Compulsion

Compulsion, motion picture based on a book by Meyer Levin about Leopold and Loeb, two wealthy intellectual students who murder a young boy because they can. Released in 1959, this film won the award at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Actor, shared by Dean Stockwell, Orson Welles, and Bradford Dillman. In 1924 Chicago, two self-proclaimed aesthetes talk themselves into believing they are superior to others and that it is their duty to act on every impluse, including murder.

Director

• Richard Fleischer

Cast

• Orson Welles (Jonathan Wilk)
• Diane Varsi (Ruth Evans)
• Dean Stockwell (Judd Steiner)
• Bradford Dillman (Artie Straus)
• E. G. Marshall (Horn)
• Martin Milner (Sid)
• Richard Anderson (Max)
• Robert F. Simon (Lieutenant Johnson)
• Edward Binns (Tom Daly)
• Robert Burton (Mr. Straus)
• Louise Lorimer (Mrs. Straus)
• Wilton Graff (Mr. Steiner)
• Gavin MacLeod (Padua)
• Terry Becker (Benson)
• Russ Bender (Edgar Llewellyn)
• Gerry Lock (Emma)
• Harry Carter (Detective)
• Simon Scott (Detective)
• Voltaire Perkins (Judge)

Awards

• Cannes Film Festival Best Actor (1959): Dean Stockwell, Orson Welles, Bradford Dillman (shared)