Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s film of choice: a fictionalised take on the Boston Strangler case, with Tony Curtis.
After three women are found strangled in their own homes, the Boston police set up a special force to capture the killer. With very few clues to follow, they start by arresting known delinquents, until a coincidence puts them on the right track.
Richard Fleisher’s crime thriller and procedural is a fictionalised portrait of the notorious 1960s Boston Strangler case. Ditching a documentary approach, Fleischer and his DP Richard Kline use split-screen compositions, disorienting pans and lots of zooms to create a sense of urban paranoia, while the real-time sequences buzz with a constant threat of violence. In one of his final great parts, Tony Curtis gives an intense, almost tortured performance as serial killer Albert DeSalvo, while Henry Fonda and George Kennedy keep things grounded on the side of the police force.
