Compulsion

4 1/2 stars for the movie (which is terrific!); 0 stars for KINO. This is, I believe, the last blu-ray that I bought that was made by KINO and when I watched it, it was too late to return to Amazon. What's going on with KINO? Why do their blu-rays of the last two years FREEZE on me? Not their earlier ones, just the ones from the last two years. Could they be manufacturing them cheaply in a third-world country? It's not fair because they own the best titles. Right now there are 4 KINO blu-rays that I would give my eyeteeth to own (4 Selznicks!) but I won't touch them with a ten foot pole, of course. It's not fair!

Say what you will about the story. It has it's ups and downs and may not be considered a classic, but Orson Welles does manage to grab your attention and not let go of it. Unfortunately he doesn't appear until the third act of the film. Some of the acting, frankly a lot of the acting before he shows up is a little over the top. Dramatic with a huge capital D. But it's still a great story nonetheless. Now for the transfer. Magnificent! It's never looked better and this film really deserves the treatment it got. Kino Lorber has a spotty record of quality when it comes to a lot of their classic film releases. This blu-ray isn't one of them. I highly recommend it.

Excellent presentation of a very underrated film. Performances are uniformly excellent, especially Orson Welles. This is another take on the infamous Leopold-Loeb murder trial done in a docudrama style. The transfer of this film is a near perfect example of what a restored B/w film should look like. Highly recommended!!!

Richard Fleischer’s “Compulsion” is, like Hitchcock’s “Rope”, about the notorious Leopold and Loeb case. Great performances by a young Dean Stockwell and Orson Welles as a Clarence Darrow character.

Well acted. Portrayal of the culprits showed how damaged they were as human beings. Orsen Wells is spectacular. His closing arguments as Clarence Darrow are riveting.

excellent trial thriller with Orson Wells playing the great Clarence Darrow. The movie concerns itself with the Leopold/Loeb 1924 murder case. Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell play the teenagers on trial. Riverting and tense. Great acting.

Based on the bizarre Leopold-Loeb murder case that gripped the nation back in the mid-1920s, Richard Fleischer's eerie "Compulsion" is a tense, stylish true-crime thriller. Actors Stockwell and Dillman bring the homicidal duo's sick, gay-inflected relationship to creepy life in the movie's first half, while a wily, disheveled Orson Welles, standing in for real-life attorney Clarence Darrow, takes over in the second, delivering an electrifying closing argument in court that alone is worth the price of admission. This is one "Compulsion" you won't mind having.

Spin on the Loeb-Leopold murder case.