The Boston Strangler (film)

The Boston Strangler is a 1968 American Neo Noir film based on the true story of the Boston Strangler and the book by Gerold Frank. It was directed by Richard Fleischer, and stars Tony Curtis as Albert DeSalvo, the strangler, and Henry Fonda as John S. Bottomly, the chief detective now famed for obtaining DeSalvos confession.

When released, film critic Roger Ebert gave it three stars out of four but criticized the films content, writing, The Boston Strangler requires a judgment not only on the quality of the film very good, but also on its moral and ethical implications...The events described in Franks book have been altered considerably in the film. This is essentially a work of fiction based on the real events. And based on them in such a way to entertain us, which it does, but for the wrong reasons, I believe. This film, which was made so well, should not have been made at all.In the same vein, The New York Times film critic Renata Adler, wrote The Boston Strangler represents an incredible collapse of taste, judgment, decency, prose, insight, journalism and movie technique, and yetthrough certain prurient options that it does not takeit is not quite the popular exploitation film that one might think. It is as though someone had gone out to do a serious piece of reporting and come up with 4,000 clippings from a sensationalist tabloid. It has no depth, no timing, no facts of any interest and yet, without any hesitation, it uses the name and pretends to report the story of a living man, who was neither convicted nor indicted for the crimes it ascribes to him. Tony Curtis starsthe program credits wordas what the movie takes to be the Boston strangler. ........

Source: Wikipedia