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As part of its ongoing weekend matinee series on serial killers, Music Box is screening Richard Fleischer’s true-crime hit The Boston Strangler (1968), with the late Tony Curtis, in one of his best performances, playing Albert DeSalvo, who confessed to the murders of 13 women in the Boston area. My long review focuses mostly on these two men, but we shouldn’t forget Fleischer, who earlier had made the masterful film noir The Narrow Margin (1952). After seeing a huge triptych exhibit at the Expo ’67 in Montreal, Fleischer decided to tell the story of the citywide pursuit of the strangler with split-screen compositions, which were in vogue at the time but not to the extent Fleischer intended. With its seven- and eight-panel compositions, The Boston Strangler was hopelessly screwed in TV pan-and-scan broadcast; even a modern flat screen doesn’t really cut it—there’s just too much information onscreen—which is why this presentation by Music Box shouldn’t be missed.
