Compulsion, directed by Richard Fleischer, was a film made in 1959, based on the 1956 novel Compulsion by Meyer Levin, which in turn was based on the Leopold and Loeb trial. It was the first film Richard D. Zanuck produced.
Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner (Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell) kill a boy on his way home from school in order to commit the "perfect crime". Strauss tries to cover it up, but they are caught when police find a key piece...
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Compulsion, directed by Richard Fleischer, was a film made in 1959, based on the 1956 novel Compulsion by Meyer Levin, which in turn was based on the Leopold and Loeb trial. It was the first film Richard D. Zanuck produced.
Artie Strauss and Judd Steiner (Bradford Dillman and Dean Stockwell) kill a boy on his way home from school in order to commit the "perfect crime". Strauss tries to cover it up, but they are caught when police find a key piece of evidence — Steiner's glasses, which he left at the scene of the crime. Famed attorney Jonathan Wilk (Orson Welles) takes their case, and saves them from hanging by making an impassioned closing argument against capital punishment.
The film was entered into the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where Dillman, Stockwell and Welles won the Best Actor Award.
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