True Crime Movies

[sdreid]

You should see An American Crime, a disturbing and powerful film about Gertrude Baniszewski, the woman who tortured a girl to death over a period of weeks in 1965. Sylvia Likens had been left in her care for the summer. Mrs. Baniszewski said, "I had to teach her a lesson." The whole affair is unexplainable. I remember the case when it was in the news and, at the time, our minister even mentioned it in his sermon at church.

[sdreid]

Hi Caz,

Yes, love Dance With a Stranger. I have it on tape here somewhere. It would be in my top 15, I think.

[caz]

Hi Stan, All,

I don't think anyone has mentioned Dance With A Stranger yet.

It would be up there on my list with Let Him Have It, although not as high as 10 Rillington Place.

Love,

Caz
X

[sdreid]

Last night, I watched The Boston Strangler: The Untold Story - nothing great. If you are interested in the case, you might find it somewhat worthwhile. It is a little more in line with the modern understanding of the crimes than was the Tony Curtis version. The acting is pretty much humdrum as well with the exception of the actor who plays a guy obviously designed to remind us of Nassar.

[sdreid]

Yes unfortunately, the film makers have treated the JtR case as a commodity but failed to realize its potential as is.

[needler]

Don't you just HATE it when crazy people get on the soapbox?????

Everyone please ignore me and go back to the films................if anyone gives a big one, I did a talk at the '02 US conference, with video, of the Ripper on film and my conclusion was that no one in the film trade has a clue about how fascinating the story is when told as it happened.....sad, that. The best mystery EVER and they can't get it right!

Cheers,

Judy

[sdreid]

No arguments here

[needler]

You won't be sorry, Stan. The film covers more than just the murders, and fills you in on what happened to Hindley's sister and brother-in-law. The saddest things about the aftermath are what happened to the families....Keith Bennet's must still be in their own private hell, and Pauline Reade's finally got the chance to bury their daughter..... but even as I write this, the latest crap word - "closure" - leaps to mind. There really is no such thing. Even knowing your daughter is buried in a cemetery somewhere doesn't mean you have closed that door or forgotten. Even knowing that the terrible twosome killed your son and that he's buried somewhere on Saddleworth Moor doesn't mean that burying him again will bring any sort of peace. I really get pissed off about that word...you might have guessed THAT already. "Closure" cannot apply to things like this, and I HATE that it's tossed around like a Frisbee........

OK, 'nuf said; I'll stop and shut up. Sorry for the rant.

Judy

[sdreid]

OK Judy, I will try to hunt that one down then.

[needler]

Stan,

You MUST see SEE NO EVIL; Maxine Peake as Myra and Sean Harris as Brady are absolutely chilling. It's available on DVD, and most probably is out there somewhere at a rental shop on the High Street. While Brady has always been put forward as the "leader" of the two, I find Hindley far more interesting, and with an agenda of her own. The dynamic between these two resembles the Starkweather/Fugate spree.

Go find this one, Stan....then watch Samantha Morton terrify you all over again in LONGFORD.

Cheers,

Judy

[sdreid]

Hi Hook,

The film Murder By Numbers is also inspired by Leopold and Loeb although it's moved to modern times.

There were two Capote films as well as two In Cold Blood movies and all are good.

I submitted that German film about Ludke for inclusion on the list over on The Crime Web a couple of years ago. The English title is The Devil Strikes at Midnight.

[sdreid]

There have been films like The Town That Dreaded Sundown that ended with an unsolved case unresolved and it's a cult classic of a sort.

Maybe I'll get to view See No Evil someday.

[Captain Hook]

[QUOTE=sdreid;32825] Gein was supposedly the inspiration for a character in Silence of the Lambs as well.

Hi Stan,

Ed Gein was also the inspiration for Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That must be some kind of a record.

Other true crime movies include Robert Siodmak's The Suspect, from about 1945, starring Charles Laughton as a fictionalized Dr Crippen, and the German Nachts, Wenn der Teufel Kam, also directed by Siodmak.

The recent Truman Capote with Philip Seymour Hoffmann retells the In Cold Blood story.

Cheers
Hook

[Captain Hook]

Swoon about Leopold and Loeb...

There were two other movies based on the Leopold and Loeb case: Hitchcock's Rope, with James Stewart, Cedric Hardwicke and Farley Granger, and Compulsion, with Orson Welles in the Clarence Darrow role.

Cheers
Hook

[Mike Covell]

See No Evil was really well done for a TV production and I loved the exploration of the charectors and what roles they played. It was quite gory and spread over 2 nights when it was first shown.