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In Cold Blood
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In Cold Blood (1967) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
8.1/10   9,242 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 15% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Richard Brooks
Writers:
Truman Capote (novel)
Richard Brooks (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for In Cold Blood on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
14 December 1967 (USA) more
Genre:
Crime | Drama | History more
Plot:
After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(7 articles)
Sam Mendes--The Hollywood Interview
 (From The Hollywood Interview. 14 June 2009, 9:44 PM, PDT)

Getting in the Act: 11 Novelists Who Found Their Way Into the Script
 (From IFC. 26 February 2009, 3:30 AM, PST)

User Comments:
Extremely disturbing, even now more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (USA) (complete title)
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Runtime:
134 min | Poland:129 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (release prints) | 3 Channel Stereo (original mix)
Certification:
Iceland:16 | France:-16 | West Germany:16 (re-rating) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | UK:15 | UK:X (original rating) | South Korea:15 (2006) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (Suggested for Mature Audiences) (original rating) | USA:R (re-rating) (1970)
Filming Locations:
Colorado, USA more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The producers of the film originally wanted Judge Roland Tate, the actual judge from the trial, to play himself in the film. Judge Tate died shortly before photography and a call was issued for a suitable replacement. Local auctioneer and realtor John Collins was cast, and appears in the film. more
Goofs:
Revealing mistakes: At the beginning of the movie, after Dick has picked Perry up from the Kansas City bus depot and both are crossing the river into Kansas, the process is running in reverse, giving the impression the car is suddenly moving in reverse despite the two immediate shots bookending this one clearly shows the car moving forward. more
Quotes:
[first lines]
Little girl on bus: 'Scuse me.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Rebel Set (#5.19)" (1992) more

FAQ

Is "In Cold Blood" based on a true story?
How much money did Smith and Hickock get from Clutter?
How closely does the movie follow the book?
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69 out of 88 people found the following comment useful:-
Extremely disturbing, even now, 4 August 2002
9/10
Author: virek213 from San Gabriel, Ca., USA

Although it was released way back in 1967, IN COLD BLOOD still remains the benchmark by which all true-crime films are matched. Veteran writer/director Richard Brooks (ELMER GANTRY) adapted Truman Capote's non-fiction book into a chilling docudrama that retains a disturbing power even today, thirty-five years later.

Robert Blake and Scott Wilson portray Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two ex-cons who, on a tip from Hicock's old cellmate Floyd Wells, broke into the Holcomb, Kansas home of Herbert Clutter, looking for a wall safe supposedly containing $10,000. But no safe was ever found, and the two men instead wound up killing Mr. Clutter, his wife, and their two children, getting away with only a radio, a pair of binoculars, and a lousy forty dollars. Two months on the run, including an aimless "vacation" in northern Mexico, ended in Las Vegas when cops caught them in a stolen car. But it eventually comes out, after merciless grilling by Kansas law enforcement officials, that these two men committed that heinous crime in Holcomb. Tried and convicted on four counts of murder, they stew in jail over a five-year period of appeals and denials until both are hanged to death on April 14, 1965.

Blake and Smith are absolutely chilling as the two dispassionate killers who show no remorse for what they've done but are concerned about getting caught. John Forsythe also does a good turn as Alvin Dewey, the chief detective investigating the crime, as does Gerald S. O'Laughlin as his assistant. In a tactic that is both faithful to Capote's book and a good artistic gambit all around, Brooks does not show the murders at the beginning; instead, he shows the two killers pulling up to the Clutter house as the last light goes out, then cuts to the next morning and the horrifying discovery of the bodies. Only during the ride back to Kansas, when Blake is questioned by Forsythe and narrates the story, do we see the true horror of what happened that night. We don't see that much blood being spilled in these scenes, but we don't need to. The shotgun blasts and the horrified look on the Clutters' faces as they know they are about to die are more than disturbing enough, so there is no need to resort to explicitly bloody slasher-film violence.

Brooks wisely filmed IN COLD BLOOD in stark black-and-white, and the results are excellent thanks to Conrad Hall's expertise. The chilling jazz score by Quincy Jones is the capper. The end result is one of the most unsettling films of any kind ever made, devastating in its own low-key fashion. It is a 134-minute study of a crime that shook an entire state and indeed an entire nation, and should be seen, though viewer discretion is advised; the 'R' rating is there for a reason.

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