In Cold Blood (film)

• Release Date: 1967
• Director(s): Richard Brooks
• Writer(s): Richard Brooks
• Principal Actors and Roles: Robert Blake (Perry Smith); Scott Wilson (Dick Hickock); John Forsythe (Alvin Dewey); Gerald S. O'loughlin (Harold Nye)
• Book / Story Film Based On: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In Cold Blood is a 1967 movie about seemingly random, horrifying murders that had actually occurred late in 1959. The movie closely adheres to the narrative of the book of the same title, which was penned by Truman Capote, and it chronicles the crimes and the pursuit and capture of the perpetrators. It also delves into the backgrounds and psychology of the killers themselves.

On November 14, 1959, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith invaded the Clutter family home outside of Holcomb, a small town in western Kansas. While in prison, Hickock had learned from another prisoner that Herb Clutter was wealthy and held large sums of money in his home.

When Hickock and Perry arrived at the family’s ranch, only four of the six Clutters were at home. The criminals soon learned that there was no safe with a large cache of money. They ransacked the house, stealing around $50, a pair of binoculars, and a small portable radio. They then murdered everyone in the house: Herbert, 48; Bonnie Mae, 45; and the two children who were at home at the time—Nancy Mae, 15, and Kenyon, 14.

The killers fled, spending time in Kansas City; Mexico; California; Omaha, Nebraska; then Iowa; and finally back to Kansas City. They then traveled to Florida and Nevada. A Kansas Bureau of Investigations team led by Alvin Dewey caught up with them at the end of December 1959. The two men were convicted of the crimes in May 1960, and they were hanged in 1965.

Immediately after the murders were reported, the author Truman Capote took an interest in the case. He wrote an extensively researched book that is often called the first nonfiction novel. Entitled In Cold Blood, the book was published in 1966. The next year, the movie was released.

Plot

Shot in black-and-white, the film opens with a Greyhound bus rolling through the darkness of the American plains on its way to Kansas City. As a shrill trumpet note from a Quincy Jones score fills the theater, a man strikes a match on his boot to light a cigarette. In its glow, the main character, Perry Smith, played by Robert Blake, is introduced to the audience. The stark, threatening image sets the tone for the rest of the movie.

Smith is on his way to Kansas City to join Dick Hickock. Both men are ex-convicts, and Hickock has a plan that could lead to an easy score. Hickock has heard from a cellmate about a wealthy wheat farmer in western Kansas named Herb Clutter. Hickock was told that Clutter keeps a lot of money in a safe in his home. After linking up, the two criminals drive through the night to Holcomb, Kansas, and enter the house through an unlocked door.

Once inside, they are swiftly disappointed. There is no safe. Clutter has only a small amount of money in his wallet. After tying up Clutter, his wife, and their two teenage children, Smith and Hickock ransack the house, finding nothing to justify the robbery. They murder the family gruesomely, cutting Herb’s throat and shooting the others where they are tied up. The two men then flee.

The bloody crime scene is discovered the next morning, and a lengthy, patient investigation begins. While Smith and Hickock write bad checks in Kansas City and then drive to Mexico, the investigation builds toward its climax. The pair of criminals returns to the United States and eventually winds up in Las Vegas, where the two men hope to win some money. Instead, they are arrested for violating parole, driving a stolen vehicle, and passing bad checks.

Thanks to an incriminating boot print left at the scene of the crime, the men are interrogated separately about the Clutter murders. Both admit to the check-cashing crime but deny knowledge of the murders. As the police confront the men with evidence such as the boot print, the interrogators are thrown off by Smith’s stonewalling. But Hickock finally confesses and insists that he killed no one, claiming that it was Smith who did the killings. The murders are shown in flashback as Smith also confesses, noting that Hickock was with him the whole time even though he (Smith) was the one to use the knife and shotgun.

Both men are found guilty and sentenced to death. The film ends with their executions.

Significance

Although critics at the time and since have noted the flaws in Richard Brooks’s moviemaking, In Cold Blood was praised from the moment it was released for its fidelity to most of Capote’s book. This aspect of the film included shooting scenes at the actual locations of the crime. These locations included the interior of the Clutters’ home, where the family was murdered, and the Kansas State Penitentiary, where Smith and Hickock were executed. The black-and-white cinematography has been praised for the impact it adds to the disturbing story, and because of the power of this stark black-and-white filmmaking, most critics have been willing to overlook the gimmicks that Brooks used in the film.

Along with the nonfiction novel on which it is based, In Cold Blood helped create a new, hyperrealistic form of crime story on film. Not only are horrific crimes presented with journalistic candor, but the backgrounds of the seeming monsters who committed the crimes are also revealed and examined. In Cold Blood is at times like a film noir written by a criminal psychologist.

The film launched the career of Robert Blake, whose portrayal of Perry Smith is considered the greatest performance in his career. The film also set a new standard for using music to enhance the theme of individual scenes. In Cold Blood was nominated for four Academy Awards: Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Original Music Score, and Best Adapted Screenplay. The American Film Institute (AFI) nominated it for a number of its "100 Years" lists, including "Film Scores," "100 Movies," and "Heroes and Villains" (for both Smith and Hickock). The AFI lists it in the eighth position on its "Top 10 Courtroom Dramas" list. In 2008, In Cold Blood was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

Awards and nominations

Nominated

• Academy Award (1967) Best Cinematography
• Academy Award (1967) Best Original Score
• Academy Award (1967) Best Director: Richard Brooks
• Academy Award (1967) Best Screenplay (Adapted): Richard Brooks
• Golden Globe (1967) Best Motion Picture (Drama)

Bibliography

Barsam, Richard, and Dave Monahan. Looking at Movies. 5th ed. New York: Norton, 2015. Print.

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Signet, 1965. Print.

Daniel, Douglass. Tough as Nails: The Life and Films of Richard Brooks. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 2011. Print.

DiMambro, Dina. True Hollywood Noir: Filmland Mysteries and Murders. Bangalore: Classichollywoodbios.com, 2013. Print.

Grobel, Lawrence. Conversations with Capote. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2012. Electronic.

"In Cold Blood." IMDb. IMDb.com, Inc., 2016. Web. 2 Feb. 2016. <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061809/>.

Prince, Stephen. Screening Violence. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 2000. Print.