Mon 8 Mar 2010
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE STRANGLER (1964).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews[6] Comments
THE STRANGLER. Allied Artists, 1964. Victor Buono, David McLean, Diane Sayer, Davey Davison, Baynes Barron, Ellen Corby, Jeanne Bates. Screenplay: Bill S. Ballinger. Director: Burt Topper.
Very much in the Zugsmith mold, but in fact directed by one Burt Topper, The Strangler is a wonderfully perverse and to-the-point bit of sickness put out when no one was looking.
Victor Buono stars delightfully as an emotionally-constipated mama’s boy who gets off (and I mean that literally; the close-ups of his face leave no doubt about the sexual nature of his acts) strangling nurses and leaving broken dolls at the scene of his crimes.
Nasty stuff, done with pleasing simplicity and not a bit of wasted time by a mostly-undistinguished director who seems here to have risen to the occasion. Credit must be shared with Bill S. Ballinger’s no-nonsense script, and art direction by Eugene Lourie, no less, but it’s primarily Victor Buono’s compelling performance that carries this thing off.
Fauning over an arcade girl, fretting about his sick mama, or just flitting prissily amid the mid-60s decor of sterile hallways and plastic furniture, he commands our full attention, disgust and even a bit of sympathy, in a bit of great acting where no one looks to find it.
March 8th, 2010 at 8:45 pm
This is one of those little gems where all the elements fall in place and a good movie gets made where there shouldn’t be one. Dan has it exactly on the nose.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:45 pm
I remember reading a positive review of Burt Topper’s WWII film, A WAR HERO or something to that effect.
March 10th, 2010 at 4:46 pm
And, oh, it was a Finnish newspaper review from the sixties, done by a man whose taste in American B-film I trust.
March 10th, 2010 at 5:00 pm
The title’s WAR HERO (without the “A”), the year was 1958, it was Topper’s first film as director, and there’s absolutely no other information about it on IMDB, only his name as director. No cast, no running time, no comments, not anything.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052376/
He seems to have specialized in drive-in movies, with THE STRANGLER apparently meant to be just another entry in the category, but as fate would have it, ended up “transcending the genre.”
Here’s an online blogger’s obituary for him:
http://craneshot.blogspot.com/2007/04/burt-topper-rip.html
July 11th, 2021 at 12:37 pm
Really miss Victor Buono; he always displayed a wonderful camp sense of comedy on the Batman, Perry Mason on other TV shows. A shame this was one of his few movie roles, but for once he’s in the lead here and carries it all off masterfully. I’m holding onto my CBS/Fox VHS as that intro autoerotic scene was missing from the Warners DVD. But it’s downloadable here.
https://archive.org/details/The_Strangler_1963/The_Strangler–alt.ogv
July 11th, 2021 at 4:15 pm
Thanks for the link, Greg!