“Compulsion” to “The Corpse”
Compulsion (1959) This fictionalized account of the Leopold-Loeb murder case is a top-notch courtroom drama with solid performances from Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman and Orson Welles as the pairs defense attorney (a character based on Clarence Darrow). (GS)
The Constant Gardener (2005) I think this film is the very best film adaptation of a John le Carré novel ever. Watching Ralph Fiennes character evolve from a naïve, insolated gardener who works for the British High Commission based in Africa to a man determined to uncover who killed his wife and why and in the process uncovers political corruption at the highest level. Compelling and required viewing. (GS)
The Conversation (1974) Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, starring Gene Hackman, with Cindy Williams, Teri Garr, Harrison Ford, Frederic Forrest are amongst the familiar faces in the cast and set in San Francisco; this thriller follows an obsessive surveillance expert who makes the critical error of becoming personally involved in a case. (GS)
Cool Hand Luke (1967) Some familiar faces and a few that someday will be. There’s no other movie quite like this one. Newman’s at his peak, George Kennedy gives his best performance to that date, and Strother Martin delivers some of the most memorable lines in motion pictures: “What we have here… is failure… to communicate…” (KCL)
The Corpse (1969) This ambitious, multi-layered little British chiller with a script by actor Olaf Pooley had absolutely zero budget, but what it lacked in that department it more than made up for in terms of striking atmosphere and conceptual depth. The Corpse is not based upon the most original of concepts but it is extraordinarily well-written and superbly acted. Has there ever been a more believable screen villain than Michael Gough’s performance here? A character of malevolence and mediocrity far removed for supernatural monsters. An inscrutable parody of domestic banality, The Corpse reveals the tensions and sordid details beneath the surface of traditional English middle-class family values. And it does so with a sense of righteous outrage at the rampant hypocrisy that it finds squatting in the darkness. US Title: Crucible of Horror. (KT)
Originally published in Raspberry World – Volume 2, Issue 1 (June/July 2007)