It delighted me to see that Mental Multivitamin has recently seen Compulsion – her comments are here, very insightful. Orson Welles’ reading of the last line of the film (“In those years to come, you might find yourself asking if it wasn’t the hand of God dropped these glasses… And if he didn’t, who did?”), and Dean Stockwell’s subsequent reaction to those words are perfection. It’s a true moment, not an over-played melodramatic moment. Orson Welles rarely raises his voice in the whole film, everything is contained, coiled like a spring, his eyes moving, seeing, taking everything in … and his psychological slam-dunk in the final lines is goose-bump worthy. It could not end on a better note. What could have been a salacious or silly film – or preachy or lurid – is none of the above.
“I consider Compulsion a very good work. It’s one of those films in which, by some strange alchemy, everything is exactly what the director would have liked it to be. Many times, for some different reasons, sauce won’t curdle: some character appears untrue, the story doesn’t work, or something else is out of tune. In Compulsion everything matched fantastically.”
-Richard Fleisher, director of Compulsion
SEE it if you haven’t already. (My post about Compusion here)