The Todd Killings (1971) Even though BQ consumed vast amounts of movies throughout the 70's, this one slipped right by us......which wasn't hard since it parked briefly in theaters for less than week. I don't remember it ever popping up on TV, and even if it did, network censors would've sliced to ribbons.......
I vaguely recall not feeling too bad about missing it, since its generic, mundane title and poster made it look like a cheapjack TV movie that somehow stumbled into theatrical distribution.
Catching up with it 52 years later (on TCM, where you can still stream it till 12/14/23) I discovered a long lost gem that's anything but generic and unimaginative.
It's based on a real life serial thrill-killer known as 'The Pied Piper of Tucson' That title referred to his ability to befriend, enthrall, seduce and finally murder teens who flocked to him as the neighborhood rock star.....the coolest guy ever.
Fictionalized here as 'Skipper' Todd, (Robert F. Lyons) he's a 23 year old layabout sponging off his mom (Barbara Bel Geddes) who runs a seedy nursing home in a former motel. He fills his days and nights as the exalted, popular too-cool-for-school guy among the town's high schoolers.
The kids dig him, oblivious to the fact he's a murderous sociopath who already killed one of them just for the sheer adrenalin rush. Though 5 years older than most of them they embrace him as one of their own and Skipper's wily enough to always enact the role of polite gentlemen to their parents.
There's more than a few surprises and delights to discover here, if you're up for seeking out the film. Lyons inhabits the charismatic, seductive Skipper to chilling perfection......he's smooth as creamy sun tan lotion until something (or someone) provokes him enough to drop his mask of normality. The someone specifically is elusive teen Roberta,(Belinda Montgomery) whom Skipper pursues even though she and town cops are the only ones who sees through him.........(but not all the way and not soon enough.....)
The other bonus that staggered me......the incredible line-up in the film's supporting cast. Where do I even begin? Richard Thomas, only a year away from TV stardom as John-Boy in "The Waltons" shows up as a reform school refugee whom Lyons takes under his wing. Bel Geddes (of "Vertigo") I already mentioned. Then there's star-crossed ex-starlets Fay Spain and Gloria Graham as some of the parents, James Broderick (yes, Matthew's dad)pops up as Skipper's former high school teacher, painfully insightful on his ex-student's failings as a human being. Ed Asner weighs in as ominous adult who also knows Skipper all too well.....and reliable character guys Michael Conrad, George Murdock and Geoffrey Lewis (Juliet's dad) are in the mix too.
Leonard Rosenman throws in a edgy nervous score but the only the only thing here I wasn't crazy about was the muddy, soft focus photography, which, sorry to say, dates a lot of 1970's films. But I'm willing to literally look around it and recommend "The Todd Killings" as a top-tier 3 & 1/2 star thriller worth checking out (***1/2). An unsettling portrait of a predator and his not-too-bright prey.
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