Bizarre murders
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Bizarre murders |
| Original title | No way to treat a lady |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1968 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jack Smight |
| script | John Gay |
| production | Sol C. Siegel |
| music | Stanley Myers |
| camera | Jack Priestley |
| cut | Archie Marshek |
| occupation | |
| |
Bizarre Murders (Original title: No Way to Treat a Lady ) is an American thriller by Jack Smight with Rod Steiger as a psychopathic woman killer in the lead role, which celebrated its premiere in the US on March 20, 1968 as a film. The young George Segal acted as the opponent of Steiger, who has one thing in common with the serial killer: He too suffers from an extremely dominant mother. Lee Remick played the main female role of a witness . The story is based on the 1964 novel No Way to Treat a Lady by William Goldman .
action
In New York there is a serial killer who kills his victims - all women of middle to advanced age - in a very bizarre and perverse way. It's Christopher Gill, an elegant and wealthy, mother-fixated psychopath who owns a prestigious Broadway theater. His possession, which also includes a seemingly endless stock of masks and costumes, enables the plump and outwardly extremely cultured and polite man to wear a different disguise every time during his brutal crimes (sometimes as a plumber and gay hairdresser, then again as a man of God or cop) to hatch; even changing sex is not a problem for Mr. Gill. His impeccable appearance means that the world of women, of which the former mother's boy is deeply afraid, opens up to him and her home without hesitation. If Mr. Gill has strangled one of his victims again, he immediately puts on his "trademark", which also makes him appear as a self-loving, vain madman: he times a lipstick kiss on the forehead of the dead women. Soon he'll just be called the lipstick killer.
The police put a young man on the serial offender. His name is Morris, called "Mo", Brummel. The New York Police Detective quickly realizes that his opponent not only has to be crazy, but obviously also extremely clever and vain. A game of cat and mouse begins. Brummel can be interviewed by the press and begins to flatter the killer in order to lure him out of his cover. Gill responds promptly by phone and calls Mo Brummel. This is the beginning of a whole series of strange phone calls that perpetrators and investigators make with each other. Gill secretly hopes to have found a secret admirer in his hunter Brummel. When Brummel meets young Kate Palmer, who was the only woman who had once seen the murderer in his disguise as an Irish priest and thus became the most important witness, events begin to gain momentum. Soon Kate, with whom Brummel falls in love, is in great danger as a result of these circumstances.
In order to trick the serial killer into making mistakes, one tries to provoke Gill. The police report that the wanted man is obviously a sexually confused pervert with maternal hatred. Beside himself with anger, Gill picks up the phone again and complains to Brummel about this, as he means "misjudgment" of his being. He says he loves his mother, a former acting diva who is no longer alive, more than anything. Since the mass murderer is obviously easy to lure out of the reserve, the police try to provoke him again a little later. Another alleged "lipstick murder" is launched, as the series of murders is now called, but which never happened. And again Gill responds by phone. In a rage, he complains to Mo that a free rider has apparently stuck on his heels and is copying him. Brummel can immerse Gill in a conversation until the call can be traced. Gill suspects he has been tricked and, as expected, blames Brummel. The killer has long known about Kate's relationship with Mo, and so he plans to murder the young woman in order to hit his police opponent. This time, Gill disguises himself as a grocer who shows up at Kate's apartment. Gill claims he is coming on Brummel's order and should prepare a feast for her. At the last moment Mo arrives at Kate's apartment and is able to prevent her murder. Gill flees to his theater, where he feels safest. Here the pursuing Morris Brummel sets Gill and shoots him down.
Production notes
Bizarre Murders took place in Brooklyn Heights , New York City between June and September 1967 . The film premiered on March 20, 1968 in the USA, the German premiere took place on August 16 of the same year. The German TV broadcast was on ARD on February 15, 1975 at 10:05 p.m.
Veteran producer Sol C. Siegel ended his decades-long career with this film. Theoni V. Aldredge designed the costumes for Lee Remick and Eileen Heckart . The film structures were designed by George Jenkins , who also took on the equipment. Hal Pereira was at his side . Bill Traut was responsible for the music arrangements.
Reviews
The reception at home and abroad was all in all quite benevolent. Rod Steiger's game in particular received praise. Here are a few examples:
Vincent Canby wrote in the New York Times : “While 'No Way to Treat a Lady' is cloaked in a conventional suspense story, this film is extremely entertaining… thanks to a series of macabre, sometimes very funny, caricature confrontations, all brought about by the presence of Rod Steigers are dominated. There is a dream role for the actor that gives him half a dozen disguises - everything: from a chatty Irish priest with a platitude on every occasion to a fearful pub-goer ... Mr. Steiger does a wonderfully unabashed performance of a smear actor. "
The Movie & Video Guide stated that the story was a “delicious amalgamation of romantic comedy and murder” with Rod Steiger as the “glaring lady killer”.
Kay Wenigers The film's great lexicon of people called in Jack Smight's biography "Bizarre Morde" "thanks to the brilliant acting of the opponents Rod Steiger and George Segal a cinematic piece of cake."
The lexicon of international films says: "Exciting and ambitiously designed crime film."
Halliwell's Film Guide found the film to be “a strange mixture of star stunts, murder puzzles, black farce, suspense drama and Jewish comedy. Parts of it work quite well, but it's a pretty bumpy road. "
On deepreds-kino.blogspot it says: “The film is - according to the German title - a bizarre mixture of thriller, satire and black comedy. The main attraction is Rod Steiger, the multi-layered killer who pulls off a one-man show. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Bizarre Murders Release Dates at the IMDb March 20, 1968 in the USA
- ^ Review in The New York Times, March 21, 1968
- ^ Leonard Maltin : Movie & Video Guide, 1996 edition, p. 946
- ^ The large personal dictionary of films, Volume 7, p. 365. Berlin 2001
- ↑ Bizarre Murders. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 1, 2019 .
- ^ Leslie Halliwell : Halliwell's Film Guide, Seventh Edition, New York 1989, p. 737
- ↑ Bizarre murders on deepreds-kino.blogspot
Web links
- Bizarre murders in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- No Way to Treat a Lady at the American Film Institute