Der Zwang zum Bösen (1959)
59KDer Zwang zum Bösen: Directed by Richard Fleischer. With Orson Welles, Diane Varsi, Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman. Two wealthy law-school students go on trial for murder in this version of the Leopold-Loeb case.
“We can add Welles to Wilde, Monroe and others who we never respected until they were gone. His pleading for the lives of those crazy boys (as Clarence Darrow did) is an eloquent plea for the ending of the death penalty. Funny, how a barometer like the death penalty tells us so much about a societyu0026#39;s relative civility. The US had backed away from it, but is now swinging back toward even public executions (which I would much prefer, as they show all of us how barbaric we have become).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNote that the movie dwells on their u0026#39;crazinessu0026#39; and u0026#39;richnessu0026#39;, not the Jewishness or the homosexual relationships that evoked the wrath of the public in the real case. Both Dillman and Dean Stockwell do an excellent job of drawing out your anger until you find yourself one of the mob yelling for blood. To stem the tide, in comes Orson Welles. Wellesu0026#39; phrasing and meaningful looks struck me again with what a magnificent actor he was, as well as director.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow I have to go read u0026#39;Compulsionu0026#39;, the novel around which this movie was made, to determine what was left out and if it would have contributed to some of the obviously omitted details that make this movie a little choppy. This movie performs the task that great art must take on itself: to provide us insights into life and how it should be lived. That can be done either negatively or positively, by point or counter-point.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOf course, unless you had some excellent writers and actors of the stature of Welles, you wouldnu0026#39;t come up to the quality of this movie. Definitely, black and white contributed to the brooding quality of the film. Color would have detracted, and youu0026#39;ll seldom u0026#39;hearu0026#39; me say this.”
