Boston is being terrorized by a series of seemingly random murders of women. Based on the true story, the film follows the investigators path through several leads before introducing the Strangler as a character. It is seen almost exclusively from the point of view of the investigators who have very few clues to build a case upon.
Tony Curtis Henry Fonda George Kennedy Mike Kellin Hurd Hatfield Murray Hamilton Jeff Corey Sally Kellerman William Marshall George Voskovec Leora Dana Carolyn Conwell Jeanne Cooper Austin Willis Lara Lindsay George Furth Richard X. Slattery William Hickey Eve Collyer Gwyda Donhowe Alex Dreier John Cameron Swayze Shelley Burton Elizabeth Baur James Brolin George Tyne Dana Elcar William Traylor Carole Shelley Show All…
L'étrangleur de Boston, Bostonský škrtič, El estrangulador de Boston, O Homem Que Odiava as Mulheres, L'Étrangleur de Boston, Lo strangolatore di Boston, Der Frauenmörder von Boston, El Estrangulador De Boston, Бостонский душитель, Boston Canisi, Bostonstryparen, A bostoni fojtogató, החונק מבוסטון, Bostonský případ, Dusiciel z Bostonu, Бостънският удушвач, Boston-kvæleren, 보스톤 교살자, 勾魂手, جانی بوستون, Ο Στραγγαλιστής της Βοστώνης, Бостонський душитель
Austria16
USAR
France
Germany16
JapanPG12
Denmark15
Brazile 16
Portugale 16
Ireland18
Brazil14
Austria
Brazil
Denmark
France
Germany
Ireland
Japan
Portugal
USA
Visually assaulted with perspectives littering the frame for so much of the first half that the film loses easy semblance of structural identity and the viewer finds themselves both destabilized and overwhelmed. Each window suggests the possibility of the strangler either hiding within or holding the view, a frantic voyeuristic gaze we impose on the camera's subjects at while simultaneously anxious about if we are sharing that voyeurism with the strangler as himself – ourselves. It's not exactly subtle but it is quite effective, and soon enough as his notoriety increases so too do the perspectives, the manifold appearing as a cultural collective in both the probing of the media as well as the vigilance of the crowd. Such blurring…
fleischer uses every formal trick in the book (split-screen, POV, cross-fades, multi-panel matte, shock edits, image distortion, insane snap zooms and dolly pans) to trace the procedure of rebuilding the objective, material consequences of reality through deeply fragmented subjectivity. i have a few reservations about how the script ties the two together but it is interesting that the form doubles as a glaring indictment of just how ill-equipped law enforcement is to deal with sexual violence and mental illness.
A nasty, cold-hearted procedural about the apprehension of the alleged Boston Strangler, but secretly about a nation of perverts ruled by an inept and evil police state. Feels like Otto Preminger crossed with Brian De Palma and the Hitchcock of Psycho. Absolutely insane to introduce the top-billed star more than halfway through the movie. The most triumphant possible way that Richard Fleischer could have washed off the stink of Doctor Dolittle.
accompanied by a lecture about the history of the split screen. what I didn't expect - and what wasn't communicated in the meta talk as well - was how this technicality is actually going along with the rest of the movie. cause what the movie sets is a huge statement about alienation. the split screen is not a concept used as literal gimmick, but also "split screens" are visible in nearly every "normal" sequence as well. images are permanently framed with demarcations, picture in picture, visual delimitations.
the last third of the film has a stark shift in tone and dynamics, focussing on the perpetrator. everything comes together right there: after depicting cliches of criminals - molesters, pervs, "scum" -…
wonderfully stylish with a great use of sound and the split screen technique. it's not every day you see a film that shows you multiple views of the same scene simultaneously. i'm surprised by how little this gets mentioned. even the cast is absolutely brilliant. this was definitely ahead of its time and i highly recommend it if you're into crime dramas that are (loosely) based on true events.
i think it's a miscalculation to so heavily fictionalize the facts of the real case to shore up a thesis about the temptation, in fear, to give in to circumstantial evidence. but on the other hand that's a thesis well-worth shoring up, and what's more Fleischer's compartmentalization of frames within frames speaks not only to DeSalvo's dissociative personality disorder (made up for this film), but also the continued doubt over his guilt (at least in some of the murders, although that doubt wasn't as present when this was made in '68) and the misinformation that spreads in panicked communities. couldn't help but remind me of ZODIAC with its procedural emphasis and pursuit of some kind of comforting certainty.
Richard Fleischer had the first half of the film to try and win the Best Director Oscar. It was kind of silly how many split screens, hard zooms, and canted angles he chucked in there. Look, it’s an old woman’s wrinkly face, cankles, and mailbox, all in one shot! Yippee!!
Tony Curtis had the second half of the film to go for the Best Actor Oscar. I guess it’s not that big a performance, considering he’s playing the Boston Strangler. He’s got a lot of moments, though, including reacting to literally the worst question your kid could ever ask you.
And who’s around the whole time, just bringing the steady hand he always brings? Everyone’s favorite rock, Henry Fonda. Towards the end, he has the patented Henry Fonda Moment of Reckoning (TM). He makes it look easy, but it only lands if the character has self-awareness, gravitas, and a bit of vanity. He’s so good, all the damn time.
The first half of this police procedural horror movie bounces from one suspect to the next: serial lothario, would-be Othello, self-loathing Catholic, middle-aged gay man. (As the cops toss around slurs like "faggot" and "queer," you can hear the tolling of the Production Code's death knells. The MPAA's new rating system would be instituted a couple weeks after The Boston Strangler's release.) The second half lingers with the real killer as he's chased, caught, and interrogated. The camera slips from a white-walled cell into the cavern of his memory. Richard Fleischer, an old dog, proves himself adept at new tricks: zooms, quick-fire cuts, pervasive split-screen. They turn this true crime yarn into a tabloid prism, its reportage forever splintering into…
The June / July Classic Crime Project: 1930-1969
The charges made against The Boston Strangler when it was released back in 1968, just 4 years after Albert DeSalvo was arrested, was that it was a distortion of the facts as well as being a sleazy exploitation of the deaths of 13 women for cinematic entertainment.
Roger Ebert even went as far to say that it should never have been made, in an otherwise praiseworthy review, strangely enough. It's easy for me to sit here, over 50 years after DeSalvo started his spree of murders, and state that Ebert's opinion was misguided. If Richard Fleischer's film does anything factually correct, it's to portray a north-east USA in the grip of fear…
There is no other work that so vividly shows how accurate cinematic expression is. Maybe it has something to do with how fast it moves. I learned a lot from this film. But I think this can only be done by a genius.
a portrait of a crumbling society. fleischer is determined on conveying a dyptich on the brutality and madness of late capitalism, at first interested at slowly unveiling a jigsaw puzzle, constantly arriving at mysterious dead ends, reimagining possibilities, and along the way he ends up finding neurosis, loneliness, corruption and mental illness. a population degenerated by culture.
