Compulsion (1959) on Netflix
Approved19591h 43mBiographyCrimeDrama
Judd Steiner and Artie Straus, law students who believe Nietzsche's superman places them above the law, follow Artie's commands until Judd proposes killing a boy and collecting a ransom.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.4/108,718 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
At the University of Chicago, Judd Steiner and Artie Straus are graduate law students under twenty and close friends from wealthy, prominent families. Both believe Nietzsche's superman stands above the law. Judd defers to Artie and obeys his commands, among them the theft of sixty-seven dollars and a typewriter from a fraternity house on campus. Artie orders Judd to drive over a drunk hitchhiker; Judd balks. Judd then proposes that they prove their superiority by killing a boy and collecting a ransom.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Compulsion (1959)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Orson Welles was bitter at not being selected to direct Compulsion, and his time on the set was tense: he threw frequent tantrums.
- Orson Welles never talked to the other actors on Compulsion and never discussed the plot or the script; he was the last person called on the set.
- Nathan Leopold tried unsuccessfully in 1959 to block the film's production, claiming Meyer Levin's book had invaded his privacy, defamed him and profited from his life story. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled against him, finding that Leopold, the confessed perpetrator of the "crime of the century", could not show the book had damaged his reputation.
- Meyer Levin visited Nathan Leopold in prison in the early 1950s and asked him to help write a novel about the murder, which Leopold refused because he did not want his story fictionalized. Levin wrote the novel, Compulsion, anyway and released it in 1956.
