Compulsion

8/10/2015

Lets go watch them slaughter the sheep! Compulsion is directed by Richard Fleischer and adapted to screenplay by Richard Murphy from the novel written by Meyer Levin. It stars Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman, Orson Welles and Diane Varsi. Music is by Lionel Newman and cinematography by William C. Mellor. Based upon the real life Leopold and Loeb murder trial of the 1920s, Compulsion finds Artie Strauss (Dillman) and Judd Steiner (Stockwell) as two well to do young men attempting to commit the perfect crime - murder! But it wasn't so perfect after all and they soon find themselves on trial for their own lives. Enter famed attorney Jonathan Wilk (Welles), who fights to keep them from the death penalty. Healthily rated in some quarters, it's a film that actually does divide opinions

9/15/2026

It's not quite clear whether "Artie" (Bradford Dillman) and "Judd" (Dean Stockwell) are actually friends or whether the latter is merely an acolyte for his colleague at a law school where accumulated wealth and privilege have left both with quite a superiority complex. "Artie" is bored and determined to make his presence felt by committing the ultimate crime, and so together with his obedient friend they set about committing the heinous kidnapping and murder of the wealthy young "Paulie". In theory this is the perfect crime, except - "Judd" left his glasses at the scene of the crime and reporter "Sid" (Martin Miller) cottons on swiftly that they did not belong to the slain girl. It also turns out that local policeman "Johnson" (Robert F. Simon) is no slouch either and with enormous pressur