In Cold Blood
| Year: | 1967 |
| Studio: | Columbia |
| Director: | Richard Brooks |
| Producer: | Richard Brooks |
| Writer: | Truman Capote/Richard Brooks |
| Cast: | Robert Blake, John Forsythe, Scott Wilson |
There was a time when - like most people - I'd see a black and white movie and assume it was going to be all about hyper-stylised and unrealistic story, visuals and dialogue, like a feature-length Leave it to Beaver.
Of course, there are gems to be found among the old canon of Hollywood, and while this early adaptation of Capote's signature work isn't quite a classic it has a dark, adult outlook to go along with the subject matter.
You'll be familiar with the story if you saw wither Capote or Infamous, but Capote found a deep personal connection with a crime in the rural US, where a drifter hooked up with a local con and they slaughtered an entire family in a botched robbery.
Both men went on the lam and successfully eluded police, their relationship steadily crumbling before the dogged investigative team led by an early John Forsythe catch up with them.
Director Brooks was an auteur before his time, filming the siege and killings in the house where they really took place, and the result of such creativity is a movie worthy of the legend Capote would cement about the case and himself.
What's less obvious (and it may be so in the book, which I haven't read) is whether Capote's use of the title was referring just to the murders or the eye-for-an-eye nature of capital punishment.
Of course, there are gems to be found among the old canon of Hollywood, and while this early adaptation of Capote's signature work isn't quite a classic it has a dark, adult outlook to go along with the subject matter.
You'll be familiar with the story if you saw wither Capote or Infamous, but Capote found a deep personal connection with a crime in the rural US, where a drifter hooked up with a local con and they slaughtered an entire family in a botched robbery.
Both men went on the lam and successfully eluded police, their relationship steadily crumbling before the dogged investigative team led by an early John Forsythe catch up with them.
Director Brooks was an auteur before his time, filming the siege and killings in the house where they really took place, and the result of such creativity is a movie worthy of the legend Capote would cement about the case and himself.
What's less obvious (and it may be so in the book, which I haven't read) is whether Capote's use of the title was referring just to the murders or the eye-for-an-eye nature of capital punishment.