The Todd Killings

Director Barry Shear here delivers a truly unique and mesmerizing but also sadly unknown and unloved character study about one of the US' most unfathomable serial killers. The film revolves on the mid-60's Arizonian killer Charles Schmid Jr; nicknamed The Pied Piper of Tucson. Schmid was more or less like a crossbreed between Ted Bundy and Charles Manson. Similar to Ted Bundy because he was a good looking, charismatic and eloquent local boy who didn't have the slightest problem luring naive young girls (hence the nickname) and similar to Charles Manson because of the boundary-free hippie setting and because Schmid also had a great influence on his docile friends and involved them in his murderous schemes. Maybe I'm slightly biased, because I'm a big sucker for horror/thriller movies that are based on real-life serial killer cases, but "The Todd Killings" is a genuinely astounding film from many versatile viewpoints. Although the names of the characters were changed to protect the victims (and the guilty!), the script remains very true to the facts as they occurred. It's also a brutally honest film in terms of period setting and atmosphere. "The Todd Killings" shockingly illustrates that the mid-60's weren't all about peace and free love. The clichéd American Dream image of handsome teenagers with all the required capacities to succeed in life gets totally shattered here, because they merely just think about taking LSD and having sex. Robert F. Lyons gives a stunning performance as the unhinged killer protagonist Skipper Todd. He hates and mocks elderly folks, toys around with all the local high school girls that pitiably twirl around him and spends most of his days parading around in shorts at the swimming pool. Skipper eventually falls in love with a sincere girl (the stunningly ravishing Belinda Montgomery) but can't deal with the fact that she disapproves his derailed life-style. "The Todd Killings" is very raw and depressing, with sober cinematography and downbeat set pieces. The film is extremely low budget and doesn't contain a single moment of bloody violence, but the nihilistic ambiance is nevertheless horrifying and the (admittedly gratuitous) sequences of underage nudity form unpleasant confrontations with the wayward world of the 60's. One year after this, Barry Shear directed his most famous film; the stupendous Blaxploitation themed cop-thriller "Across 110th Street". They are two completely different movies proving Shear was a very gifted but sadly underrated filmmaker.

This film is said to be based loosely on the case of serial killer Charles Schmid. Schmid was born in Tucson, Arizona; Skipper is a native of the imaginary town of Darlington in the same state. He is only 23 but the oldest of his peers, preferring to hang around with high school kids. He is handsome and charismatic; the guys like him and the girls flock to him, he beds the latter freely but admits to a detective that he is bisexual. He drives a sports car but has no job, prefering to leech off his mother who runs a retirement home.

The film begins with the aftermath of a thrill kill, Skipper and his two co-conspirators burying a girl's body in the desert; it is told partially in flashback. It remains to be seen if he would have been content with the one murder - which he committed to see "what it feels like", but because three people can keep a secret only if two of them are dead, the truth soon leaks out, and he ends up committing two more, this time by himself.

It is difficult to classify this film, psychological thriller perhaps, or maybe catharsis.

Very cool 1970 character study of a pseudo-hippy turned serial killer. From the first 5 minutes, you know you're in for a treat. Barry Shear directs with real vigor, favoring tight close-ups and odd angles. There are many nice touches, particularly the swimming pool scene and the amazing opener. Robert F. Lyons gives a very funny, realistic performance as Skipper Todd; the big-fish-in-a-small-pond woman(girl!)izing hipster who is really the ultimate misanthrope. The scenes with his liberal, 'understanding' mother (who even unknowingly defends him against the mother of a girl he murdered!) are especially poignant. The movie is rife with political commentary also, for instance when Skipper's lawyer suggests he blame his killing spree on LSD and the fact that the kids in town still idolize him after he's found out. It features a tremendous script and great supporting roles from Barbara Bel Geddes(Vertigo), Gloria Grahame (The Big Heat) and a bit part from Michael Conrad (Un Flic, Hill Street Blues). Recommended.

If you are a fan of the film look of RACE WITH THE DEVIL check out this fantastic obscurity that has sadly been forgotten also. I wont give too much away but this was based upon a true story of a young hood who influences his peers and is totally nihilistic and misanthropic. Fans of THE RIVERS EDGE should not pass up the chance to see this equally controversial and powerful film. Sure the budget limitations show but the film still evokes a gut punch. Quite sleazy and creepy this was directed by Barry Shear who also directed the fantastic ACROSS 110TH STREET. Seek out this great "bleaker" and if you enjoy it, tell all your friends.I put it in the same depressive bin as TAXI DRIVER, COMBAT SHOCK, CLOCKWORK ORANGE and GOD'S LONELY MAN...just a earlier shoestring TV movie version. I loved it.

Fictionalized portrait of real-life sociopath and killer Charles Schmid from Arizona (called Skipper Todd here, nicknamed "The Pied Piper of Tucson"), a 23-year-old dropout from reality who easily enchanted all the bored, feckless teenagers hanging out at the local high school and community swimming pool. Robert F. Lyons is quite persuasive as Todd, a seductive charmer who lives off his mother (Barbara Bel Geddes), who enables his freeloader lifestyle. Todd enjoys playing big brother and lover to the misfit kids in his stifling suburb (it feeds his ego) and, after killing a girl because he "had nothing else to do," he has no trouble getting a few of the teens to help cover up his crime. Richard Thomas is somewhat miscast as a hitchhiker Lyons takes under his wing (Thomas is intrinsically too bright to play this antisocial rube), but the supporting cast is excellent, particularly Bel Geddes, Gloria Grahame as Thomas' mother, Belinda Montgomery, Edward Asner, James Broderick, Holly Near and Michael Conrad. It's a technically assured picture, but one which is ultimately uneasy as a dramatic entertainment. Was it intended as a warning film? Rather, it's an exercise in glamorously dangerous narcissism: the disaffected youth too cool for society. ** from ****