Compulsion - 1959

This movie is based on a true story of the Leopold-Loeb murder trial that took place in America in the early 20th century. Money, privilege, esteemed background and superior intellect create human beings that feel like they are Gods in a sense. Two young law students in Boston become very disturbing individuals. They begin to feel they are too smart for society. They can do whatever they want and get away with it. Including Murder. Great performances by the two students - Dean Stockwell and Brandon Dillman. Dean may look familiar to you if you ever watched the TV show Quantum Leap. But despite their performances they were no match for a veteran Orson Welles. Welles even gave them a head start. The film lasts 103 minutes. Welles decides to show up for the first time with 25 minutes to go in the show, and he steals everything. Welles is absolutely incredible as veteran homicide attorney Jonathan Wilk. He doesn't need to persuade a jury, he can persuade the judge and the prosecution. The last 10 minutes of the film the camera is on Welles 100% of the time. No other actor could have done what he did in this movie. When you turn it off you realize he was the entire movie - yet only entered in the third act. I had to watch his closing monologue twice just to really think about what he was saying. A 5 star performance for Welles. I love how he tied religion into his closing remarks to the judge. It really tied the movie together. Two things were missing for this pleasant flick to get 5 stars from me and on my top 100 list. So it will sit with 4 stars. 1. I wanted to see how the boys performed the murder- it never showed it. I realize this is 1959 and Hollywood was different, but we need to see the boys faces when they committed the murder, otherwise the viewers don't really know if they were insane or not. Were they nervous, confident, or crazy? I needed to see that to understand what their emotional state was. 2. Orson Welles should have entered the movie earlier. He is so gifted and so talented that if he has the right script and the right role, he is the best in the business. This one fit him perfectly. They could have brought him in earlier in my opinion.