IMDb > Compulsion (1959)

Compulsion (1959) More at IMDbPro »

Overview

User Rating:
7.4/10   1,495 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 18% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Richard Fleischer
Writers:
Richard Murphy (screenplay)
Meyer Levin (novel)
Contact:
View company contact information for Compulsion on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
May 1959 (West Germany) more
Genre:
Biography | Crime | Drama | History | Thriller more
Tagline:
Sometimes murder is just a way to pass the time. more
Plot:
Two wealthy law-school students go on trial for murder in this version of the Leopold-Loeb case. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Queer Birthday Suits
 (From FilmExperience. 19 November 2009, 1:55 PM, PST)
Mandy Patinkin to Star in Compulsion at Yale Rep, Directed by Oskar Eustis in 2010
 (From BroadwayWorld.com. 7 October 2009, 10:19 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Well Ahead Of Its Time more (37 total)

Cast

  (Complete credited cast)

Orson Welles ... Jonathan Wilk
Diane Varsi ... Ruth Evans
Dean Stockwell ... Judd Steiner
Bradford Dillman ... Arthur A. Straus

E.G. Marshall ... District Attorney Harold Horn
Martin Milner ... Sid Brooks

Richard Anderson ... Max Steiner
Robert F. Simon ... Police Lt. Johnson (as Robert Simon)
Edward Binns ... Tom Daly
Robert Burton ... Charles Straus
Wilton Graff ... Mr. Steiner
Louise Lorimer ... Mrs. Straus aka 'Mumsy'

Gavin MacLeod ... Padua - Horn's Assistant
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ina Balin ... Mike's girlfriend (scenes deleted)
Edmund Cobb ... Policeman (scenes deleted)
Frank Conroy ... (scenes deleted)
more
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
Add content advisory for parents
Runtime:
103 min | 99 min (FMC Library Print)
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
4-Track Stereo (35 mm magnetic prints) (Westrex Recording System) | Mono (35 mm optical prints) (Westrex Recording System)
Certification:
USA:Approved (certificate #19194) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15
Filming Locations:
Los Angeles High School - 4650 W. Olympia Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA
Company:
Darryl F. Zanuck Productions more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Because Orson Welles was having tax problems during the production, at the end of shooting his salary for the movie was garnisheed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. This upset Welles so much that just before he finished looping his dialogue in post-production, he stormed off the studio and left the country. All that was left to be looped was the last 20 seconds of his end speech in the courtroom. Incredibly, editor William Reynolds fixed this problem without needing Welles. Reynolds took words and pieces of words Welles had spoken earlier in the movie, and pieced them one by one into those 20 seconds. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Judd Steiner: To the perfect crime!
Arthur Straus: Crime. Oh, my wealthy fraternity brothers. 67 dollars, and a second-hand typewriter.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Funny Games (1997) more

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful.
Well Ahead Of Its Time, 24 January 2008
7/10
Author: sddavis63 (revsdd@gmail.com) from Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada

In many respects, I thought this was a movie that was far ahead of its time. In some ways, it's a psychological study of why some people turn to evil without any apparent remorse. It's also an anti-capital punishment argument in a time when capital punishment was both accepted and non-controversial. It deals with subject matters that I wouldn't normally expect to see in a movie of this era, and it's a very taut psychological thriller that wouldn't bore anyone.

Dean Stockwell, in my opinion, was the clear highlight of the film. He offered an amazing portrayal of Judd Steiner, the seemingly emotionless one of the murderous duo (the other was Bradford Dillman as Arthur Strauss.) Steiner and Strauss are basically rich, spoiled kids who decide to take up killing for the fun and excitement involved. The movie revolves around the investigation into the murder of a young boy, and then the trial of the two. Stockwell and Dillman made an interesting combination. In the beginning, Strauss is portrayed as the one in charge, with Steiner uncertain and nervous. By the end, Steiner is transformed into a hard as nails and cold as ice monster. The evolution of that relationship is fascinating.

There were aspects of the story that didn't work for me. Ruth (Diane Varsi) came across as far too forgiving of Judd after her encounter with him, and frankly, the rather long-winded speech by Orson Welles (playing attorney Jonathon Wilk) to the judge at the end of the movie was too long-winded, even though I agreed with some of it. (Modern studies of capital punishment would call into question Wilk's statement that only rich kids would die for this kind of crime; in fact, it's overwhelmingly the poor who are sentenced to death.) I thought the movie also opened with a musical score and what we would call today fonts for the credits that were entirely inappropriate, and which seemed to almost set this up as some sort of comedy. It's not. It's deadly serious, and very good. 7/10

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