 |
RosettaBooks are available in a number of eBook Formats |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Compulsion
First Published: 1956
412 pages
 About the Book
Preview
|
|
About The Movie
Filmmakers had flirted with the idea of a film about the Loeb-Leopold thrill killing in 1924, but the closest anyone had come was Alfred Hitchcock´s fascinating, problematic Rope. With the success of Meyer Levin´s dramatization of his novel Compulsion, which played on Broadway during the 1957-58 season, the film rights became a hot property. They were acquired by Richard Zanuck, the young son of Darryl F. Zanuck, who made his debut as producer with the 1959 film, directed by Richard Fleischer from a screen adaptation of Levin´s play by Richard Murphy.
Dean Stockwell repeated his stage performance as Judd Steiner (the fictional Nathan Leopold), while Bradford Dillman took over the role of Artie Straus (the fictional Richard Loeb), played on Broadway by Roddy MacDowall. As Jonathan Wilk, the formidable defense attorney based on Clarence Darrow, Zanuck and Fleischer cast the equally formidable Orson Welles. The three shared the Best Actor prize at the 1959 International Festival du Film at Cannes, France, where the film was entered in competition. The film also stars Martin Milner as Levin´s alter ego, Diane Varsi and E.G. Marshall.
Until Tom Kalin´s powerful, homoerotic film Swoon appeared in 1992 -- directly confronting both the homophobia and the anti-Semitism surrounding the trial -- Compulsion was the best and most candid treatment of the notorious Loeb-Leopold case, though it deals very discreetly at the tensions that defined the Loeb-Leopold relationship and the reasons for the murder. Fleischer´s holds up remarkably as a courtroom drama, though, even if Darrow´s titanic, two-day summation is reduced merely to few golden moments for Welles.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kindle
Sony Reader
Palm Digital
MS Reader
Adobe Reader
Mobipocket