Compulsion

1959

Action / Biography / Crime / Drama / History / Thriller

12
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 85% · 10 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 85% · 1K ratings
IMDb Rating 7.4/10 10 8435 8.4K

based on a true story death penalty based on novel or book police male homosexuality philosophy

Plot summary

Two close friends' plan to execute a flawless crime is crushed when one of them inadvertently leaves his glasses at the crime scene.

Director

Richard Fleischer Photo
Richard Fleischer

Top cast

Jeffrey Sayre Photo
Jeffrey Sayre as Reporter on Telephone
Edward Binns Photo
Edward Binns as Tom Daly
John Roy Photo
John Roy as Juror
Peter Brocco Photo
Peter Brocco as Albert, Steiner's Chauffeur
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
805.63 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 1
1.64 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 43 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by AlsExGal 8 / 10

Loosely based on the Leopold and Loeb murder case of 1924

In that actual murder case, two college students who happen to be geniuses decide that the rules don't apply to the superior intellect, and they murder some random child just for the experience, having planned the details out carefully. But since I am writing about this, apparently it was not careful enough.All of the details of the murder case are pretty accurate, but there are fictional characters installed because this is more of a character study than a historically accurate account. These two fictional characters are Sid (Martin Milner) a college student and newspaper reporter, and his girlfriend Ruth (Diane Varsi).Judd Steiner (Dean Stockwell) is a rough equivalent to Leopold. Arthur Straus (Bradford Dillman) is a rough equivalent to Loeb. This is still the 1950s, so the production code wouldn't allow you to just come out and say what is going on between the two of them, but the film does as good a job as it can of portraying Steiner as in love with Straus, although the film has Arthur/Artie as being the one who wants to indulge in all of the criminal behavior with Judd mainly going along so he can keep Artie close to him. In fact it was Leopold/Steiner who was the instigator of all of the crimes that led up to murder. Instead, Steiner is portrayed as a timid guy alienated from his family who would have probably just been a self involved loner with weird hobbies if not for the bad influence of Straus. In fact, I think Ruth is in this film just to insinuate that Steiner "liked" girls more than she is there as a girlfriend for the all American student journalist, Sid.It's actually a pretty good look at what criminal investigators had to work with 100 years ago before there was DNA - identifying a typewriter from a ransom note, and being able to trace one pair of glasses out of thousands like it down to the person who owned them. As for interviews, before "you have the right to remain silent" was part of the police procedural vernacular, the smart investigator wants to keep the suspect talking - if he is guilty eventually he will trip himself up. Bright lights, billy clubs, and brutality are not required.Although Orson Wells doesn't appear on screen until halfway through the film, he dominates the conclusion. His character, John Wilk, is based on Clarence Darrow who was probably the most famous defense attorney in the country during the early 1900s. He is faced with the difficult task of preventing two rich kids with every advantage who killed a child for the thrill of it all from going to the gallows.
Reviewed by sddavis63 7 / 10

Well Ahead Of Its Time

In many respects, I thought this was a movie that was far ahead of its time. In some ways, it's a psychological study of why some people turn to evil without any apparent remorse. It's also an anti-capital punishment argument in a time when capital punishment was both accepted and non-controversial. It deals with subject matters that I wouldn't normally expect to see in a movie of this era, and it's a very taut psychological thriller that wouldn't bore anyone.Dean Stockwell, in my opinion, was the clear highlight of the film. He offered an amazing portrayal of Judd Steiner, the seemingly emotionless one of the murderous duo (the other was Bradford Dillman as Arthur Strauss.) Steiner and Strauss are basically rich, spoiled kids who decide to take up killing for the fun and excitement involved. The movie revolves around the investigation into the murder of a young boy, and then the trial of the two. Stockwell and Dillman made an interesting combination. In the beginning, Strauss is portrayed as the one in charge, with Steiner uncertain and nervous. By the end, Steiner is transformed into a hard as nails and cold as ice monster. The evolution of that relationship is fascinating.There were aspects of the story that didn't work for me. Ruth (Diane Varsi) came across as far too forgiving of Judd after her encounter with him, and frankly, the rather long-winded speech by Orson Welles (playing attorney Jonathon Wilk) to the judge at the end of the movie was too long-winded, even though I agreed with some of it. (Modern studies of capital punishment would call into question Wilk's statement that only rich kids would die for this kind of crime; in fact, it's overwhelmingly the poor who are sentenced to death.) I thought the movie also opened with a musical score and what we would call today fonts for the credits that were entirely inappropriate, and which seemed to almost set this up as some sort of comedy. It's not. It's deadly serious, and very good. 7/10
Reviewed by poetcomic1 8 / 10

"St. Leopold" At the End of His Life

Leopold was paroled after years of being a model prisoner, planning all kinds of prison reforms, and when released did philanthropic work in Puerto Rico. Interesting that Meyer Levin, author of book on which this film is based said, this amazingly redeemed man just a few times gave Levin a chill as it became clear that this character of 'St. Leopold' was just another creation of a true psychopath. The mocking narcissistic smirk was still there under it all.
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