Murderous
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Murderous |
| Original title | Homicidal |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1961 |
| length | 87 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 (formerly 18) |
| Rod | |
| Director | William Castle |
| script | Robb White |
| production | William Castle |
| music | Hugo Friedhofer |
| camera | Burnett Guffey |
| cut | Edwin H. Bryant |
| occupation | |
| |
Murderous (Original title: Homicidal ) is a black and white shot American thriller by William Castle from 1961 .
action
The attractive blonde Emily checks into a hotel under the false name Miriam Webster. Shortly afterwards, she makes the young bellboy a tempting offer: She promises him $ 2,000 if he marries her. Immediately after the marriage, she promised, she would have the marriage annulled. The bellhop gets involved in the trade for the money promised. The ceremony takes place the next evening. Immediately after the marriage, the blonde brutally stabs the justice of the peace Adrims, who had performed the wedding, and escapes.
Emily returns to her home in the small town of Solvang , California . There she takes care of the mute Helga Swenson, who is dependent on a wheelchair. Emily emphatically intimidates Helga, but the old woman cannot communicate with the visitors who come into the house.
Miriam Webster runs a thriving flower shop in Solvang and is in a relationship with the pharmacist Karl. Her half-brother Warren from the second marriage of their father has returned from Europe to take over the inheritance of the deceased parents when he is of legal age. Warren explains that he married in Europe and brought his wife, Emily, to the US. Shortly afterwards, threatening incidents pile up: the facility in Miriam's flower shop is destroyed, Karl is knocked down by an unknown person. Miriam and Warren remember his unhappy childhood together: Warren's father and the nanny Helga tried to raise the "soft" Warren to be a "tough" man and tortured and punished him. A confrontation breaks out between Miriam and Emily, and tensions between Miriam and Warren increase. Karl begins to investigate and, together with the police, finds Emily when the young bellhop identifies her with a photo.
Meanwhile, Emily murdered Helga. Miriam visits the family home with Warren. Warren goes ahead and tells Miriam to wait. When he does not return, she follows him and finds Helga's body. Emily threatens Miriam and reveals herself as the disguised Warren, but before she can kill Miriam, Miriam shoots her in self-defense with Warren's pistol.
At the police station, Miriam learns that Emily's father wanted a family owner and male sole heir. Because the second-born child was a girl like Miriam, his second wife, supported by the bribed Adrims and midwife Helga Swenson, hid the child's true gender and passed it off as the desired son, Warren. Accordingly, the girl was brought up with a hard hand like a boy. In order to be able to take over the inheritance safely, Adrims and Helga had to die. "Warren" carried out the murders under his true, but lifelong suppressed identity of a young woman. Miriam, the last living descendant, inherits the family fortune.
background
As in his previous films such as Schrei, if der Tingler comes or Das Haus auf dem Geisterhügel , Castle also built one of his typical “ gimmicks ” into Mörderisch , here the so-called “fright break”. Shortly before the climax of the film, when Miriam tries to enter the house in which Emily is waiting for her, the film stops and a stopwatch shows the elapsed time of 45 seconds. During this time, fearful souls should be given the opportunity to leave the cinema. If they stood in a so-called “coward's corner” in the foyer, they got their entrance fee back. Castle also gives an introduction at the beginning of the film while working on an embroidery.
In order to keep the unmasking of Emily secret to the last as a big surprise, the actress of Emily, Joan Marshall , was not mentioned by her real name , even in the opening credits , by which she might have been known to a number of viewers. Instead, Castle chose the pseudonym Jean Arless for her - a name under which Marshall had neither appeared before nor should occur again afterwards. As Castle affirmed in his autobiography Step Right Up!… I'm Gonna Scare the Pants Off America , Joan Marshall spoke both the Emily and the male parts of Warren in his own voice. In the credits of the film, Joan Marshall aka Jean Arless appears in both roles - as Warren and as Emily - in front of the camera and bows to the audience.
In Murderous , the former silent film comedian Snub Pollard played one of his last, now tiny, film roles.
Murderous premiered on June 7, 1961 in Minneapolis and opened in American cinemas on June 28, 1961. The film opened in New York on July 26, 1961 in a double program with the Italian adventure film Venus the Pirates .
The film opened in the Federal Republic of Germany on August 15, 1961.
Reviews
His closeness to Alfred Hitchcock's thriller Psycho was repeatedly accused of murder . Eugene Archer of the New York Times described the film as "pathetic imitation" and "rubbish". In Germany, the film-dienst came to a similar conclusion: “Schauerfilchen on Hitchcock's footsteps. His curled ugliness goes to perverts. "An exception was the Time Magazine represents the Mörderisch in terms of structure and tension even described as superior to the model.
Despite ongoing allegations of plagiarism, reviews were more benevolent in later years. The London Time Out Film Guide described Castle's film as a “somewhat eerie story” that effectively uses the example of Psycho . Leonard Maltin described the dialogues as mostly "grotesque", but the film managed to make the viewer shudder a few times.
literature
- William Castle: Step Right Up!… I'm Gonna Scare the Pants Off America . William Castle Productions, 1976 (EA), 2010 (WA), ISBN 978-0-578-06682-0
Web links
- Murderous in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Homicidal on Rotten Tomatoes
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Murderous . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2005 (PDF; test number: 25 776 DVD).
- ↑ Homicidal. In: Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved November 26, 2012 .
- ↑ Homicidal (1961). American Film Institute , accessed July 14, 2019 .
- ↑ a b “Dismal imitation of“ Psycho ”[…] trash.” - Review in the New York Times on July 27, 1961, accessed on November 26, 2012.
- ↑ Murderous. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed July 14, 2019 . .
- ↑ Quoted from: Ronald M. Hahn , Volker Jansen: Lexikon des Horrorfilms . Bastei-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1989, pp. 305-306.
- ↑ "It surpasses its model in structure, suspense and sheer nervous drive." - short review in Time magazine dated 8 September 1961 Retrieved on November 27, 2012.
- ↑ "Passably creepy tale [...] cribs brazenly from Psycho, to good effect." - Time Out Film Guide, Seventh Edition 1999. Penguin, London 1998, p. 399.
- ^ "Much of the dialogue is ludicrous, but still manages to deliver some shudders." - Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide. Signet / New American Library, New York 2007.