In the Spring of 1924, two wealthy, talented University of Chicago students named Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb murdered a 14 year old boy by striking him over the head with a chisel. Their motive was straightforward yet baffling: they wanted to commit the “perfect crime” and get away with it. Trial attorney Clarence Darrow (well-known at the time for being against the death penalty) was hired as defense counsel and the subsequent trial became a media sensation. To the public’s surprise, Darrow advised the teenagers to plead guilty and then successfully argued to reduce their sentences to life in prison.
In the years since, the Leopold and Loeb trial has inspired countless books, plays, television shows, and movies. The psychological make-up of the teenagers, the intense relationship between the two, and the trial itself, have remained fascinating subjects for dramatization. In this installment of A Law Librarian in the Dark, I will take a brief look at two very different movies that were inspired by this notorious murder.
Compulsion is a 1959 film based on a novel of the same name. The movie concerns two teenagers named Judd and Art who engage each other in an intense friendship. Judd is a sensitive, brooding teenager who is obsessed with Nietzchean philosophy. He adores the charismatic, yet sadistic Artie who in turn bullies and teases him, yet takes pleasure in his company. Together, they follow through on a plan to murder a young boy and collect ransom from his family. They are caught when Judd’s glasses are found at the scene of the crime. Trial lawyer Jonathan Wilke (played by Orson Welles) is hired to defend the teenagers.
Although Compulsion is a work of fiction that does not use their names, many of the facts from the Leopold and Loeb story are present in the film, including the ransom note sent by the boys and the glasses found at the murder scene. In fact, while in prison, Leopold sued the book publisher and the movie production company for invasion of privacy.
The first half of the film emphasizes the psychologies of Judd (Leopold) and Artie (Loeb). It presents their friendship as pathological and depicts Artie as having a hypnotic sway over Judd. The crime is seen against this psychological context. The second half of the film focuses on lawyer Jonathan Wilke (Clarence Darrow). Played by Orson Welles, Wilke’s (Darrow’s) oratorical and lawyering skills are highlighted (some of the passages from the script were taken verbatim from the trial transcript). Through a series of courtroom scenes, Orson Welles brings Darrow’s passionate speeches to life on the screen. Compulsion is moving drama that looks at psychology in both the criminal and the courtroom aspects of the story.
Released in 1991, Swoon takes a more recent look at the Leopold and Loeb murder. Unlike Compulsion, Swoon uses the real names of the killers and imagines their story beginning with the period before the crime and ending in prison. Swoon is a black and white film that tends to be more stylized and less realistic than previous representations of the story. It presents us with bold, painterly images of the teenagers and of 1920’s Chicago and uses non-linear storytelling and visual metaphors. For example, a bed containing the two teenagers appears in the courtroom while a lawyer describes their relationship.
Swoon is especially different from Compulsion in its use of explicit romantic and sexual imagery. A few minutes into the film Leopold and Loeb are shown exchanging wedding rings in secret. Here, Leopold and Loeb are lovers in a blatantly homophobic society. Swoon does not, however, excuse the killers from the crime. Nor does it give an easy answer as to the motivation or psychology of the killers. Instead, it asks us to see Leopold and Loeb as a romantic couple and only then to contemplate their crime.
The Compulsion DVD was released in 2006 by 20th Century Fox. The Swoon DVD was released in 2004 by Strand Releasing.