MovieChat Forums > Compulsion (1959) Discussion > Has anyone looked up Leopold and Loeb-St...

Has anyone looked up Leopold and Loeb-Story based


True story of boy/men around 17 and 18, apparently extremely intelligent, very rich, normal, decent families, but young killers with no morals. This crime happened in Chicago in the 1920'S and the poor little victim was a friend of one of the killers' younger brother. Killers didn't want or need the money, just the thrill of the crime.

I've read many accounts and a couple of books on this case. This movie was based on the case, as well as Rope, Swoon, and some others. True story happened in the 1920's, so probably others based on this tragedy that I haven't seen. This one, with Orson Wells playing the part of the real defense attorney in this case, Clarence Darrow, is quite good.

According to the books I've read, Loeb was killed in prison by another prisoner a few years after sentencing, and Leopold was released decades later due to volunteering to test by injections some experimental drugs while in prison, moved to another country, married briefly at the end, and died in his late 50's, natural causes. This is my best remembrances of the books.

Just a tragedy all the way around, especially for the heartbroken family of the real victim the movie is based on, 14 year old Bobby, and the shocked families of the remorseless teenage killers. Senseless.

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I wish they had picked someone other than Bradford Dillman. As you mentioned...the killers were like 18-ish...and Bradford Dillman was 30 years old. It would have been better if the actors had actually been teenagers... or at least closer to a teen age. Dean Stockwell was 23...so that's not quite as bad.

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I had to look that up, too. According to Wikipedia, Leopold was 19 and Loeb was 18 at the time of the crime. While Stockwell always looked a bit younger than his actual years, Dillman was a bit too old for this role. (I'm watching it right now on TCM for the first time.)

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And he can't dance AT ALL!!! : > Made the movie even more painful to watch!

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