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The Boston Strangler, a review by Jimmy

Title: The Boston Strangler
Year: 1968
Director: Richard Fleischer
Rating: R
Length: 1h56
Video:  Wide Screen
Audio:  English, French and Spanish
Subtitles: English and Spanish

Stars:
Tony Curtis - Albert DeSalvo
Henry Fonda - John S. Bottomly
George Kennedy - Phil DiNatale 
Mike Kellin - Julian Soshnick
Hurd Hatfield - Terence Huntley

Plot:
One by one, the victims fell, each death more gruesome than the last. The actual murders that rocked Boston in the '60s are the gripping subject matter of this unforgettable police thriller. Henry Fonda stars as the investigating police detective. Tony Curtis delivers a stunning performance as the psychopath Fonda must conquer. Filmed in a documentary style that makes the horrifying events all the more real, 'THE BOSTON STRANGLER' is one of the most powerful films in its genre.

Extras:
Fox Movietone News : Boston Strangler
Backstory : The Boston Strangler
Theatrical Teaser
Theatrical Trailer

With this one I'm not on unknown territory since I've read the book by Gerold Frank who is the inspiration of the movie and like almost everyone I've read a lot of documentation about this case and some others like it.

This movie is an Hollywood production so it's evident that it will be more mainstream. The first good thing to mention is the cast of the movie, all the principal actors are well cast (It's hard to understand why Curtis and Fonda didn't get a nomination for the Oscar, but maybe the subject was too dark for the members of the Academy) and the majority of the others (Kellerman in particullar) does a good job too. The utilisation of the split screen (sometimes there are 4 different at the same times) is an imaginative way to show the different point of view and it give a way to move the movie faster. But there are a lot of fact from the book that are not mention and some of those are not really important (some of the suspect), but some of those omission are hard to forgive. By exemple the fact that Desalvo was in the army for 8 years, the fact that his girl had an handicap, the fact that he had an anormal level of sexual need, the complete omission of the role of George Nassar for the conection between Desalvo and the strangler, the fact that Desalvo was not prosecuted for the strangler case but for the Green man case (he got a life sentence) and the worst case of volountary omited fact : Desalvo was found mentally competent to stand a trial.

That's doesn't means that the movie is bad, but if you know about the case the agenda by the director is very easy to spot : the mental disease are responsible of the crime in the society.   

Rating : 3.5/5

More information about the case

(From My review - unseen and unwatched january marathon on January 22nd, 2008)

Queen of the Damned, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: Queen of the Damned
Year: 2002
Director: Michael Rymer
Rating: R
Length: 101 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital Stereo
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
Stuart Townsend
Marguerite Moreau
Aaliyah
Vincent Perez
Paul McGann

Plot:
It's her time. Her place. The wickedly regal Mother of All Vampires is ready again to rule! Aaliyah plays the title role in this stylish shocker based on Anne Rice's 'The Vampire Chronicles'. Stuart Townsend portrays Lestat, the undead antihero previously seen in the movie version of Anne Rice's 'Interview with the Vampire'. This time, Lestat finds acceptance in a tattooed and pierced world. He's a rock star. And his intoxicating Goth-riffed sound rekindles the desires of all-powerful Akasha.

Extras:
Scene Access
Audio Commentary
Trailers
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes
Gallery
Production Notes
Music Videos
Outtakes/Bloopers
DVD-ROM Content
Closed Captioned

My Thoughts:
As much as I love vampire movies... this one is difficult for me to watch. This was originally a blind buy for me years ago... as it is a vampire movie I had to see it. And I haven't seen it since so I forgot how much I disliked this movie the first time around. The first problem for me was of all the music in this movie. But setting the music aside... it just isn't that great a story. There was some cool scenes with some decent effects. But that seems to be the most I can give this movie.



(From Addicted2DVD's November Alphabet Marathon on November 27th, 2009)

The OC: The Complete Series, a review by addicted2dvd

(From Addicted2dvd's Random TV Series Watched on June 21st, 2013)