Rating: NR
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 09/11/1992(USA)
Release Date: 08/24/2004
Run Time: 95 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Not For Children, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: Strand Home Video
Tom Kalin directed this cool and aloof black-and-white study of the infamous
Leopold and
Loeb case, a case told before in two previous films --
Rope and
Compulsion. In 1924, in Chicago,
Nathan Leopold Jr. and
Richard Loeb, two 18-year-olds, kidnapped and murdered the 13-year-old
Bobby Franks, immediately killing him and then stuffing his naked body up a culvert. The motive for the crime was simply that they wanted to prove to themselves that they were smart enough to get away with it. The previous film versions downplayed
Leopold and
Loeb's homosexuality, but
Kalin's version plays it up into a psychosexual motif.
Loeb (
Daniel Schlachet) is the calculating intellectual, while
Leopold (
Craig Chester), the amateur ornithologist, is the emotional and weak one. In love with
Loeb,
Leopold is willing to do anything for him, and when
Leob uses the withholding of sex as a prompt,
Leopold is even willing to commit murder to have his sexual desires satisfied by
Loeb.
~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
;)
