The Strangler (1964)

Director:

Burt Topper

Writer:

Bill S. Ballinger

Release Date:

1 April 1964 (USA)

Genre:

Horror

Tagline:

Victor Buono as the Strangler is HERE!

Plot:

Leo Kroll, a lab technician in a large unnamed city, is responsible for the strangulation murders of several young nurses...

Plot Keywords:

Nurse | Murder | Strangulation | Ring Toss | Dead Woman

Cast

Victor Buono	...	Leo Kroll
David McLean	...	Lt. Frank Benson
Diane Sayer	...	Barbara Wells
Davey Davison	...	Tally Raymond
Baynes Barron	...	Sgt. Mack Clyde
Ellen Corby	...	Mrs. Kroll
Michael Ryan	...	Detective Mel Posner
Russ Bender	...	Dr. Clarence Sanford
Jeanne Bates	...	Clara Thomas, the Nurse
Wally Campo	...	Eggerton
Mimi Dillard	...	Thelma
Byron Morrow	...	Dr. Morton
John Yates	...	Intern
James Sikking	...	Artist
Robert Cranford	...	Jack Rosten
Selette Cole	...	Helen Lawson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Victor Masi	...	Attendant (uncredited)

Directed by
Burt Topper

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Bill S. Ballinger

Produced by
Samuel Bischoff	....	producer
James Cresson	....	producer
David Diamond	....	producer

Original Music by
Marlin Skiles

Cinematography by
Jacques R. Marquette

Film Editing by
Robert S. Eisen

Art Direction by
Eugène Lourié
Hal Pereira

Set Decoration by
Sam Comer
James W. Payne		(as Jim Payne)

Makeup Department
Nellie Manley	....	hair styles supervisor
Wally Westmore	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
Edward Morey Jr.	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Clark L. Paylow	....	assistant director

Art Department
James West	....	construction coordinator

Sound Department
Charles Grenzbach	....	sound recordist
Hugo Grenzbach	....	sound recordist

Other crew
Robert Gary	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• Bischoff-Diamond Corporation

Distributors

• Allied Artists Pictures (1964) (USA) (theatrical)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (1991) (USA) (VHS)

Also Known As:

"Der Würger von Boston" - Austria
"El estrangulador de mujeres" - Spain
"Kvæleren" - Denmark
"Le bambole del desiderio" - Italy
"Le tueur de Boston" - France
"O strangalistis tis Vostonis" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Strangalistis gymnon gynaikon" - Greece (DVD title)

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Finland:K-16 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Paramount Studios - 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Bischoff-Diamond Corporation

Trivia:

Released nearly 3 months after the real Boston Strangler claimed his final victim.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the police are on the way to the first murder shown in the movie, they are driving in a 1950s boxy sedan. However, when the police arrive, they are in an early-1960s era sedan.

I love Victor Buono

While this is not by any stretch of the imagination a good film, because of the slow pacing, the inane police sequences, and the thuddinmg obviousness of much of it. It still has it's imaginative stretc hes. For example, showing that the killer has an orgasm every time he kills is unusual and quitye ahead of the time. Several of the strangling scenes where suspensilly paced, but weakened by how quickly the victim usually died (it only takes him about 10 seconds to strangle each woman with a silk stocking!) and also weakened by having every woman changer into her underwear before she gets killed. Basically much of this is saved by Victor Buono's performance which is not his best, is still quite menacing and one of the more realistic serial killers on film. His exaggerated false smiles of respectability brought to mind similiar ones I had seen on the faces of John Wayne Gacy. And the scene where he trashes the apart ment the hole time his mouth workingh inadvertenly was magnificent.