Impressive telling of the Leopold-Loeb murder, exceptionally well performed by a first-rate cast, and filmed in beautiful black-and-white CinemaScope. Top billed Welles doesn't appear for the first hour, but his performance is exemplary, especially during his stunning summation speech. Marshall is reliably slimy as the velvet gloved opposing council, and Dillman and Stockwell are excellent as the killers. Fascinating exploration of homosexual subtext as well.

Uneven but still engaging, at least up until the courtroom scene and especially Welles' monologue which brings the movie to a grinding halt. What was supposed to be sympathetic and heartfelt comes across as just whiny and preachy. Political stance aside, Orson Welles ten minute closing statement is a schmaltzy and cliched ranting.

Pretty good. Not the most exciting film in the world, but it was interesting nonetheless. Orson Welles does a very good job here.

I struggled to get into this one. Nothing about it ever really grabbed me - not even Orson Welles' entrance, which is nice but not that nice. However, I love Dean Stockwell, so that made this more enjoyable.

A young Dean Stockwell is utterly captivating as not-Nathan Leopold (who's also, obviously without realizing it, playing an eerie premonition of Dylan Klebold). The camerawork is terrific, Fleischer is always able to fill multiples planes of a very long canvas. It bites Inherit the Wind, Anatomy of a Murder, and 12 Angry Men (one scene with a pair of glasses is very close to the latter) pretty hard, but it comes into its own when Welles shows up.

Excellent.

I'm a champion of Rope, but I'd rate this one above it. It sticks closer to the real story, explores it in greater detail, and goes deeper into the psychology. And Stockwell is a far better "Loeb" than Farley Granger. The best stuff involves the period just after the murder, with the boys trying to outwit the police; there were tense moments where I simultaneously wanted them to escape and get caught. It slows down quite a bit for the trial, although Welles' final monologue is brilliant.