As a connoisseur of true crime television shows, I can definitively state that actual footage of under-cover busts, taped conversations, and interrogations are often the best part of any program. Enter The Interrogators, a new show on the Biography channel. Of course it's awesome and of course I love it.? There's an episode On-Demand if you're an NYC-area Time Warner customer, just search it out in the guide.?
TV Shows »The Interrogators
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Movies »Star 80
In 1980 Playboy model Dorothy Stratten was brutally murdered by her husband who then shot himself. It is the kind of tragic and salacious story that has spawned recreations in the true crime television genre of today, but surprisingly, it was Bob Fosse, fresh off his fame of All That Jazz that originally took up the story for a feature film called Star 80.
I'd seen the Muriel Hemingway VHS cover in video stores for years but, perhaps like you, had never heard so much about the film itself and wondered if that boded poorly for it. While it is not a pleasant movie, it's actually quite an ugly little story, I have to say i was surprised that it was such a good one.
A few dated directing techniques get in the way, but the very unglamorized story is well told and two phenomenal performances that really make the film worth watching. Hemingway is excellent as a very naive and sweet girl who is taken advantage by an insane man.
I don't know what it was that got Eric Roberts so off the fast track to stardom he was on (I'm going to guess drugs?) but it certainly wasn't a lack of talent that derailed him. Here he is complex, brutal, weak, scary, and pathetic all at once. It's a terrifying and realistic portrayal that even Hugh Hefner, friend of Dorothy's who was adamantly against the fictionalizing of her story praised the performance.
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Posted on July 27, 2009
TV Shows »FBI Files
While I'd love to give the folks over at FBI Files a full on series recommendation, I can only really recommend one episode (Deadly Paradise: season 1, episode 5), so memorable and great that it's been worked into my usual party conversations. Attempts to get as involved with other episodes have failed.
The one I speak of involves a remote island Pacific island in shark-infested waters, a thieving bad news dude with the name 'Buck' tattooed on his arm (though he denies that's his name) with an equally delinquent girlfriend, a pot growing scheme gone wrong, the cutting down of a coconut tree to get at the coconuts, shooting of fish with a handgun, and daring escapes in row boats and hiding in potted plants. Look for it!
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Posted on July 20, 2009
TV Shows »Female Forces
The Female Forces recommendation came from a not always totally reliable source; while our good friends have impeccable taste in many things, they're also the ones that can quote from the two part Real Housewives of New York City season finale. Still, a hilarious clip on The Soup involving chicken wings made the decision to record the realty show an easy one.
Set in Naperville, Illinois, the show follows the women of the shield as they chase down stray dogs, escort drunkies to the tank, stop speeders, and visit the dermatologist. They're a charming bunch, often speaking with Fargo-like accents that make them even more lovable. It's also nice that this show is not like Cops in that you walk away from it feeling like a voyeur with a roman emperor's lust for blood and a sinking feeling that humans are truly animals. In fact, for a reality cop show, this is fairly light hearted and even a bit cheerful.
It's not the easiest show to find, but look for it on the HD Crime and Investigation channel (that also airs Twin Peaks).
See more: TV Shows 2000s Reality True Crime
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Posted on June 8, 2009
TV Shows »A Most Mysterious Murder
Things that make me happy: dramatic recreations, century old mysteries, historic costumes, family scandals, melodrama, and wry wit – all of which can be found in the surprisingly little known true crime series, A Most Mysterious Murder. From a well-to-do woman with a shocking past and a newly dead husband, to an entire family poisoned by a possible mad man, these are the real life stories that gripped the world, inspired headlines and have fostered speculation for decades.
Julian Fellowes (author of the charming novel Snobs and adored screenwriter of Gosford Park) is the perfect host to these ghastly and salacious stories, wandering in and out of scenes with smirky quips and modern asides. So often the narrative tone of documentary shows negatively impacts the entire program, but in this case the narration is spot on.
Also satisfying are the plausible solutions to the murders that Fellowes presents. Even though the findings cannot be conclusively confirmed, it's always great to feel like a mystery has been solved. This is a perfect pairing with this week's book, The Suspicions of Mr. Wicher.
See more: TV Shows 2000s Historical True Crime
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Posted on May 18, 2009
Books »The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective
The Suspicions of Mr Wicher is a true crime tale centered on the real life mysterious murder of a young boy. Like the JonBenet Ramsey case of its time, the crime mesmerized and rocked the nation. It was speculated about in the media and everyone within the home's walls was a suspect.
Mr. Wicher was a fairly renowned detective at a time when detectives were a new concept, seen as part supernatural genius, part shaman or – when the tides of popular sentiment turned against them – as voyeuristic intruders into the highly guarded personal lives of respected society.
The book is most interesting when it handles the crime itself and the suspicions, not only of Mr. Wicher, but the townsfolk and media. It's a bit less engaging in the latter bits that detail what happened to all the players. One son grows up to be a famous botanist, etc… I guess I'm living proof that the salacious intrigue of the evil men do is always most compelling, just as it was when this murder took place.
Unlike the similar crime in Boulder, this one has a conclusion and a confession, which is led up to with some suspense by Summerscale, whose short resume also includes a biography of an eccentric world-class speedboat racer and heiress (The Queen of Whale Cay).
This book is a perfect pair to this week's TV show, A Most Mysterious Murder.
See more: Books 2000s Historical Pre 1900 True Crime
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Posted on May 18, 2009
Movies »To Die For
Sometimes a rainy Sunday is perfect for revisiting favorite movies, and Gus Van Sant's black comedic true crime satire, To Die For is definitely a favorite of mine. The cast is at their peak. Matt Dillon is radiantly slovenly and Nicole Kidman still looks like a blooming real human being and, in a career of very few bright spots performance-wise, she's brutally excellent as a psychopath. She is the blond, perfectly coiffed personification of a certain fame seeking, ambitious, and broken part of our culture. Ileana Douglas also shines and look out for cameos by David Cronenberg and the films screenwriter, Buck Henry.
While the film satirizes the searing ambition that can lead people to kill, and points out our insatiable lust for the torrid tabloid tales that follow, it's also one of the best examples of true crime entertainment. Any fan of Joaquin Phoenix would also agree that it's one of the steamiest as well. (Which is a little creepy considering the story's of a teenager seduced into murder by a grown woman.)
Here, as the seduced teenage burnout, Phoenix is pretty much the embodiment of my teenage desires: he's off-kilteredly handsome, blindly lustful, denim and leather dirty, very dumb and a little bit sad. One can't help but feel a pang of sympathy for the kid as he sits in a junk yard looking off in the distance, walleyed and slack jawed and calls his polka dot and manicured mistress “clean” with longing.
The film is based on the novel To Die For, which was itself inspired by the true, sordid, tabloid sensation crime of one Pam Smart. Also a call in show called Metal Madness), Pamela also seduced a boy (Billy Flynn) and convinced he and his friends to kill her husband. She is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole and Flynn, having served more of his life in prison that outside, recently asked for (and was denied) a reduced sentence.