The Boston Strangler should be one of the most well regarded thinking-person’s crime dramas in the history of cinema. It doesn’t get enough credit for taking fresh advantage of late 60’s relaxed censorship norms to shoot abhorrent violence in sharpest clarity. The first half the film follows the conflicting Massachusetts enforcement authorities with their unprecedented crime spree, and then shifts, Psycho-like, to the madman’s POV to understand his life and the condition that compels his bloodlust. His shocking acts are put in stark visual relief, but always with intelligent restraint. Tony Curtis gives perhaps the performance of his career as the eponymous murderer and helps fuel director Richard Fleischer’s unforgettable portrait of madness and mayhem. A genuine killer.
“It is compelling, brutal and tragic.” – Roger Ebert
“The Boston Strangler, based on Gerold Frank’s book, emerges as a triumph of taste and restraint with a telling, low-key semi-documentary style. Adaptation is topnotch not only in structure but also in the incisive, spare dialog” – Variety
