In Cold Blood movie synopsis. In meeting in Kansas, ex-cons Perry Smith and Dick Hickock are breaking several conditions of their respective paroles. The meeting, initiated by Dick, is to plan and eventually carry out a robbery based on information he had received from a fellow inmate about $10,000 cash being locked in a hidden safe in the home of the farming Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas.
After the robbery, they plan on going to Mexico permanently to elude capture by the police. Each brings a necessary personality to the partnership to carry out the plan, Dick who is the brash manipulator, Perry the outwardly more sensitive but unrealistic dreamer with a violent streak under the surface. Perry literally carries all his dreams in a large box he takes with him wherever he goes. The robbery does not go according to plan in any respect, the pair who ultimately hogtie and execute all four members of the Clutter family, only coming away from the home with $43 in cash.
As Perry and Dick go on the run, a murder investigation ensues, led by Topeka based Detective Alvin Dewey. If Dewey and his team are able eventually to identify the pair as the murderers and capture them, they, if they understand the two, may get their much needed confessions in dividing and conquering. Perry and Dick’s fates may also be regardless of who literally pulled the trigger.
In Cold Blood is a 1967 American neo noir crime film written, produced and directed by Richard Brooks, based on Truman Capote’s 1966 novel of the same name. It stars Robert Blake as Perry Smith and Scott Wilson as Richard “Dick” Hickock, two men who murder a family of four in Holcomb, Kansas, and charts their time as fugitives, capture by police, and eventual executions. Although the film is in parts faithful to the book, Brooks made some slight alterations, including the inclusion of a fictional character, “The Reporter” (played by Paul Stewart).
The film was shot on location at sites where Smith and Hickock’s crimes occurred, including the real Clutter home where they robbed and murdered all four members of the family. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards: Director, Original Score, Cinematography, and Adapted Screenplay. Noted by film historians as an early example of Hollywood new realism, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
In Cold Blood (1967)
Directed by: Richard Brooks
Starring: Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, John Forsythe, Paul Stewart, Gerald S. O’Loughlin, Jeff Corey, John Gallaudet, James Flavin, Ruth Storey, Brenda Currin, Paul Hough, Will Geer
Screenplay by: Richard Brooks
Cinematography by: Conrad Hall
Film Editing by: Peter Zinner
Set Decoration by: Jack H. Ahern
Art Direction by: Robert F. Boyle
Makeup Department: Gary Morris
Music by: Quincy Jones
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: December 14, 1967
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