In Cold Blood Makes For An Appropriately Unsettling Adaptation of Truman Capote's Iconic Novel

If a book turns out to be a bestseller, well, usually that means a film adaptation of it can't be far behind. This means that Truman Capote's iconic 1966 tome In Cold Blood was always headed for a silver screen adaptation, though it's hard to imagine a proper feature film adaptation being possible if the Hayes Code hadn't been abolished in 1964. The Code's restrictions placed on violence and grisly material would ensure that this intentionally disturbing piece of literature would lose much of its sting in being translated to a cinematic format. Luckily, In Cold Blood was one of a number of late 1960s American features using newfound creative freedom to create distinctive and dark pieces of cinema that would be influential for years to come.


The movie version of In Cold Blood begins with Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickok (Scott Wilson) teaming up for a job that Hickcok is convinced will lead them to easy riches. One of Hickok's former cellmates talked about how the Clutter family have a safe full of money in their house that he and Smith can steal with ease. As we're introduced to Smith and Hickok, we also get scenes depicting the normal home life of the Clutter family, totally oblivious to the horrors awaiting them. Editor Peter Zinner brilliantly uses shot and scene transition to connect these two disparate storylines. If Herbert Clutter (John McLiam) is splashing some water on his face, the next shot will be Smith washing some water off his face.

This subtle editing technique creates a sense of unity between this pair of parties who collide on one fateful night in a grisly encounter that leaves the Clutter family brutally murdered. We're not privy to seeing until one of the final scenes of In Cold Blood, for most of the movie this act of extensive violence is left to the imagination. Much of the story instead focuses on Smith and Hickok on the lamb as well as Kansas law enforcement trying to find the people responsible for murdering the Cuttler family. Much like fellow 1960s American cinema trailblazer, Midnight Cowboy, In Cold Blood also has a tendency to jump back and forth between scenes set in reality and scenes set inside the mind of one of its lead characters, in this case, Perry Smith.

Smith's mind is a jumble of images of a prospective future (one where he's a famous singer) and especially of an unsettling past consisting of him witnessing his father engaging in violent behavior against his mother. Writer/director Richard Brooks lends an appropriately eerie quality to even the rare instances of hopeful visions inside Smith's head in a clear attempt to depict just how detached this guy has become from reality. A similarly chilling quality is felt throughout even the most muted moments of In Cold Blood, including in the sole time Smith's abusive father (played by Charles McGraw) shows up in a real-world sequence, which sees him being interviewed by police officers about his son's whereabouts.

Even in an older state just talking casually to a pair of cops, Smith's father comes off as an unsettling presence thanks to both the performance by Charles McGraw and the subtly impressive direction of Richard Brooks, the latter individual constantly finding ways to create a terrifying atmosphere even while keeping grisly violence mostly off-screen. Brooks ability to wring unease through subtle means, like camera placement or staging of actors in a shot, works immensely well for In Cold Blood, particularly in how it fits as an extension of how the most dangerous characters in In Cold Blood tend to convey their menacing nature in subtle ways on an everyday basis.

Few of the most grisly people in In Cold Blood fit the typical profile of a serial killer, with even a murderous cellmate of Smith and Hickcok being given the nickname "The Nicest Boy In All of Wilcott" due to him having been so non-threatening prior to his vicious crimes. A story about criminals whose cruel nature manifests in subtle ways, like the various sequences set inside Smith's mind, deserves a filmmaking approach that creates unease through similarly subdued means and In Cold Blood delivers on that and then some. The engrossing feature maintains a subdued blood-curdling atmosphere that you can't turn away from, especially after its final haunting shot that ends the whole proceedings on an appropriately somber note.