In Cold Blood (1967)

In Cold Blood
Directed by Richard Brooks
Written by Richard Brooks from the book by Truman Capote
1967/USA
Columbia Pictures/Pax Enterprises
Repeat viewing/Amazon Instant

[box] Perry: I despise people who can’t control themselves.[/box]

Splendid cinematography and excellent acting make this tale of murder and madness a must-see.

This is the true story of Dick Hickcock (Scott Wilson) and Perry Smith (Robert Blake) , ex-cons who murdered a family of four in Kansas during a home invasion.  Dick is your classic psychopath type.  Perry is more complex.  Profoundly damaged by childhood, he frequently escapes into fantasy.  Though never stated, it may be that Dick is the only friend he ever had.  Not that Dick is actually capable of caring about anyone.

Dick and Perry were in prison together.  Perry was paroled first.  When Dick gets out he tells Perry about a “sure thing” a cellmate told him about.  The two believed the Clutter family in rural Kansas had a safe containing no less than $10,000.  We watch them prepare for their crime.  We learn about the quiet life of the Clutters.  Dad is a life insurance salesman.  Dick repeatedly says they will leave no witnesses.

Once the crime is committed the two find there are witnesses – each other – and now they are joined at the hip.  Their robbery yielded about $40 and now they are completely broke, on the run, and irritating each other like crazy.  We see their adventures while also following the police investigation led by Alvin Dewey (John Forsythe).  This is not going to end well.  With Will Geer as a prosecutor.

All the scenes except in the jail were filmed on their actual locations lending authenticity to a film that also features breaks in continuity, dream sequences and other innovative story-telling techniques.  I like that we don’t see the actual crime until late in the movie.  The acting is very good.  I think Blake deserved an Oscar nomination for a difficult part.  We are meant to sympathize with Perry and Blake makes us do it while also convincing us that he would be capable of almost anything.  Highly recommended.  Highly recommend Capote’s book as well.  He makes the true crime as spellbinding as any fiction.

According to IMDb, this may have been the last black-and-white movie released by a major American studio until Young Frankenstein (1974).

In Cold Blood was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Director; Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium; Best Cinematography (Conrad Hall) and Best Music, Original Score (Quincy Jones).