthy law-school students go on trial for murder in this version of the Leopold-Loeb case.

Plot Keywords:

Ornithologist | Judas Goat | Thrill Killing | College Students | Schizophrenia

Awards:

Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Orson Welles	...	Jonathan Wilk
Diane Varsi	...	Ruth Evans
Dean Stockwell	...	Judd Steiner
Bradford Dillman	...	Arthur Straus
E.G. Marshall	...	Dist. Atty. Harold Horn
Martin Milner	...	Sid Brooks
Richard Anderson	...	Max Steiner
Robert F. Simon	...	Lt. Johnson (as Robert Simon)
Ed Binns	...	Tom Daly
Robert Burton	...	Mr. Straus
Wilton Graff	...	Mr. Steiner
Louise Lorimer	...	Mrs. Straus
Gavin MacLeod	...	Padua
Terry Becker	...	Benson
Russ Bender	...	Edgar Llewellyn

Runtime:

103 min | 99 min (FMC Library Print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) (Westrex Recording System) | Mono (35 mm optical prints) (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles High School - 4650 W. Olympia Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The original play included what was then a modern-day sequence. This was omitted from the film. It showed several of the characters thirty years after the story took place.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Judd Steiner: To the perfect crime!
Arthur Straus: Crime. Oh, my wealthy fraternity brothers. 67 dollars, and a second-hand typewriter.

Movie Connections:

Version of Swoon (1992)

A strangely misshapen, although consistently entertaining film

The movie starts powerfully, as Stockwell and Dillman run down a drunk man; shot in glistening close-up, the combination of the instantly off-kilter performances and the lurid opening title design promises an extremely edgy, expressionistic work - a prospect borne out by the opening scenes that add further depth to the boys' relationship (intriguing because Stockwell appears to have the philosophical upper hand, whereas Dillman carries the greater effective weight through sheer goading and twisted charisma).

Gradually though the mechanics of the case take over, and such digressions as Varsi's plaintive affection for Stockwell (while her own boyfriend is a reporter who stumbles on the lead about the glasses) add very little. And then Welles totally takes over the movie with his grand performance, conjuring up oceans of world-weariness and theatrical wiliness in relatively few scenes - yet the closing focus on the immorality of the death penalty and the quality of mercy, presented as though the entire moral future of the world rested on this one verdict, barely coalesces with what came before it, resulting in a strangely misshapen, although consistently entertaining film.