Compulsion (1959) Richard Leopold and Nathan Loeb were, of course, not the very first Americans to kill a young child just for the hell of it.......
We're reasonably sure there were at least one or two psychotic, homicidal sociopaths running around the 13 colonies in 1776.......
But Leopold-Loeb, as they came to be known, like some kind of evil comedy team, hit the big time in the roaring 20's with nationwide newspaper coverage......and attracted no less them premier super-lawyer Clarence Darrow as their defense attorney, who rescued them certain death by hanging with an impassioned anti capital punishment speech to their judge.
The two lived on in books and films, providing Alfred Hitchcock with the inspiration for his one-take wonder "Rope.
Hitchcock used only the basic premise of Leopold and Loeb's crime.......two snotnose college boys, fueled with Nietzsche-ian philosophy, think they're so superior to everyday humans, they commit murder for no other reason than the sheer rush of taking a human life.
"Compulsion", based on a novel's fictionalized account of the actual events, presents a slick, Hollywood-polished version of this sad, horrific tale that still remains compelling.
In short order, things to love:
Black and White Cinemascope, that odd visual combo that spreads the noir-ish doom across a proscenium arch expanse....
Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell, both acting up a storm as the infamous duo, with Dillman giving a showy Actor's Studio bravura turn, while Stockwell goes more subtle, internalizing his repressed rage and thwarted sexuality.....
Orson Welles as 'Jonathon Wilk' the Clarence Darrow character.......we've never seen Welles acting more precisely focused and honed than his work here.......you'll never take your eyes off him when he delivers his bravura courtroom address, a plea for life imprisonment over the death penalty.......(it's no wonder the speech itself became a best selling recording.....)
That reliable versatile journeyman director Richard Fleischer puts it all together like a step by step crime thriller, but in a fitting farewell to the more staid 1950's spares audiences any depiction of the unspeakable crime itself......(imagine, if you will, somebody remaking this story today......)
Even 62 years after its release, we still found "Compulsion" compulsively watchable.......and still well worth the time to re-visit. 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2)
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