Compulsion [Blu-ray]

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award for all three of its stars (Stockwell, Dillman and Welles), Richard Fleischer's stylish and compelling thriller sees two law students murder a young boy in cold blood to prove their intellectual superiority. Sadistic bully Artie Straus (Bradford Dillman) and timid introvert Judd Steiner (Dean Stockwell) commit the 'perfect crime', but their arrogance leads to their arrest. Loosely based on the notorious 1924 murder trial of thrill-killers Leopold and Loeb, this outstanding film also features cinema legend Orson Welles as the criminal defence lawyer who takes on their case.

Special Features

High Definition transfer

Richard Fleischer Guardian Interview (1981, 93 mins, audio only): the great director discussed his career after a screening of Compulsion

Richard Fleischer Guardian Interview (1994, 77 mins): Fleischer returns to the NFT for this filmed interview

Orson Welles in the Courtroom Scene from Compulsion (1959): reproduction of the original 7" vinyl recording

Original theatrical trailer