#compulsion
“I wanna do something really dangerous. Something that’ll have everybody talking, not just a few guys. With half the fatheaded cops in Chicago running around in circles, wondering about it, while we sat back and laughed at ‘em, huh?”
BRADFORDDILLMANasARTIESTRAUSSinCOMPULSION
“Causation is not an excuse, however, for all behaviour is caused. If causation were an excuse, no one would ever be held responsible for any behaviour… Causation is not the issue; nonculpable lack of rationality and compulsion is.”
— S J Morse, “Excusing the Crazy: The Insanity Defense Reconsidered” (1985)
In his treatment of the Leopold-Loeb case, Rope (1948), Sir Alfred Hitchcock used his famous “ten-minute takes” and segued from one to the other with a “natural wipe” generally focusing on the back of one of the character’s suit jackets. Perhaps as a homage to the master, this film’s (Compulsion) directer, Richard Fleischer, uses a “natural wipe” focusing on the front of Bradford Dillman’s suit to end a scene.
Compulsion (1959) // Rope (1948)
“I wanna do something really dangerous. Something that’ll have everybody talking, not just a few guys. With half the fatheaded cops in Chicago running around in circles, wondering about it, while we sat back and laughed at ‘em, huh?”
BRADFORDDILLMANasARTIESTRAUSSinCOMPULSION