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Compulsion

Compulsion

1959
Drama, Suspense/Thriller
1h 43m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 63.91% from 230 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(230)
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Rated 14 Mar 2011
72
47th
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.
Rated 06 Feb 2007
79
64th
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.
Rated 17 Mar 2010
75
89th
Excellent.
Rated 10 May 2011
93
88th
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.
Rated 08 Nov 2011
83
90th
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.
Rated 10 Mar 2012
77
73rd
Pretty good. Not the most exciting film in the world, but it was interesting nonetheless. Orson Welles does a very good job here.
Rated 06 Apr 2012
70
19th
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.
Rated 09 Aug 2012
89
83rd
Great casting and amazing dialogue. Performances and the complex characters were ahead of its time as I could see this being made today. Welles has so much chrisma and an incredible screen presence that it drowns out the other characters in the film - who were fantastic prior to his arrival. Call it a minor gripe but otherwise an outstanding movie.
Rated 13 Apr 2013
77
58th
Enjoyable. Dean Stockwell's performance elevated the first half although it sags a bit before the noose really begins to tighten around the main characters. Orson Welles' screen presence as "not-Clarence Darrow" steals the show, as he arrives in the final third of the movie.
Rated 31 Mar 2016
45
33rd
The real-life Raskolnikovs Leopold and Loeb were not the geniuses they thought they were, but nor were they dumb. The way this movie covers up their homosexuality, that's the way I imagine its heroes would have treated their guilt under investigation. Not stupidly obvious as in Compulsion's cheesy portrayal. Dillman's blatantly cocky performance is only the tip of that iceberg. The trial part, dominated by Orson Welles as the defender, is still cheesy but much more interesting and daring.
Rated 19 Nov 2017
75
59th
Compulsion takes a familiar story and writes a solid narrative that is superbly acted. Staus and Stockwell are pompous and darkly unpredictable while Wells strolls in with so much gravitas and in such a frumpy way.
Rated 17 Jun 2022
60
50th
I liked the performances by Stockwell, Dillman and Welles well enough, but I was a bit surprised to learn that they shared a Best Actor win at Cannes for this movie. The plot is relatively engaging, albeit pretty standard, but the character moments stretch believability now and then. Truth (even though the novel is, of course, to some extend fictionalized) is sometimes stranger than fiction, I guess.
Rated 26 Nov 2022
68
70th
The scenes where Artie and Judd were alone together were incredibly enjoyable, the homoerotic energy, great acting and utter lack of morality made them some of the memorable moments of the film. Orson Welles gave a brilliant performance that really brightened up a film that had gotten increasingly boring along it's runtime.
Rated 28 Jan 2023
78
71st
Those students might be sane, but those reflective glasses were insane.

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