Compulsion

Expand

Now Streaming

Compulsion (1959)

04/01/1959 (US) Crime, Drama 1h 43m

User
Score

What's your Vibe?

Play Trailer

THEIRS WAS THE PERFECT CRIME they thought! They were too sure...too smart...too careful to leave a clue -- but they did! and it exploded -- The shocking story of two teenagers out for kicks...looking for thrills...and finding them!

Overview

Two close friends kidnap and murder a young boy and are defended in court by a renowned attorney who makes an impassioned plea against capital punishment.

Richard Fleischer

Director
Meyer Levin

Novel
Richard Murphy

Screenplay

Top Billed Cast

Orson Welles

Jonathan Wilk
Diane Varsi

Ruth Evans
Dean Stockwell

Judd Steiner
Bradford Dillman

Arthur A. Straus
E.G. Marshall

District Attorney Harold Horn
Martin Milner

Sid Brooks
Richard Anderson

Max Steiner
Robert F. Simon

Police Lt. Johnson
Robert Burton

Charles Straus
View More

Full Cast & Crew

Featured Review

A review by John Chard

70%

Written by John Chard on August 10, 2015

Lets go watch them slaughter the sheep!

Compulsion is directed by Richard Fleischer and adapted to screenplay by Richard Murphy from the novel written by Meyer Levin. It stars Dean Stockwell, Bradford Dillman, Orson Welles and Diane Varsi. Music is by Lionel Newman and cinematography by William C. Mellor.

Based upon the real life Leopold and Loeb murder trial of the 1920s, Compulsion finds Artie Strauss (Dillman) and Judd Steiner (Stockwell) as two well to do young men attempting to commit the perfect crime - murder! But it wasn't so perfect after all and they soon find themselves on tria... read the rest.

Read All Reviews