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In Cold Blood (1967)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 8.3/10
Reviews Counted: 25
Fresh: 22 | Rotten: 3

No consensus yet.

Average Rating: 7.8/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 1

No consensus yet.

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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 7,808

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Movie Info

Richard Brooks wrote and directed this stark black-and-white (with brilliantly evocative cinematography by Conrad Hall) study of two drifters who murder a family, based on Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. The film takes place in Holcomb, Kansas, where four members of the Herbert Clutter family are roused from their sleep and brutally murdered. The killers, Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson), are two ex-cons who plan to rob the Clutters of $10,000 kept in a

R, 2 hr. 14 min.

Drama

Directed By: Richard Brooks I

Written By: Richard Brooks

In Theaters: Dec 14, 1967 Wide

On DVD: Sep 23, 2003

Columbia Pictures

In Cold Blood Trailer & Photos

Cast

Robert Blake
Perry Smith
Scott Wilson
Dick Hickok
John Forsythe
Alvin Dewey
Paul Stewart
Reporter Jenson
Gerald S. O'Loughlin
Harold Nye
Jeff Corey
Hickock's Father
John Gallaudet
Roy Church
James Flavin
Clarence Duntz
Charles McGraw
Mr. Smith
James Lantz
Officer Rohleder
John McLiam
Herbert Clutter
Ruth Storey
Bonnie Clutter
Vaughan Taylor
"Good Samaritan"
Duke Hobbie
Young Reporter
Sheldon Allman
Rev. Post
Ted Eccles
Young Hitchhiker
Raymond Hatton
Old Hitchhiker
Mary-Linda Rapelye
Susan Kidwell
Ronda Fultz
Nancy's Friend
Al Christy
Sheriff
Stan Levitt
Insurance Man
Brenda Currin
Nancy Clutter
Will Geer
Prosecuting Attorney

Critic Reviews for In Cold Blood

All Critics (27) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (3) | DVD (13)

A probing, sensitive, tasteful, balanced and suspenseful documentary-drama.

April 8, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

| Comment

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

Hall's bleak vision, his gift for working with darkness and rain, rivals classic film noir of the 1940s and '50s in its visual mastery.

March 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times

| Comment

Kenneth Turan

Los Angeles Times

Top Critic

Excellent quasidocumentary, which sends shivers down the spine while moving the viewer to ponder.

May 20, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times

| Comment

Bosley Crowther

New York Times

Top Critic

Brooks' great achievement in the film is to portray Smith and Hickock as the unexceptional, dim-witted, morally adrift losers they were.

June 18, 2002 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

An uneasy mixture of facile Freudianism and 40s expressionism.

January 1, 2000 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Don Druker

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Highlight of New American Cinema: Richard Brooks' superb, Oscar-nominated film is a chillingly effective version of Truman Capote's pioneering and influential novel.

April 24, 2012 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

| Comment

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

One of the most creditable true-crime films ever made. [Blu-ray]

February 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews

| Comment

Peter Canavese

Groucho Reviews Source: Groucho Reviews

Exquisitely photographed in wide-screen black-and-white by Conrad Hall.

April 8, 2008 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide

| Comment

TV Guide's Movie Guide

Troubling tabloid headline story that already got the full art treatment from Capote.

February 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

...worth catching both for its inherent qualities and as a snapshot of Hollywood in transition.

March 9, 2006 Comment

Andy Klein

Los Angeles CityBeat Source: Los Angeles CityBeat

In contrast to Capote, whose obsessive documentation of the pair's every act betrays his fear than he (and his readers) could well do something similar, Brooks explains and sympathises away their act as being unique to them.

February 9, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

| Comment

Time Out

A sociological crime drama that plays like a noose tightening around all our necks.

December 31, 2005 Full Review Source: Boston Herald

| Comment

James Verniere

Boston Herald

Adapta��o impec�vel do cl�ssico de Capote, � um filme psicologicamente denso, soberbamente montado e dirigido e que traz Blake e Wilson em atua��es inesquec�veis.

November 5, 2005 Comment

Pablo Villaca

Cinema em Cena

This movie is so good I moved to Kansas!

January 8, 2005 Comment

Michael A. Smith

Nolan's Pop Culture Review Source: Nolan's Pop Culture Review

Severely overrated and terribly long.

July 25, 2004 Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com

| Comments (2)

Christopher Null

Filmcritic.com

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for In Cold Blood

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A stark, realistic portrayal of cold-blooded violence taking over a couple of young mens' senses, and how they go on the run from the police trying to track them down after brutally murdering the family of four they originally planned to rob and leave. Based on true events, director Richard Brooks patiently and

April 4, 2012

Dan Schultz

Super Reviewer

In the last second of that film, I actually out loud exclaimed "Jesus" in my reaction to it. A little history now. When I was very small I saw the murder part of "Cold Blooded" on TV. A modern edition of the same story. And it scarred me horrifically.When I was older and understood the whole thing better, and watched

December 29, 2010

Jennifer D

Super Reviewer

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