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The Boston Strangler [DVD]

Tony Curtis (Actor), Henry Fonda (Actor), Richard Fleischer (Director) Rated:

Format: DVD

444 ratings

IMDb7.1/10.0

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September 7, 2004

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Format	Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Contributor	Richard Fleischer, Tony Curtis, Edward Anhalt, George Kennedy, William Marshall, Henry Fonda, Carolyn Conwell, Hurd Hatfield, Murray Hamilton, Leora Dana, Mike Kellin, George Voskovec, Jeff Corey, Gerold Frank, Sally Kellerman See more
Language	English
Runtime	1 hour and 56 minutes

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Product Description

A schizophrenic plumber is responsible for strangling several boston women, but goes undetected until he is arrested for breaking and entering.

Amazon.com

The unexpected casting of Tony Curtis as the presumed Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo, is only the first of the attractions of this hard-nosed suspense picture. Although the style of The Boston Strangler looks dated today, with its split-screen experiments and post-Bonnie and Clyde permissiveness, the film still has the clean, strong lines of a methodical policier. For the first hour, we don't focus on the Strangler, instead following the Beantown cops (led by Henry Fonda) as they track down leads; the best sequence is the near-accidental connection made between burglary suspect DeSalvo and the killings. Director Richard Fleischer had a forceful hand with true-crime material (Compulsion, 10 Rillington Place) and he takes an unblinking look into the then-taboo subject of sexual pathology. Curtis's physical transformation into a dumpy, dull-eyed brute is the best aspect of his performance; it's a role he lobbied hard for, but it did not lead to more challenging work. --Robert Horton

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 2.35:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 5.25 x 0.75 inches; 0.01 Ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ 024543119982
Director ‏ : ‎ Richard Fleischer
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 56 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ September 7, 2004
Actors ‏ : ‎ Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, George Kennedy, Mike Kellin, Hurd Hatfield
Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ French, Spanish
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, Spanish
Language ‏ : ‎ Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 1.0), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), French (Dolby Digital 1.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0)
Studio ‏ : ‎ 20th Century Fox
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0002IQLB2
Writers ‏ : ‎ Edward Anhalt, Gerold Frank
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #65,180 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #3,502 in Mystery & Thrillers (Movies & TV)
- #11,735 in Drama DVDs

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444 ratings

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5 star		66%
4 star		19%
3 star		7%
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L. M. Butler

In the top five "Best of" Tony Curtis movies

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 20, 2022

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Tony Curtis was one of those kinds of actors who was excellent in everything he was in be it comedy or drama. Underrated, though highly respected, he was never awarded an Oscar for his work. This movie shows off his wide range as an actor. There is another one lesser known titled "The Outsider" and is very hard to find for some reason. It too is based on a true story about a native American Marine during WW 2. Curtis was brilliant and heartbreakingly realistic in his portrayal.

The Boston Strangler again proves that Curtis was an "A" list actor all the way.

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California Dreaming

Split Personality

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 29, 2013

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I wasn't even born when the real Boston Strangler began murdering women in the early 60s. But I vaguely remember seeing this film probably 40 years ago; I think that a version for television released in the early 70s, most likely. But I was still too young to understand most of it at the time.

And I vaguely remember the split-screen technique that was used in this film. Now, I understand some of the pragmatic, and ever artistic, motivations for this technique -- it's easier to show people's reactions to scenes simultaneously, and it's mirroring the so-called dual personality of DeSalvo -- but I still feel that this technique was a mistake. It is certainly distracting, and that's most likely why almost no director would use this today, minus a scene or two here or there.

Now, if you believe that "one hand didn't know what the other hand was doing" with regards to Mr. Desalvo, that he had two distinct personalities, and the "tame" one didn't know what the "killer" one was doing. . . . I have my standard reaction: I have some oceanfront property in Iowa to sell you. I don't buy it, and neither should you.

And to me, this became the weakness of this film, in the third act. Without giving too much away, Henry Fonda is interviewing Tony Curtis, and believing this fairy tale (sorry to those that believe it) is almost required to appreciate that act. I found it slightly pathetic, and I found it manipulative. When the credits finally roll, the filmmakers even added a nice little public service announcement that dealt with these issues. Ahh. . . .

Well thankfully, all is not lost. The cast is certainly excellent, and I did like seeing what Boston looked like in the 60s, although I've only been there a couple of times. The script at that time used almost-the-N-word-and-really-the-F-word (for gays), words that I'm surprised that today's revisionists haven't edited out. It will happen someday, just as it's happened to Mark Twain. And that is always a shame since art -- and history -- lose all of its original meaning when this happens. Hey, like the words or not, they were part of the American lexicon of the timeframe.

Overall, a very good film, even though it has a split personality. I liked the first two acts; not so much the third. But still, a fairly strong recommendation on this early serial killer film.

7 people found this helpful

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Leslie Karen Rigsbey

American movie classic, with great old movie actors of which there aren't many of around today...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on March 2, 2014

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"The Boston Strangler" was savagely criticized in a review by Roger Ebert, who says (as can be read on the Wikipedia page) that "the movie should not have been made at all." What he means here is that he has a serious problem with taking a nonfiction source (the excellent book by Gerold Frank) and translating it into the film medium, a source of entertainment whose purpose is to give pleasure rather than facts. But in the case of Curtis's electrifying performance, I would argue that the film is both entertaining and disturbing, and director Fleischer keeps a quasi-documentary feel going throughout so that one does not become completely overwhelmed by the exuberance of knowing that this is a fictionalization of serious subject matter. Curtis may not have been robbed of his Oscar (please, Tony, those awards are fixed, so political as to be a parody of themselves), but he probably was robbed of a Golden Globe award, seeing as to how his fellow craftsmen (and craftswomen) should have recognized his skill in working in their profession. Edward Anhalt (who did once win Oscars for his great screen stories) was robbed of his Edgar Award for his screenplay adaptation, though, because he does a good job of keeping the mystery storytelling going by using the proper amounts of dialogue, humor, and shocking details to move along the case. A dark, fascinating story that provides an opportunity for future film historians to see a memorable, startling turn by Curtis, and a terrifically subdued one from Fonda.
The DVD includes the AMC Backstory episode, which has footage of the real DeSalvo case, as well as words from Richard Zanuck and a clearly disappointed Tony Curtis (who seemed to want more out of his movie career than he ever successfully received). As far as picture and sound are concerned, this is a good enough transfer, perhaps one that could have been sharper, but overall pretty good and in widescreen. Is "The Boston Strangler" a good exploitation title? This is a question of taste, of course, but for me it has the feel of a nostalgic, memorable police procedural that does not quite deplete the seriousness of this true life case with its entertainment-driven structure. A+

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Top reviews from other countries

D J Jackson: Passionate about Film.

TONY CURTIS IS EXCELLENT, IN GRIM & CHILLING LEAD PERFORMANCE.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 30, 2020

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This is a review of the 2012 Region 2 DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. It provides good sound, and an excellent quality print ~ important because of the very complex split-screen images used throughout this film.

Over a period of 18 months, between 14 June 1962 and 4 January 1964, an individual who became known as ‘The Boston Strangler’, murdered 13 single women, in their apartments. All lived in Boston, or in neighbouring jurisdictions around the city. They were aged between 19 and 85, and most were sexually assaulted and then strangled. Some, especially early on, granted the killer access; in other cases, he forced entry using burglar’s tools. The investigation proved difficult because no single police force was responsible for the investigations.

Late in 1964, an individual arrested for rape confessed to the other crimes. He was charged and sentenced for earlier offences, so back in the 1960s, officially, the 13 murders remained unsolved.

In 1966, author and biographer Gerold Frank wrote a book about the murders; two years later, prolific screenwriter Edward Anhalt ~ who scripted such hits as ‘Jeremiah Johnson’(1972) and ‘The Right Stuff’(1983) ~ loosely adapted Frank’s book for this film. He was teamed with equally prolific director Richard Fleischer, a solid journeyman who had turned out reliable crowd-pleasers across a number of genres ~ ‘The Vikings’(1958); ‘Dr Dolittle’(1967).

Here however, Fleischer pulled out all the stops, using a flashy, avant-garde style of multiple split-screens and ‘cascading tile’ effects to capture the action and dramatic ‘fillers’ designed to reflect the atmosphere of growing tension and near-hysteria that gripped the city. He recounts events from the initial murders (four were close together in June 1962) until the police felt they had their killer ~ including the killings, the various police investigations and interrogations.

Fleischer had an excellent cast, headed by Tony Curtis providing a grim and chilling portrayal of the suspect (he won the Golden Globe) and Henry Fonda, patrician and authoritative as the co-ordinator of the various police enquiries across jurisdictions. Fleischer’s action scenes and the depictions of the various police ploys are excellently done. The attacks and murder scenes are singularly unpleasant and explicit, even by 21st Century standards.

And this presents something of a problem. Whilst the content is emphatically neither ‘enjoyable’ nor ‘entertaining’, it is entirely acceptable as a journalistic narrative. But unfortunately, that is not what it is, because the screenplay is only loosely based on Frank’s book and real events. Much of the end of the film in particular, is only an approximation of what really happened. The script makes for raw cinema, and a meaty part for Fonda, but it is not what happened, which is not really made clear.

Make no mistake, this is suspenseful, showy cinema, but also a bit of a cheat: so, only 4½ Stars not the full 5.

2 people found this helpful

J. A. Bradford

Possibly the best-priced blu ray version of this film available.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 12, 2015

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Initially frustrated by the shorter, expurgated, BBFC version on DVD in the U.K. I ordered this blu ray on the strength of outsider reviews and comments that suggested that it was the preferred choice for those wishing to view this ground-breaking film in its best form. With an increased running time of about 5 minutes, there is a feeling that one is watching the complete version when viewing this print. In my view, the blu ray transfer is satisfactory in all departments, and I am a bit of a blu ray buff! The film will play on U.K. blu ray players, there are no region issues to worry about. Aspect ratio is correctly rendered, considering the split-screen usage contained within the film, and used for its' novel storytelling effect, I would say that the retention of the widescreen format is quite crucial in this instance. Overall then, if this film is fondly remembered by you, or you enjoy watching 1960's filmmaking near its' best, I would recommend this version of the Boston Strangler for the following reasons: firstly, it's reasonably priced, I thought, for a blu ray, secondly, you get the longer version of the film, 116 mins opposed to 111 mins (I think?) and finally, outside of buying the French version, and a much more expensive U.S. limited release, which, in my opinion, is sourced from the same 1080p transfer, you are, effectively, getting the best priced blu ray version of this film that is out there! In my humble view only, of course! Delivery was good, packaging was good, arrived as described, and no problems from the sender!

9 people found this helpful

Goodreviewer

A masterclass in acting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 13, 2018

Verified Purchase

I wouldn't have thought of Tony Curtis as the obvious choice to play the Boston Strangler, but this performance is excellent. He should have won an oscar. I appreciate critics are saying this isn't a true reprentation of the history of DeSalvo, but I'm looking at this as a piece of film making, and I thought the pacing, directing, and acting were without fault. Henry Fonda and George Kennedy are awesome. The explanation of the psychosis and its portrayal was the clearest I've seen in film. Wish I'd seen it years ago.

6 people found this helpful

steven e blomer

Excellent condition.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 22, 2022

Verified Purchase

A hard to get DVD these days.
Condition of disc and case very good.
Film very good, great career risking performance by Curtis

Nigel Evans

Excellent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on July 1, 2021

Verified Purchase

Excellent film excellent service hard to believe it's second hand

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