In Cold Blood (1967)

Director:

Richard Brooks

Writers:

Truman Capote (novel)
Richard Brooks (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 December 1967 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | History

Plot:

After a botched robbery results in the brutal murder of a rural family, two drifters elude police, in the end coming to terms with their own mortality and the repercussions of their vile atrocity.

Plot Keywords:

Execution | Police | Murder | Kansas | Robbery

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Robert Blake	...	Perry Smith
Scott Wilson	...	Richard 'Dick' Hickock
John Forsythe	...	Alvin Dewey
Paul Stewart	...	Jensen
Gerald S. O'Loughlin	...	Harold Nye
Jeff Corey	...	Mr. Hickock
John Gallaudet	...	Roy Church
James Flavin	...	Clarence Duntz
Charles McGraw	...	Tex Smith
Will Geer	...	Prosecutor
John McLiam	...	Herbert Clutter
Ruth Storey	...	Bonnie Clutter
Brenda Currin	...	Nancy Clutter (as Brenda C. Currin)
Paul Hough	...	Kenyon Clutter
Vaughn Taylor	...	Good Samaritan
Duke Hobbie	...	Young Reporter
Sheldon Allman	...	Rev. Jim Post
Sammy Thurman	...	Flo Smith
Raymond Hatton	...	Elderly Hitchhiker
Sadie Truitt	...	Herself
Myrtle Clare	...	Herself
Ted Eccles	...	Young Hitchhiker (as Teddy Eccles)
Al Christy	...	Sheriff
Don Sollars	...	Luke Sharpe
Harriet Levitt	...	Mrs. Hartman
Rhonda Fultz	...	Nancy's Friend (as Ronda Fultz)
Mary Linda Rapelye	...	Susan Kidwell (as Mary-Linda Rapelye)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Collins	...	Judge Roland Tate (uncredited)
Pamela Crosley	...	Secretary (uncredited)
Nick Dimitri	...	Las Vegas Cop (uncredited)
John C. Flinn III	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Paul Frees	...	Radio announcer / officer asking for rap sheet (voice) (uncredited)
Bobby Johnson	...	Prison Guard (uncredited)
Richard Kelton	...	Nancy's Boyfriend (uncredited)
James Lantz	...	Officer Rohleder (uncredited)
Stan Levitt	...	Insurance Man (uncredited)
Gerry Okuneff	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Bowman Upchurch	...	Andy (uncredited)
Guy Way	...	Prison Guard (uncredited)
Darlene Williams	...	Little Girl on Bus (uncredited)
Odd Williams	...	Defense Attorney (uncredited)

Directed by
Richard Brooks

Writing credits
Truman Capote		(novel)
Richard Brooks		(screenplay)

Produced by
Richard Brooks	....	producer

Original Music by
Quincy Jones

Cinematography by
Conrad L. Hall		(as Conrad Hall)

Film Editing by
Peter Zinner

Art Direction by
Robert F. Boyle		(as Robert Boyle)

Set Decoration by
Jack H. Ahern		(as Jack Ahern)

Makeup Department
Gary Morris	....	makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Tom Shaw	....	assistant director

Art Department
Robert Eaton	....	property master (as Bob Eaton)
Joe LaBella	....	property master

Sound Department
John H. Newman	....	sound effects
Arthur Piantadosi	....	sound (as A. Piantadosi)
William M. Randall Jr.	....	sound (as Wm. Randall Jr.)
Charles J. Rice	....	sound effects
Dick Tyler Sr.	....	sound (as Dick Tyler)

Special Effects by
Chuck Gaspar	....	special effects

Stunts
Lee Faulkner	....	stunt double
Jerry Brutsche	....	stunt double (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Harry Sundby	....	chief electrician
Bernie Abramson	....	still photographer (uncredited)
Jordan Cronenweth	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Michael A. Jones	....	best boy (uncredited)
Michael A. Jones	....	rigging gaffer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Jack Martell	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Earle Herdan	....	assistant editor (as Earl Herdan)

Music Department
Jack Hayes	....	orchestrator
Leo Shuken	....	orchestrator

Other crew
John Franco	....	script supervisor
Al Horwits	....	public relations
Joseph Satten	....	technical advisor (as Dr. Joseph Satten)
Alvin Dewey	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
James Post	....	technical advisor (uncredited)
Dominic Santarone	....	caterer (uncredited)
Ruth Santarone	....	caterer (uncredited)

Thanks
Joseph Satten	....	acknowledgment (as Dr. Joseph Satten)

Production Companies

• Columbia Pictures Corporation
• Pax Enterprises

Distributors

• Columbia Pictures (1967) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Films (1968) (Finland) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1972) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video (1984) (USA) (VHS)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia TriStar (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Sony Video (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Columbia Home Video (video)
• Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (2003) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (2009) (USA) (DVD) (Blu-ray)

Other Companies

• Division of Law and Psychiatry, The Menninger Foundation  technical assistance
• Kaiser Jeep Corporation  transportation
• Pacific Title  optical effects
• Pontiac Motor Division  transportation (as Pontiac Motor Division, G.M.C.)
• Technicolor  prints by
• Time  courtesy of

Also Known As:

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

134 min | Poland:129 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (release prints) | 3 Channel Stereo (original mix)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | France:-16 | West Germany:16 (re-rating) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | UK:15 | UK:X (original rating) | South Korea:15 (2006) | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Singapore:PG | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (Suggested for Mature Audiences) (original rating) | USA:R (re-rating) (1970)

Filming Locations:

Colorado, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The "Jenson"/"Narrator" characters are based on the author himself, Truman Capote. Capote went to Kansas soon after the murders to cover the manhunt and to interview those who knew the Clutter family. After the apprehension and conviction of killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, Capote became a major part of the killers' lives while they were on death row, forming a particularly close bond with Smith. Smith gave most of his belongings - drawings, books - to Capote. Capote was present at the executions and witnessed the carrying-out of Hickock's sentence, but couldn't bear to watch Smith die, and left the room before he was brought in.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: During Perry's daydream fantasy sequence, he is seen playing a Saturn 63 guitar. The number signifies the year of the guitar's production, 1963, yet this scene was supposed to have taken place in 1959.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Little girl on bus: 'Scuse me.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Boys on the Side (1995)

Extremely disturbing, even now

Although it was released way back in 1967, IN COLD BLOOD still remains the benchmark by which all true-crime films are matched. Veteran writer/director Richard Brooks (ELMER GANTRY) adapted Truman Capote's non-fiction book into a chilling docudrama that retains a disturbing power even today, thirty-five years later.

Robert Blake and Scott Wilson portray Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, two ex-cons who, on a tip from Hicock's old cellmate Floyd Wells, broke into the Holcomb, Kansas home of Herbert Clutter, looking for a wall safe supposedly containing $10,000. But no safe was ever found, and the two men instead wound up killing Mr. Clutter, his wife, and their two children, getting away with only a radio, a pair of binoculars, and a lousy forty dollars. Two months on the run, including an aimless "vacation" in northern Mexico, ended in Las Vegas when cops caught them in a stolen car. But it eventually comes out, after merciless grilling by Kansas law enforcement officials, that these two men committed that heinous crime in Holcomb. Tried and convicted on four counts of murder, they stew in jail over a five-year period of appeals and denials until both are hanged to death on April 14, 1965.

Blake and Smith are absolutely chilling as the two dispassionate killers who show no remorse for what they've done but are concerned about getting caught. John Forsythe also does a good turn as Alvin Dewey, the chief detective investigating the crime, as does Gerald S. O'Laughlin as his assistant. In a tactic that is both faithful to Capote's book and a good artistic gambit all around, Brooks does not show the murders at the beginning; instead, he shows the two killers pulling up to the Clutter house as the last light goes out, then cuts to the next morning and the horrifying discovery of the bodies. Only during the ride back to Kansas, when Blake is questioned by Forsythe and narrates the story, do we see the true horror of what happened that night. We don't see that much blood being spilled in these scenes, but we don't need to. The shotgun blasts and the horrified look on the Clutters' faces as they know they are about to die are more than disturbing enough, so there is no need to resort to explicitly bloody slasher-film violence.

Brooks wisely filmed IN COLD BLOOD in stark black-and-white, and the results are excellent thanks to Conrad Hall's expertise. The chilling jazz score by Quincy Jones is the capper. The end result is one of the most unsettling films of any kind ever made, devastating in its own low-key fashion. It is a 134-minute study of a crime that shook an entire state and indeed an entire nation, and should be seen, though viewer discretion is advised; the 'R' rating is there for a reason.