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In Cold Blood (1967); Mystery Street (1950)

In Cold Blood (1967)
April 1, 2011 - 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater
In-person: 
Scott Wilson

In Cold Blood (1967)

Directed by Richard Brooks

Oblique and stylish, this true-crime saga pits Robert Blake and Scott Wilson, as small-time crooks turned heinous murderers, against John Forsythe as the detective on their trail. Brooks’ cool emotional distance from his characters is a worthy match for Truman Capote’s book. Exquisite technical credits, and a sizzling music score by Quincy Jones, underline Brooks’ keen appreciation for the lurid, though the film still finds space to show disdain for the American penal system (as Brooks had already done in his screenplay for Brute Force).

Columbia Pictures. Based on the book by Truman Capote. Producer: Richard Brooks. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: Conrad Hall. Editor: Peter Zinner. Cast: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Gerald S. O'Loughlin. 35mm, Black and White, 134 min.

Mystery Street (1950)

Directed by John Sturges

This alarming crime drama tells of an unlucky taxi dancer (Sterling) who leaves a bar one night, never to be seen again… until her remains are discovered, and an unfortunate young man is implicated in her death. Police Lieutenant Peter Moralas (Montalban) reconstructs the victim’s backstory and engages in eerie forensic research on the way to solving the crime. Elsa Lanchester plays the victim’s money-grubbing landlady, who knows much more than she tells—except to those she blackmails. The innocent are vindicated, but human nature comes in for a harsh judgment in this taut film noir.

MGM. Producer: Frank E. Taylor. Screenwriter: Richard Brooks. Cinematographer: John Alton. Editor: Ferris Webster. Cast: Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Elsa Lanchester, Marshall Thompson, Jan Sterling. 35mm, Black and White, 93 min.

Part of: 
Looking for Richard Brooks: An Appreciation