The Boston Strangler (1968) Fleischer Transitional Noir

"Old ladies in Boston?       Think what it must be like in New York."

Directed by one of Classic Noirs greats Richard Fleischer.

Fleischer gave us The Narrow Margin, Armored Car Robbery and Trapped.

The Boston Strangler is a 1968 American Bio Noir loosely based on the the book by Gerold Frank about true story of the Boston Strangler. The screenplay was written by Edward Anhalt Cinematography was by Richard H. Kline and Music was by Lionel Newman.

Fleischer stylishly combines visual Noir stylistics with what was the sudden popular flourish, in the mid 1960s  of the old revitalized optically printed split screen technique. Previously the technique was used to depict, as far back as the 1910s, two sides of say a telephone conversation.

In 1964 for IBM's "Think" Pavilion at the New York's Worlds Fair, Ray and Charles Eames caused a sensation with a 17- screen film they created this was followed by John Frankenheimer's Grand Prix and boosted again by the Universal's exhibition at Expo 67 in Montreal and a handful of Hollywood productions from 1968 to the mid 1970s.

Traditionally the split screen had divided the screen in half the rebirth brought multiple divisions allowing scenes to be depicted from different perspectives, by opening screens at different intervals the director can tell a story in a new way. Also different screens give different characters viewpoints, and even depicts simultaneous action in multiple locals. There is also I noticed in addition even a screen in screen sequence.

Traditional and Multiple Split Screen examples used by Fleischer in The Boston Strangler

small screen within widescreen frame

traditional split  screen

four screens depicting same newscast in multiple living-rooms

two screen showing news reporter POV and crowds PO

three isolated screens showing women's individual reactions to a new strangler victim

Another aspect of the use of multiple screens is that each of those screens contribute to achieving the same claustrophobic feeling that the old Academy ratio gave to Classic Film Noir, both within each individual frame and as a whole claustrophobic clusters of anxiousness and tension. You could also say they enforce the theme of the ability of the strangler to compartmentalize his psyche to the point of what, at the time, psychiatrists were calling a new "diagnosis" of Multiple Personality Disorder (known now as Dissociative Identity Disorder).

The split screen editing technique in The Boston Strangler was achieved by Film Editor Marion Rothman with Art Direction by Richard Day and Jack Martin Smith.

The full effect the split screen technology in Fleischer's film was probably missing in action for 30 some
odd years once it left theaters. Pan and scan with full screen would have decimated the intent.

The multiple split screen technique also has an audio accompaniment that reminds me of the effect Robert Altman would later specialize in. Just like in say Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller, you get that same "eavesdropping" of overheard conversations though in The Boston Stranglers case it's overheard police "rousting" as they roundup suspects.

The film stars a handful of Classic Film Noir, Transitional Noir, and Neo Noir actors. Tony Curtis (Sweet Sell Of Success) as Albert DeSalvo, Henry Fonda (The Long Night (1947), and The Wrong Man (1956)) as John S. Bottomly, Jeff Corey (The Killers (1946), Brute Force (1947), Fourteen Hours (1951), Seconds (1966), In Cold Blood (1967), ) as John Asgeirsson, George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke) as Det. Phil DiNatale, Hurd Hatfield (The Unsuspected (1947)) as Terence Huntley.

Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo 

Henry Fonda as John S. Bottomly

Jeff Corey as John Asgeirsson

George Kennedy as Det. Phil DiNatale

The cast also includes future stars William Hickey (A Hatful of Rain (1957), Something Wild (1961), Mikey and Nicky (1976), ) as Eugene T. O'Rourke, William Marshall (Harlem Detective Drama | TV Series (1953) Blacula (1972). George Firth (A Rage to Live (1965)) as pickle salesman Lionel Brumley , and Murray Hamilton (Seconds (1966), The Drowning Pool (1975)) as Sgt. Frank McAfee.The film also has a plethora of recognizable TV actors, Mike Kellin (The Incident (1967)) as Julian Soshnick, Sally Kellerman as Dianne Cluny, Jeanne Cooper as the Hooker Cloe.

William Hickey as Eugene T. O'Rourke

Sally Kellerman

William Marshall

The film was based on the work of one unknown person dubbed originally "The Mad Strangler of Boston." The July 8, 1962 edition of the Sunday Herald, declared "A mad strangler is loose in Boston," in an article titled "Mad Strangler Kills Four Women in Boston." The facts are that thirteen single women their ages ranging between 19 and 85 were murdered in Boston and surrounding cities between June 1962 and January 1964.

At roughly the same time the police were also looking for another rapist called the "Measuring Man" or the "Green Man." The sequence in the film with Sally Kellerman actually depicts one of those rapes. After her assailant tied her to her bed he began to sexually assault her. He suddenly stopped saying "I'm sorry," and he left. The woman's description of her attacker led the police to DeSalvo.

Was the real Strangler caught? Who knows?

Noirsville

Gerold Frank’s book was an in-depth description of the police investigation with the tools available to them at the time of the murders. It also offered insights into the makeup of the serial killer. However the headshrinkers of the time came up with a completely different profile of the perpetrator than the man who actually confessed to the crime, Albert DeSalvo.

DeSalvo was not quite apprehended, as depicted in the film, by the police after trying to attack a woman who was entertaining a male visitor at the time he broke into her apartment.

DeSalvo’s guilt was controversial at the time. He was an inmate at a state mental hospital He had a rap sheet for burglary. His confessions were not very accurate and contained errors. Some details, though, only the actual killer would have known.

A DNA test was administered to the evidence collected from the last Strangler victim Mary Anne Sullivan. Sullivan, was sexually assaulted and strangled with nylon stockings and discovered on January 4, 1964 in her apartment at 44-A Charles St., Boston. The test was positive so DeSalvo was at least guilty of one of the murders, but he may have been a copycat killer piggybacking on the deeds of the original Strangler, who knows? Aside from the police procedural aspects of the film its most definitely not a documentary.  It's in the same category as Victor Buono's The Strangler (1964) basically conjecture using the psychology of the time and pure fiction regarding the depictions and possible motives of the Boston Strangler.

Aside from poetic license with the facts and the psychological mumbo jumbo all the performances are excellent. Tony Curtis gives a bravo performance, matching that of his serious turn in The Sweet Smell of Success. Henry Fonda as the coordinator of the Strangler task force is equally compelling. I found the combo of noir stylistics with the split screen technology very workable and quite intriguing. The film does loose a bit of steam in the last third once DeSalvo is incarcerated. Screencaps are from an online streamer Its a good Transitional Noir 7-8/10.