Item #: 30986DV Category: WELLES, ORSON Format: DVD MPAA Rating: U

Woolly Rating: 5/10 (115 votes)

MEMBER COMMENTS ON THIS VIDEO

jd	Jun 14, 2006 @ 19:42:5

<[:-\ orson welles "method acting" as a drunk
the first half of "compulsion," a take on the leopold / loeb "thrill killers," is pretty interesting, with a good cast that includes dean stockwell in an aptly anal performance as "judd," a nietschean "superman" wannabe marked by a contradictory clinginess and t.v. actor bradford dillman taking an even sharper turn as "arthur straus," a chilling sociopath reminiscent of a more sheltered ted bundy, without bundy's street smarts. however, even the best half of "compulsion" is irritating in its lazy habit of having the events with the most dramatic potential occur off-screen. camp favorite martin milner plays the conventional romantic hero, but there's not much romance here, and his heroism disappears in orson welles' cavernous ego. the dramatic artifice driving the movie is supposed to be the grand irony of "superior intellect" defeated by mundane detail, a lost pair of eyeglasses. this is muddled by the way the perps, two poison peeps, come across as being not all that bright, which in turn is complicated by having the hoi polloi they despise, the college kids surrounding them, be improbably imperceptive. i guess it was supposed to be a more innocent time. anyway, all the business with the glasses is pretty dull, and goes on way too long. my eyes started glazing over at 0:51:13, with an unbearably arty scene where the glasses are tossed on a table and the face of the interrogating "state's attorney" is reflected in the right lens, and judd's face in the left lens, like two t.v. screens. "compulsion" grinds to a complete halt as soon as welles appears as the famous defense attorney. his character is, most conveniently, an alcoholic. the rest of the movie is taken up by his interminable mumblings against the death penalty, which might inspire someone like-minded person desperate for a champion, but would surely bore anyone with a less partisan mindset into catalepsy. in all seriousness, i was never able to stay awake through his end of the movie, despite several tries.

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