The Boston Strangler
Stark, emotionless & brilliant retelling of the infamous DeSalvo story. The film is presented almost as a narrative documentary using multiple split screen techniques, and is all the better for it. Video prints used an awful pan/scan which cropped off pretty much everything. The DVD restores the film to its full widescreen glory.
In terms of acting the film is flawless. Henry Fonda & George Kennedy make a superb team (watch their delayed reactions in the brilliant elevator scene near the end). Among the equally excellent supporting cast are George Voskovec as the psychic Peter Hurkos (reunited with Fonda after Twelve Angry Men), William Hickey (superb as a creepy handbag-obsessed suspect), the droll combination of Murray Hamilton & Mike Kellin as detectives, Hurd Hatfield (the original Dorian Gray) as a hounded gay man, a brief appearance by James Brolin as a cop who comes a cropper to Hurkos's talents, and even Moe Greene himself Alex Rocco as a detective at an apartment murder scene.
However it's Tony Curtis who stands out among this towering ensemble. Yep, the same Curtis who dragged up in Some Like It Hot, lost his hand (but not his accent) in The Vikings, and uttered immortal lines such as "I won't let dem crucify youse, Spartacus" and "Yonder lies da palace of my faddah, de Caliph". Although he doesn't appear until almost an hour into the film his performance is absolutely mesmerizing. Whoever believed that Bernie Schwartz was capable of such phenomenal acting? Bone-chilling and genuinely psychotic (look at his eyes during the bathroom murder) this, together with The Defiant Ones, is the answer to critics who believed Curtis couldn't act.
The nudity is brief and the murders non-explicit (bar for the genuinely nasty assault on a bound Sally Kellerman). Much of the graphic material is limited to dialogue descriptions ("Don't tell the press about the broom handle") and this also helps the film immensely. When originally released in the UK the cinema version received some of the heaviest cuts ever made to a major Hollywood film, and even as late as 1988 the video was still a problem for the BBFC (losing over 1 min from the assault scene). Now it can be seen intact and uncut.
It can also be seen for what it is. A classic of 60's cinema and an unforgettable experience.
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