Todesschreie

...because this film was made early enough that watchable VHS copies do not exist, and apparently it was a ratings failure and had negative ratings reaction for a reason I didn't even know - that it was knowingly capitalizing on a real case in New York City from eleven years before - the Kitty Genovese case - where a woman is killed in the street outside of her apartment and despite her screams nobody comes to help. I didn't know about this case, being in kindergarten when the crime occurred in another part of the country, so I simply judged the movie on its own merits.

The film does open with exactly what happened to Kitty Genovese happening to a young woman walking home one night. She is killed in the street, and although many people hear her screams nobody comes to help. Only Nancy Walker's character calls the police. And she is ID'd by investigating detective Nick Rodriguez (Raul Julia) because she uses the word "reside", and this is unusual. He takes the investigation from there.

It was rather ground breaking in that it had a Hispanic detective in charge of the investigation, and not everybody in the cast is a who's who of 70s TV and movies. Raul Julia, the lead character, was not that well known at the time. And Nick Braeden, who is way down the list of billing, is now famous as being the lead for years on the soap opera "Young and the Restless".

The scene I remember most? Julia's character is coming home from a hard day of looking into this seemingly random killing, and he is unnerved by seeing his apartment front door ajar. He runs panicked into the apartment, calling his daughter's name, and is relieved to find that she is fine and there is not a nefarious reason for the door being open. He then gives her a stern warning about closing and locking the door. The age of innocence is over. This case has brought home to him that in the big city people will kill for apparently no reason, and that you should not expect anybody - even your neighbors - to intercede.

I remember it being a tense two hour journey and would recommend it if you can ever find a copy.

Very good mid-70s made-for-TV film. Partly based on an actual mid-60s murder that took place in the middle of the night in the Kew Gardens / Forest Hills area of Queens. What made the case notorious was that a great many neighbors heard and may have even seen some of the attack and DID NOTHING. Either from fear, apathy, or not wanting to get involved in the police investigation. None of us should get too outraged or superior because we all could behave the same way. Hopefully not. The film deals with this aspect of the story for the first half of the film and then drifts away from it and becomes a typical police hunt tale. Fine performances from all but the standouts are Raul Julia as the lead investigating cop, Art Carney, Tina Louise and Nancy Walker. A lot of other mainly TV actors are also part of the cast. Story is based in Brooklyn, not Queens. The shabby apartment buildings and the individual flats are typical of the 70s but kind of depressing. The opening credits list the title of the film as Street Kill. The four stars are for the excellent film but a mediocre DVD. Needs to be released re-mastered. Other than that highly recommended.

A murder is committed in front of witnesses and none would lift a hand to help the victim. Fearful of becoming involved, they would give no assistance to the police in their investigation. Although the authorities launched a large manhunt for the criminal, he continued his crime spree terrorizing the entire neighborhood. Good police drama with an exciting but somewhat unbelievable ending.

This film was one of the typical seventies crisis-of-the-week type dramas. However, I have always suspected it was at least loosely based on the infamous murder of Catherine (Kitty) Genovese, which occurred in March 1964 in Queens, New York. Ms. Genovese was murdered in an almost identical fashion to the victim in this film -- attacked in the courtyard of her apartment building in Kew Gardens, screaming in vain for help while "thirty-eight witnesses" ignored her. Since this movie was filmed a scant decade or so after the actual case, perhaps there hadn't been sufficient time for reflection on the proper way to tell the story for the ages; perhaps Ms. Genovese's family refused to allow any association; or perhaps the filmmakers were just looking for a quick buck.

What they did to "spice up" the story was to add into the plotline the fact that the murder victim, "Jenny," was a lesbian; that her former girlfriend (played by Tina Louise -- imagine "the movie star" chasing Mary Ann all over Gilligan's island with perverse intentions! say it ain't so! LOL) has a history of violent and threatening behavior; and that among the neighbors who heard Jenny's dying screams are an immigrant couple from an unspecified Eastern European country who fear deportation; a sleazy housewife played by Cloris Leachman who is carrying on an affair behind her husband's back; and a married couple with Nancy Walker playing the wife, apparently having gotten lost on the way to the Bounty commercial shoot. Also look for a very young Helen Hunt, playing hotshot detective Raul Julia's daughter.

It was the seventies; what can I say?

This film was very loosely based on the Kitty Genovese case in which a young woman was murdered in front of several people and none of them bothered to call the police. The beginning is pretty interesting as the police go from door to door to try to find out what happened from the various residents of the neighborhood where the killing happened (many of whom were appearing on various television shows at that time including Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman and Nancy Walker). This starts out as an interesting study of human nature but soon it becomes just another cop drama as the killer starts attacking various women. One woman, who happens to be pregnant, is almost raped and another woman is raped and killed in the elevator of her apartment building. Too bad, though. It had the potential of becoming an above average "movie of the week".