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In Cold Blood | Year: 1967 Directed: - Richard Brooks Actors/Actresses: - Robert Blake - Scott Wilson - John Forsythe Made my Hair Stand Up I first saw "In Cold Blood" at the tender age of 11. Boy, that was a mistake. This flick isn't for children or wimps. Scarier than any sci fi or horror movie I ever saw because this is a true story folks. Since it left such an imprint on me when I was a kid, I have to say this is the most memorable film I have ever viewed. The black and white photography and old cars gives it the feel that you are back in time in 1959 when the events took place. The Quincy Jones jazz soundtrack fits the mood of this movie like a glove. Robert Blake's performance of a extremely screwed up individual is unparalled. His line, " I despise people who cant control themselves" is a classic in my opinion. The other actor and partner in crime (Scott Wilson) perfectly complements Robert Blake. Many disturbing scenes mixed in with this extremely grim docudrama story, I pray that nobody took a first date to this flick when it first came out in '67. The dramatization of the murders is intense and some of the flashback sequences are equally as harrowing. This definately aint Disney. A true classic that is worth checking out but dont say i never warned you !! Disturbing To This Very Day Even after endless films about serial or mass murders, culminating in 1994 with Oliver Stone's ultra-controversial NATURAL BORN KILLERS, writer/director Richard Brooks' 1967 movie IN COLD BLOOD has lost none of its power to disturb. No FRIDAY THE 13TH-type splatter film full of blood and gore is nearly as chilling as this true-life crime story. Based on Truman Capote's 1965 book, the film relates how two ex-cons named Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, in the early morning hours of November 15, 1959, brutally murdered Herb Clutter, his wife, and two kids in their house in Holcomb, Kansas during the commission of a robbery. They were led to believe, by a fellow convict in prison, how Clutter had kept a wall safe stuffed with $10,000 in cash. But there was no such safe in that house. All the killers got away with was a radio, a pair of binoculars, and $40. IN COLD BLOOD remains a powerful and disturbing film for a lot of reasons. Robert Blake and Scott Wilson portray the two condemned men superbly and with such casual demeanor that it's hard to imagine bigger-name stars in those roles (though reportedly Columbia Pictures was encouraging Brooks to go with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman). The semidocumentary feel of this film is enhanced by cinematographer Conrad Hall's superlative black-and-white photography and Quincy Jones' jazzy but chilling music score. John Forsythe, still light years away from "Dynasty", also does a good turn as Alvin Dewey, the Kansas state investigator who headed up the team that eventually brought Smith and Hickock to a date with the gallows in April 1965. Many things make IN COLD BLOOD a chilling masterpiece. Early on in the film, Blake and Smith approach the Clutter house at midnight as the last light goes out; the scene then shifts to the following morning and the horrible (offscreen) discovery of the bodies. Only as Blake and Wilson are being transported back to Kansas from Las Vegas does Blake relate the horrific crime in flashback; even here, only enough is shown to make the audience imagine a whole lot more. The film also relates how possible psychological traumas in the two men's respective pasts might have turned them into cold-blooded killers who then took their rage out on four innocent people they never knew. Except for the fictional reporter Jenson (Paul Stewart), who is clearly based on Capote himself, Brooks sticks with the actual facts and essence of the case, right up to those final chilling moments on the gallows. For all those reasons, IN COLD BLOOD is a most frightening film to watch. It is definitely NOT for kids, however. Good adaptation of a great book Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" was hailed as a "non-fiction novel"; Richard Brooks' film adaptation is a semi-documentary film. Brooks doesn't sensationalize, however; the blood and gore of four horrible murders is kept to a bare minimum. We hear the gunshots but we don't see the carnage, and we don't need to; the power of suggestion does it all. Brooks keeps the movie strictly on track, from the night of the murder to the discovery of the crime the next morning; the killers' flight across country and the investigation by the detectives of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation which solved the crime and brought the perpetrators to justice. The actors are all competent in their roles and there are some very good performances indeed in the supporting parts. But the outstanding performance in this film is Robert Blake as Perry Smith, and to a lesser extent, Scott Wilson as Dick Hickock. Blake's haunted expression as he says, right before his hanging, "I'd like to apologize. But who to?" makes the viewer feel all the tragedy of a wasted life. The one problem with this otherwise fine screen adaptation is that we see far too little of the Clutters. We don't get to know them as people, their lives, how they interact. They're just people who get murdered one night. In the book they became living characters, people we felt we knew. In the movie, they're almost reduced to bit players. The book is about the Clutters, who were killed by Hickock and Smith; the movie is about Hickock and Smith who murdered a family named Clutter. The book raced along with the speed of a good novel; the film moves at a slower pace, that of an investigative report. If we see too little of the Clutters, we really get inside the minds of Smith and Hickock, and it isn't very nice in there. Shooting the movie in black and white lends to the newsreel quality of the film. It's a stark, bare-bones movie, the right kind of film to depict a senseless crime that ultimately destroyed six lives. 2 thumbs up, 2 killers down :-) "In Cold Blood" is the 1967 movie based on Truman Capote's non-fiction book about the murder of a family of four by Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson). Although the killers were expecting to get about $10,000 from the safe, it turns out there was no safe and they only got $40. Filmed in black-and-white, the movie has very good cinematography, and includes several interesting cuts from scene to scene. In one shot, as Perry is in jail telling a rather sad story about his life, the shadows of the rain running down the window falls on his face and gives the impression of cascading tears. There are also several intercut flash-backs, mostly having to do with Smith's early family-life and abusive father, including the finale on the gallows. The blues/jazzed-based score was composed by Quincy Jones, and was very good. It was almost shear luck that the pair got nailed for the murders. Although they had passed bad checks and stolen some cars after the murders, the police had no evidence to connect them to the killings - except for some personal effects that Smith had mailed back to himself from Mexico and picked up just shortly before being arrested. After being found guilty in only 40 minutes of jury deliberation, the pair sat in jail a few years awaiting execution. As it turns out, although Hickock actually came up with the plan, Smith did all the killings, mostly out of anger. So, as some have asked, was the killing "In Cold Blood" really theirs, or ours? Near the end, when a couple of journalists see the hangman go up the steps, they have this bit of dialog: Well-acted by Blake and Wilson, and supporting roles for John Forsythe, Gerald S. O'Loughlin and Jeff Corey. Some of the jurors and other small parts are played by the actual people. Much of the locations are the actual locations, including the house where the killing took place. The very last scene is not one you find in many movies. DVD has nice anamorphic wide-screen movie, English or French spoken language, subtitles in 7 languages, chapter selection, and for once, a trailer worth watching. R-Rated, 134 minutes. The no-frills DVD is a bit pricey, but I'm giving the movie five stars on its own. 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