Wilfried Mueller

I am interested in movies basing on true crimes. I have some in my collection. Like:
10 Rillington Place
Death By Prescription (aka: The Good Doctor Bodwin Adams)
The Young Poisoner's Handbook
The Man from the Pru
A is for acid
The Last Hangman (aka Pierrepoint)
The Boston Strangler
(not to mention the Jack the Ripper movies....)

Can you list more films basing on true crimes and if so yould you please tell me if you are able to offer a copy?
I am looking for a good (and complete) copy of the Dr. Harold Shipman movie.

Wilfried Mueller, Germany

RJG

I do know that '10 Rillington Place' and 'The Boston Strangler' are both available on DVD R2 via such online emporiums as www.play.com

ChristineCB

John Dillinger was the subject of two Hollywood films, 1945 DILLINGER with Lawrence Tierney, and the 1973 DILLINGER with Warren Oates.

BONNIE & CLYDE with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty (1967).

DELIBERATE STRANGER (American TV, about 1986) with Mark Harmon as Ted Bundy, an incredibly sanitized version that helped Ted get even more groupies and unwarranted sympathy before he was executed. I wonder why Ann Rule didn't originally write that Ted was decapitating victims and screwing them? Why did she edit out so many true and unpleasant facts about Ted's behavior with the dead bodies?

HELTER SKELTER (American TV 1976) about the Charles Manson murders with Steve Railsback as Charlie; this film is focused primarily on the prosecution and courtroom antics of the Manson trial.

In 2004, American TV also had a new HELTER SKELTER film that focused on life and death inside the Family at their various habitats.

GEIN (aka IN THE LIGHT OF THE MOON, 2000) with Steve Railsback as the 1950's cannibal leatherface American farm-boy Ed Gein, who supposedly "inspired" the Texas Chainsaw Massacre films. I don't have a high opinion of this film because there are a lot of fantasy scenes that Gein and Gein alone would know about but never discussed. The filmmakers decided to include their own sicko cannibal fantasies and claim this was Gein's thought-process. The facts of the case were disturbing enough, but the filmmakers wanted to litter it up with their own fantasies rather than the very bizarre facts.

I'd hesitate to list 1979's The Great Train Robbery with Sean Connery.

IN COLD BLOOD, the awesome film based on the Truman Capote book. Highly recommended, especially for its chilling total-blackout ending.

THE ONION FIELD (James Wood, 1979) about a Calif policeman who survives a late-night execution, only to suffer from his fellow cops afterwards for fleeing in the dark while his partner is executed. An interesting study of the impact of crime on a survivor, and how he's treated by his gutless cowardly peers who sit behind desks, passing their hollow judgements. Powerful.

ALICE'S RESTAURANT probably shouldn't fit into "true crime" although Arlo Guthrie did get a ticket for littering.

ChristineCB

AND THE SEA SHALL TELL (1991 with Richard Crenna as Vincent Bugliosi). Based on Bugliosi's book of the same name as he defends a woman on murder charges after her boyfriend killed an older couple on Palmyra Island in the south central Pacific for their yacht.

I don't see this film listed as being available on DVD or VHS, but it was a fairly interesting made-for-TV film, and a faithful representation of Bugliosi's strong book. When my hubby and I sail the oceans, we shy away from certain types of island pals.

Elliot J Huntley

A couple more for the list. Holiday Camp has elements of Neville Heath in it and Good Time Girl was in part based on the infamous Cleft Chin Murders of the 1940s.

Elliot

ChristineCB

When I used a hyphenated phrase in IMDB.COM, I often access a "genre" listing.

So, I inserted " true-crime " and did a search on it, and it returned a list of many, many films that supposedly fit into this genre:

Keyword: True Crime...

IN BROAD DAYLIGHT and TO CATCH A KILLER are good American-TV-movie representations of books of the same names, both starring Brian Dennehy as the bad guys in both tales.

I'm shocked that I know so many of these films from this genre. And I thought my fascination with End Of The World As We Know It was bad enough!

Steve Crook

How criminal do they have to be?

How about ...
Dance with a Stranger (1985)
The Krays (1990)
Let Him Have It (1991)
Dead Man Walking (1995)
McVicar (1980)
Rogue Trader (1999)
The Siege of Sidney Street (1960)

And not forgetting Whisky Galore! (1949). There was definitely a crime there and it was based on a true story.

Steve

DB7

Intimate Relations.... Essex Boys.... (loosely based)

JamesM

I think Wilfrid was thinking of British films (this being a British film forum) but even he popped in The Boston Strangler in his list.

He has missed:-

Let Him Have It (1991) - Derek Bentley
The Krays (1990) - er, the Kray twins
Dance with a Stranger (1985) - Ruth Ellis, last woman to be hanged
Yield to the Night (1956) similarities to Ruth Ellis
Stander (2003, South Africa / UK production)) - cop turned bank robber Andre Stander
Buster (1988) - train robber Buster Edwards
McVicar (1980) - John McVicar

JamesM

Add :-

The Black Panther (1977) - Donald Nielson

alex

Another that comes to mind is:

Dandelion Dead (1994) with Michael Kitchen and Sarah Miles about the murderer Major Herbert Rowse Armstrong.

dylan

ROBBERY (1967) based on the Great Train Robbery

ROPE (1947) and COMPULSION (1959) based on the Leopold-Loeb case.

TRUE CONFESSIONS (1981) and THE BLACK DAHLIA (2006) based on the Elizabeth Short murder.

D

Nick Dando

Malice Aforethought from 2005 with Ben Miller, Barbara Flynn and Peter Vaughan.

http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0433411/

Nick

Sgt Dudfoot

Peter Jackson's 'Heavenly Creatures'.