The Strangler Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson June 28, 2023

If you're a fan of 1960s TV shows, you may know Victor Buono primarily as the occasional guest villain King Tut in the Batman series. (Buono gave a bravura, over-the-top performance in the ten episodes that he appeared.) Buono was also an accomplished character actor on the big screen. His supporting role in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962) earned him his first and only Oscar nomination. He would reunite with Bette Davis two years later in Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1964). Earlier that year, Buono appeared in what was essentially the only starring role of his career. In The Strangler, he plays Leo Kroll, a hospital laboratory technician by day and strangler of women by night. In an exhibitor manual prepared by Allied Artists Pictures for The Strangler that I found, it was written that producers Samuel Bischoff and David Diamond spent a lot of time examining police files in Boston where 11 strangulations had been committed in 20 months. To prepare for his role, Buono conducted psychiatric research on paranoid schizophrenics with split personalities. The manual quotes what Buono learned: “Habitually sane conduct in pub­lic can be a mark of the paranoid schizophrenic, a pose always carefully assumed by such a person when he knows he may be observed, because he real­izes that any peculiarity which calls attention to him may be his un­doing.”

In a recently recorded audio commentary on this disc, film historian David Del Valle says he found 12-13 letters in the Margaret Herrick Library that Allied Pictures and the Production Code Administration (PCA) exchanged concerning what could and could not be shown in the strangulation scenes. Del Valle gleaned from his reading that the PCA succeeded in truncating those scenes, which were longer as originally envisioned. This is why in the finished film, Kroll wraps a nylon stocking around his female victims for a pretty short duration. Ordinarily, it would seem that a normal person would be able to survive a brief choke hold before asphyxiating. So the way Kroll's victims drop isn't fully convincing, even if he's a strong man (which he is).

The Strangler is a variation on the mother/son complex seen in Psycho (1960) and other films of the period. Leo's mother, Mrs. Kroll (Ellen Corby), lives in a sanatorium and complains that her son doesn't visit her often enough. An invalid with all her faculties, Mrs. Kroll is a chronic whiner who Leo wishes would be dead. Leo gains some sympathy from the audience because mother chides her son as too fat and unattractive for a woman to love him. Leo is also jealous of his mom's nurse, Clara Thomas (Jeanne Bates), because it is she who saves Mrs. Kroll's life one day. It also seems that Mrs. Kroll gives her nurse the affection and appreciation that Leo wishes she could have given him since childhood.

The eyes of evil.

The Strangler is also a lean and efficient police procedural drama with three men leading the investigation into the strangler's murders: Police Lt. Frank Benson (David McLean), Sergeant Mack Clyde (Baynes Barron), and Detective Posner (Michael Ryan). It's a rather slow burn because the police don't have any direct evidence linking Kroll to the killings. Moreover, polygraph equipment was too primitive in those days to detect deception. The polygraph doesn't seem to worry Kroll in the film.

Director Burt Topper gradually builds up suspense and tension for later scenes at the Odeon Fun Palace where Kroll frequents. There, the strangler enjoys going to the Toss-a-Ring booth to chat with the flirty Barabara Wells (Diane Sayer) and more serious Tally Raymond (Davey Davison). If he wins the ring-toss game, Kroll receives Kewpie dolls, which he brings to his planned murder venues. They are symbols of his lost childhood.

The Strangler received sporadic distribution across the US where it received lukewarm reviews. The picture played at the Massachusetts-based Center Theater and many other Greater Boston and neighborhood theaters. The Boston Globe's Marjorie Adams described Buono's character as "so psychotic a whole library of books could be written about his complexes." Adams didn't think it offered much value and relevance to the town's then-current murder manhunt: “The Strangler does very little about giving ideas how to solve the case of Boston's notorious strangler. As a film entertainment it is moderately gripping routine horror, with overtones of psychiatry." Across the coast, Jeanne Miller of the San Francisco Examiner had the opposite reaction (and keep in mind this was four years before the Zodiac Killer): "The local police might be especially interested in the protagonist of The Strangler, a thriller that opened yesterday at the Golden Gate, because his murder­ous activities closely paral­lel in modus operandi the recent rash of unsolved kill­ings here." The picture received a few other props from critics. Wanda Hale of the Daily (NY) News awarded it three out of four stars in her review, which she headlined with "Effective Chiller". In a mostly unfavorable critique of the film, the Miami Herald's Geourge Bourke lauded Davey Davison for a "standout performance."

Note: David Del Valle wondered in his commentary track which other movie(s) The Strangler was paired with on double bills. In the US, it was shown back-to-back with the possibly lost film The Secret Door. It also was booked in the States with Violent Summer (Estate violenta, 1959), co-starring Jean-Louis Trintignant. I also found an advert in a Pennsylvania newspaper, which listed the Merrie Melodies animated short To Beep or Not to Beep apparently playing after The Strangler. In the UK, The Strangler played second on a double bill with King and Country. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) gave The Strangler a Certificate X, which meant those under the age of 16 couldn't enter to see it.

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Strangler receives its global debut on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory. Scream employs the MPEG-4 AVC encode on a disc that uses 25.6 GB. The picture appears in its native ratio of 1.85:1. Scream touts that the transfer derives from a new 2K scan of the interpositive. I don't own the 2015 DVD issued by the Warner Archive Collection but reviews I've seen suggest that the master used was in excellent condition. Scream's transfer is very clean and crisp with grain evenly distributed across the frame. Black levels are deep without any crush. The grayscale is wonderful. There is only tiny debris that seldom pops up. There are only two compositions (Screenshot #s 19-20) where the image quality doesn't match the clarity with the rest of the film. In these two shots, grain is thicker and contrast isn't at the same level. From the elements that Warner and later Scream had to work with, that's likely how they appeared. It's possible that this interpositive could be a composite of different extant film materials. Scream has encoded the feature at a mean video bitrate of 34 Mbps, with an overall bitrate of 39.8 Mbps. My video score is 4.75/5.00.

Twelve chapters accompany the 89-minute movie.

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Scream has supplied a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono mix (1802 kbps, 24-bit). The lossless track must also have derived from a very good master as it sounds clear and distinct. I didn't hear any audio anomalies. Delivery is generally excellent. Composer Marlin Skiles crafted a solid score suitable for this crime drama.

Yellow English SDH appear when selected from the menu or activated via remote.

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary With Film Historian David Del Valle and Filmmaker David DeCoteau - this feature-length track is dominated by Del Valle, who offers a wealth of nuggets about The Strangler's production, Victor Buono, and the facts of the Boston Strangler case. His friend David DeCoteau acts as a semi-moderator, asking Del Valle questions and commenting on occasion. DeCoteau was audibly battling a bad cold when this track was recorded. (I could even hear him eating!) Del Valle definitely did the legwork and it shows here. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (2:16, 1080p) - this is the regular production trailer for The Strangler. The image has been restored and looks pretty crisp. While it comes with a DTS-HD MA 2.0 Mono track, the audio hasn't been restored as it sounds scratchy. According to the exhibitor's manual for the film, the Allied Artists Exploitation Department also made a teaser trailer, radio spots (narrated by George Macready), and TV trailers for The Strangler. None of those appear on this disc.

The Strangler Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Victor Buono delivers one of his very finest performances in a role that he apparently despised, as David Del Valle states in the commentary track. Buono does a great job of conveying Leo Kroll's body language through his general disposition, eye movements, twitches, and tears. I am higher on this film than Del Valle and DeCoteau are. It may be too tame for even early 1960s standards but it's a highly watchable police procedural thriller with decent production values for a "B" picture. Scream Factory's transfer is absolutely wonderful. If you're a fan of The Strangler, then Del Valle's commentary is a must listen. A VERY SOLID RECOMMENDATION.