Compulsion (1959)

[RayKelly]

I have never heard the looping story before, but the taxes story is well known.
Welles' was great in the final courtroom sequence.
In the Peter Bogdanovich book "This Is Orson Welles," Welles said that scene was two reels long and required all of his energy. He said it was shot in one take without cuts.
I have a VHS of it somewhere in the closet. I will have to watch it again.
Like you, I was interested only in Welles when I bought it, but I recall that Stockwell was wonderful in it.

[mido505]

The looping story is in Barbara Leaming's bio. In recounting the tale, director Richard Fleischer proudly exhulted "We screwed Orson!". Welles later called Fleischer and apologized, and Fleischer always spoke highly of his collaboration with Welles on COMPULSION and CRACK IN THE MIRROR.

It was on one of these two films, I can't remember which, where there was a moment when Welles had to walk down a hallway set and turn left. The set was built so that the left turn was the only one possible. Welles told Fleischer that he wanted to turn right, and when Fleischer objected because of the logistics, Welles said, "you know, if I were directing this film, I would have the set torn down and wait while it was being rebuilt." Fleischer answered, calmly, "Well, Mr. Welles, I guess that is why I am directing this film and you aren't." Welles waited a beat, looked at Fleischer and said, "I guess you're right," and completed the take as requested.

[Wellesnet]

Today is the 90th anniversary of the Leopold and Leob murder. The infamous case was the inspiration for Compulsion. Welles's courtroom summation is one of his finest scenes onscreen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrjbL4eedkQ

From "Orson Welles and Roger Hill" by Todd Tarbox

ORSON: Madison was shortly after my mother’s death in 1924. I attended the last few weeks of a camp called Indianola, run by Dr. Frederick Mueller, who was the head of the University of Wisconsin’s Psychology department. One ill-fated afternoon, the good doctor invited me to his home, and it turned out he had designs on me.

ROGER: I knew this Mueller was running a camp, but I didn’t know anything untoward took place…

ORSON: Yes, he ran it as a racket. I returned to Chicago, where…I began my brief incarceration in a public school, and where I met captivating little Miss Levy, who organized a small club for orgiastic practices in the basement of her apartment building. Mrs. Levy denounced Dadda for allowing me to deflower her daughter…ranting “Look what happened to that little boy Bobby Franks at the hands of Leopold and Loeb.” I remember that very clearly. There was supposed to be a strong connection between the Leopold and Loeb murder and what we were playing down in the basement…It was just one sexual encounter after another. It didn’t calm down until I got to Woodstock…I suddenly realized that these innocent foolings around in the basement would send you to the death house. That’s why I went rather meekly to this reform school, which was the Todd School for Boys.

[Wellesnet]

Compulsion is now available in it's entirety in widescreen on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxhhHIcsCNY

[Roger Ryan]

Signal One Entertainment out of the UK will be debuting Compulsion on Blu-ray in February. Being a UK product, the disc will probably be Region "B" locked. Among the extras noted will be a reproduction of a 7" vinyl recording of Welles performing the courtroom scene - I'm assuming this recording was taken directly from the film's soundtrack, but had not heard of it before. Here is the full press release...

Our first all-new announcement for February is the Blu-ray premiere of Richard Fleischer's dark and compelling
thriller, COMPULSION (1959). This stylish and disturbing film stars Dean Stockwell and Bradford Dillman as the
students who commit a murder in cold blood, and it features a stand-out performance from cinema legend Orson
Welles as the criminal defence lawyer who takes on their case.

Confirmed extras for COMPULSION are as follows:
- High Definition transfer
- Richard Fleischer Guardian Interview (1981, 93 mins, audio only): the great director discusses his career after a
screening of Compulsion
- Richard Fleischer Guardian Interview (1994, 77 mins): Fleischer returns to the NFT for this filmed interview
- Orson Welles in the Courtroom Scene from Compulsion (1959): reproduction of the original 7" vinyl recording
- Original theatrical trailer

[tonyw]

Roger, I may be wrong about this but I have a vague memory of a 45 rpm vinyl disk being released in the UK about the time of the film's release. It covered the court room speech.

[jtarvainen]

That's true, a 7" of the speech was indeed released back in the day:

http://www.discogs.com/Orson-Welles-Cou ... se/5336837