American Cinematographer - December 2004 - 22

the

new

Magnum Dolly
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The final half hour of the film
merges the two psychologies presented
in the film
Bottomly's rationality and
DeSalvo's confused pathology -
inside a barren interrogation room.
Working on a perfectly shadowless set
(built from white muslin) that could be
scape.

Kline's career, see ASC
page

On

-

Close-Up

on

128.)
ghoulish note, the docu¬
DeSalvo was flat¬
enough by the film to send hand¬
a

mentary reveals that
tered

made leather wallets to Fleischer and

Zanuck

-

but not Curtis.

lit from the outside, the filmmakers

didn't like the way

cannily exploit reflections in the room's
two-way mirror to suggest DeSalvo's
split personality.
Among the supplements on this
bargain-priced DVD are a teaser, a
trailer and a brief Fox Movietone period

shrugs the actor.

"Maybe he
I played the part,"
-

Chris Pizzello

newsreel from the time of the Boston

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Strangler killings. (The latter is in such
bad shape that parts of it are presented
without sound.) The main supplement is
the 20-minute American Movie Classics

featurette

"Backstory: The Boston
Strangler." The film probably deserves a
documentary with a little more depth,
but the AMC special offers some good
observations from the principals,
including Kline, Fleischer, Curtis and

Murder on the Orient

Express (1974)
1.85:1 (16x9 Enhanced)
Dolby Digital 5.1

Zanuck. Fleischer reveals that the idea

Paramount Plome

for the film's

Entertainment, $14.99

split-screen strategy came

from the 1967 Montreal World's Fair: "I
saw

these wonderful

new

big-screen

pictures that were using multi-image
work

on

the

screen.

It struck

me

imme¬

diately as a way to handle The Boston
Strangler, to show on the screen a city
in panic." The device also works effec¬
tively as a metaphor for DeSalvo's frac¬
tured mind
and as a way to keep the
viewer on edge. Kline notes, "Generally
in photography, you make the eye go to
something, and with this technique, the
eye almost always [goes] to the new
panel that [comes] on the screen. But at
the same time, the retina or your brain
[retains] what the other panels had
established, so you [see] the whole
puzzle being put together in one frame."
The cinematographer also comments
on the technique's logistical complica¬
-

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wet location shots
would be a whole
lot easier if you'd

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tions: "We would make
into the

camera so

a

matte that fit

that we could

photo¬

graph just that portion. If there were
five panels in a given frame, we would
have to do five different shoots and five

different scenes; at times we'd use two
or

three different cameras to

nize [them]."

(For

more

synchro¬
details about

In 1935, eccentric

Belgian sleuth

FHercule Poirot (Albert Finney) boards
the plush Orient Express to return to

England to solve

a case,

but

a snow¬

keep him from
stepping off the luxury train. Sidney
Lumet's glossy and entertaining adap¬
tation of Agatha Christie's classic
mystery Murder on the Orient Express
posits Poirot as chief inspector of the
murder of Mr. Ratchett (Richard
Widmark), who is revealed as a ruth¬
less kidnapper who was murdered
while hiding under an assumed name.
When the travelers are trapped
in a heavy snow, the opulent Orient
Express becomes a holding tank for the
passengers, who reluctantly submit to
questioning by Poirot. Statements
unfold, motives appear, links are
formed and suspects rise to the surface
as the glamorous passengers (played
with verve and aplomb by Lauren
storm and a murder

Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Michael York,
Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery,
Vanessa Redgrave, John Gielgud and
other luminaries) are cornered, and the
American Cinematographer - December 2004

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