勾魂手

《勾魂手》是一部根据真实新闻事件改编的惊悚犯罪电影。导演理查德·弗莱舍以半纪录片的方式处理了这部影片，使得剧情更加真实感人。影片讲述了在六十年代的波士顿，一名色魔横行霸道，对女性进行残忍的袭击，导致许多无辜的妇女丧命。这一系列恶性犯罪行为震惊了整个城市。影片在处理凶手行凶时采用了分割银幕的技巧，同时展示了室内和室外的情况，这种大胆的尝试使得观众更加身临其境，感受到了紧张刺激的氛围。虽然这种技巧并非完全成功，但是仍然给人留下了深刻的印象。亨利·方达和托尼·柯蒂斯在影片中都有出色的表演，他们将角色演绎得淋漓尽致，使得观众能够更好地理解和感受到剧中人物的内心世界。总的来说，《勾魂手》是一部扣人心弦的悬疑惊悚犯罪电影，通过真实的故事和精彩的演技，成功地吸引了观众的注意力，并给人留下了深刻的印象。

Taking on the notorious murder cases perpetrated by the “Boston Strangler”, altogether 13 women were killed from 1962 to 1964 in Boston, Fleischer’s film adaptation is an ambitious undertaking trying not just to be a police procedural, but a snapshot of the 60s counterculture and indecency, and boasts a distinct visual swagger: split screen.

Unlike the symmetrical, equal divide of split screen that is arranged to brilliant merriment in Michael Gordon’s PILLOW TALK (1959), in THE BOSTON STRANGLER, what it portrays is a seedy business. Images are telescoped, juxtaposed or superimposed onto the screen to present different perspectives (subjective/objective, victim/murderer) simultaneously, to stimulate our curiosity and dangle our dread, but is not a genre flick that taps into horror or violence for pleasure, nudity is tantalized, but perverse and macabre sequences are left largely off screen, the battery subjected to a struggling victim Dianne Cluny (a bruised and traumatized Kellerman) is the closest scene to which we feel objectionable. Also there is no smoke and mirrors around the ultimate suspect, spoiled by the opening caption, the only question is when will he pop up?

The alleged strangler himself, Albert DeSalvo (Curtis) would crops up after one hour into the movie’s 116 minutes length, before that, led by the chief investigator John S. Bottomly (a scholarly, characteristically four-square Fonda), we are shown the police force’s bungling action of approaching one red herring after another, as if a vice squad is in the line of duty, enumerating those on the list of sexual indecency one by one, from adultery, crank-call mischief, homosexual (Hatfield, the quondam Dorian Gray spits in the eye of heteronormativity), lecherous imposture, domestic abuse to masochistic kink (Hickey is captivating as the poor sad sack), how swell! But what is the heck with that ESP charlatan? (Voskovec is a veritable luvvie!)

After DeSalvo comes under the limelight, the film changes its lane to a bogus psychological study, and offers Curtis, the “pretty boy” who has passed his prime, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to flex his muscles as a thespian, and Curtis doesn’t disappoint, mapping out DeSalvo’s twisted psyche in broad strokes but remains strikingly convincing when he stills himself and processes DeSalvo’s concealed horror with a modicum of inner disturbance. But Bottomly’s approach is so savage and the result is too simple (for example, why the perverse MO?), what he does is indiscriminately pushing DeSalvo toward a pernicious nervous breakdown, just to satisfy his suspicion, is it even a scientifically approved method?

Sacrificing a more fine-grained study of DeSalvo’s DID etiology (it is made far too hasty before the case could be more elucidated by later evidence and technological advancement) to a socially conscious drama, THE BOSTON STRANGLER may not be described as edifying or perceptive, but it earns some risible bonus points for being a self-serious Dutch uncle who tries to make good sense of an unsolved grisly case through pure postulation and half imagination.

referential entries: Fleischer’s COMPULSION (1959, 7.3/10); Michael Gordon’s PILLOW TALK (1959, 8.0/10)

Title: The Boston StranglerYear: 1968Country: USALanguage: EnglishGenre: Crime, Drama, MysteryDirector: Richard FleischerScreenwriter: Edward Anhaltbased on the book by Gerold FrankMusic: Lionel NewmanCinematography: Richard H. KlineEditing: Marion RothmanCast:Tony CurtisHenry FondaGeorge KennedyMurray HamiltonMike KellinRichard X. SlatteryHurd HatfieldWilliam HickeyCarolyn ConwellSally KellermanGeorge VoskovecJeff CoreyWilliam MarshallGeorge FurthLeora DanaAustin WillisJeanne CooperJames BrolinEnid MarkeyCarole ShelleyRating: 7.3/10 更多关于《勾魂手》的精彩内容请持续关注小红帽影院。