In Cold Blood (1967) - Authentic chills and insigth in Brooks' marvelous true-crime drama

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The frightening, guilty eyes of the actual murderers are used effectively on this strong poster for Richard Brooks' In Cold Blood

A family of four in a Kansan countryside home gets slaughtered one night by intruding strangers for the meager sum of 40 $. The two culprits are later arrested and put to trial.

 

In Cold Blood is written, produced and directed by Pennsylvanian master filmmaker Richard Brooks (Crisis (1950)), adapting the same-titled true-crime novel by Truman Capote (The Grass Harp (1951)).

Brooks' film is a role-model piece of true-crime storytelling, preoccupied with the actual crime, the actual criminals, and a close adaptation of Capote's masterwork. The film also gives a dimension that the novel cannot with its human portrait of the murderers, and especially Robert Blake (Second-Hand Hearts (1980)) as Perry Smith is excellent. Scott Wilson (Bottlewood (2009)) is also great as the other bastard, Richard. The scenes of Smith's childhood are devastating, yet subtle. The sudden, inexplicable, violent crime together with the film's strangely hard-boiled imagery (cinematography by Conrad L. Hall (Jennifer 8 (1992))) is part of its fascination.

SPOILER Despite the sympathy for Perry that the film and Blake's performance creates, also through Brooks' advanced narrative, the punishment for the two, their execution, still stands as the only correct verdict, in my opinion.

In Cold Blood is eerie, disheartening, with great performances and outstanding cinematography and score (by Quincy Jones (Roots (1977, miniseries)).) A masterly film.

 

Related post:

 

Richard Brooks: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) - He's GAY, ya get it?!?...

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 3.5 mil. $

Box office: 13 mil. $ (North America alone)

= Uncertain, projected huge hit but at least a big hit (projected return of 5.71 times its cost)

[In Cold Blood premiered 14 December (New York) and runs 135 minutes. Capote was paid 400k $ for the rights to his novel, which reportedly earned him a total of 2 mil. $. Shooting took place from March - June 1967 in California, including in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Nevada, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, Missouri and in Mexico, including in the area and actual home where the murders took place. The film earned 13.5 mil. $ in North America. A conservative projected total gross of 20 mil. $ would rank it as a huge hit. It was nominated for 4 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Cinematography to Burnett Guffey for Bonnie & Clyde, Director to Mike Nichols for The Graduate, Score to Elmer Bernstein for Thoroughly Modern Millie and Adapted Screenplay to Stirling Silliphant for In the Heat of the Night. The film also won a David di Donatello award, was nominated for a Golden Globe and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, equal in rating with this one. Brooks returned with The Happy Ending (1969). Blake returned in Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (1969); Wilson in Castle Keep (1969). In Cold Blood is certified fresh at 76 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of In Cold Blood?

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) - He's GAY, ya get it?!?...

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The seething poster for Richard Brooks' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

QUICK REVIEW:

Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke (1967)) plays the son Brick, who has indulged himself into a liquor-based pit as the family patriarch, Big Daddy (Burl Ives) returns home to his 65 year birthday and finds his family in a thick haze of mendacity.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is the grand, condensed family-melodrama adaptation of Tennessee Williams' celebrated, Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play, which controversially deals with a homosexual protagonist trapped in an unhappy marriage. This has been toned down beneath the floorboards in this the movie version, which seems contrary to the point of the whole film, and is sad, even to the point where Williams, who was gay himself, told people in line not to go see the film. Newman also was disappointed with the make-over.
Nevertheless the film is a great, gorgeous, multi-Oscar-nominated work with some societal critique in its edges and bitingly sharp dialog. The drama is intense to the point of high-pitched unreality, but the performances are great and the subtext bulging, so the parts stick together into a still rousing indictment of hypocrisy in the American nuclear family.

Burl Ives in the front in this still from Richard Brooks' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The thunder roars, while Brick's corrupted brother, led forward by his devious wife 'Sister Woman' Mae (Madeleine Sherwood (The Changeling (1980))), rips and claws in their mother for the inheritance of their perishing giant of a father. Much in the film would have seemed sentimental twaddle, if it hadn't been for Ives' masterly performance that could just as easily have won him the year's Oscar, - if he hadn't won it already, for his performance in William Wyler's equally great The Big Country.

Paul Newman at the bottle, and Elizabeth Taylor letting him have it, in Richard Brooks' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Elizabeth Taylor (Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf (1966)) is also very good as the doughty 'cat', who is hanging on by her claws onto the burning hot tin roof of a torn family and a man who isn't meant to be with her.
Taylor most probably had a terrible time shooting the film, as she first got sick and then lost her husband Mike Todd, who died in a plane crash a couple of weeks into shooting. Less than a month later, she was back on set like a real trooper.
The film is directed by Philadelphia-born movie-maker Richard Brooks (The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)).

Watch the original trailer here

Cost: 2.3 mil. $
Box office: 11.2 mil. $
= Big hit

What do you think of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof?
Ever seen a stage production of it?
Comparisons and other comments are welcomed