The Sadist (1963)

The Sadist (1963) ** (out of 4) Three teachers are on their way to a Dodgers game when they gave car trouble and are forced to pull over. The stop off at a junk yard but before long they run into the psychopath Charlie (Arch Hall, Jr.) and his crazy girlfriend.THE SADIST is a very low-budget film that pretty much divides its fans and critics. Some call it an incredibly intense thriller that was unlike anything that had really been seen at the time. I personally would agree that it's somewhat different than your typical thriller of that era but at the same time I didn't find it to be intense and in fact I found it to be rather corny at times thanks in large part to some really bad performances.The film is best remembered for its main killer who really is one of the more demented screen killers from this period. A lot of killers had graced the big screen by 1963 but the one here is certainly a very evil one who gets pleasure out of killing people. It was rare to see someone who enjoyed killing so much and the film deserves credit for not playing by the rules in regards to how things played out.The problem I had with the film was the fact that the performances were bad and this led me to laugh at several of the moments that were meant to be intense including the teacher begging for his life. Then there's Arch Hall, Jr.'s performance. I'm sorry but I just thought it was rather over-the-top and too silly for its own good. It just didn't work for me so the intense factor is something I missed.I will give the film credit for trying to show pure evil on the screen and there's question that the cinematography was quite good. With that said, the film needed better performances and direction as I found it to be incredibly slow going at times and in the end it just didn't work.

This was a good movie. I just learned that this film is loosely based on the real life teenage killer Charles Starkweather and his 13 year old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate. 'The Sadist' is very creepy thriller film.About the film: Charles A. 'Charlie' Tibbs (Arch Hall Jr.) is a murderous delinquent aided by his juvenile girlfriend Judy Bradshaw (Marilyn Manning). Charles and Judy are on the run after killing several people. Our story focuses on the murderous duo and how they held three innocent people hostage (killing two of them).I must say I despised Charles and Judy from the time we are introduced to them until the end of the film. I'm sorry I wanted these two murderers bumped off right from the get-go. They are irritating and obnoxious - in particular Charles! All I can say the film is good, thrilling but had me talking to the screen at the innocent characters - "No don't do that!" "Do this instead." lol. Yes it is that type of film - you want the innocent to survive and the "bad guys" dead.8.5/10

1st watched 7/26/2014 -- 3 out of 10(Dir-James Landis): Unwielding sadistic thriller for it's time -- even though that's really all it has going for it. The story is about three teachers who have car trouble on the way to a baseball game and pull into a car parts and repair shop on a Sunday hoping to get some assistance. They soon find out there is no-one around except two crazy young kids who threaten them at gunpoint to fix their car and let them use it. The male counterpart is a slick looking weird sounding crazy person, played by Arch Hall Jr., who we find out later has some experience in murdering other folk, and the couple is on the run for those murders. The movie could have been better if they explored a little deeper the evil character's reasoning for what they were doing but this never really happens. They start tinkering a little bit with a "survival of the fittest" mentality when the first teacher is killed and the other two are given a chance to take his place but do not offer. If these ideas were explored it would have made for a twilight-zone like experience. Instead the goofy aspects of the main evil character become centerstage and the movie relentlessly keeps going longer than movies in the early 60's usually take us. It's also kind of un-nerving to view the victims plodding through their thinking process about how to escape when you'd think that their survival instincts would just kick in. This is an interesting attempt at a genre that is overused nowadays -- but this was new for it's time -- but it just doesn't quite hit the mark.

By anybody's standards, Arch Hall, Jr., was no titan among thespians. Nevertheless, he made at least one nerve-racking thriller where he displayed surprising acting chops. As the eponymous character in "The Sadist," Arch makes life thoroughly miserable Hell for a trio of teachers. The set-up for "Stakeout" writer & director James Landis's suspenseful saga is both classic but formulaic. When the fuel pump in their car goes bad in the middle of nowhere, three public school teachers pull into an auto-parts salvage yard just off the highway. It seems that this unlikely trio was driving to a Dodgers baseball game in Los Angeles. One woman is riding with two men, and she cannot understand the complicated rules of the game. She cannot fathom the weirdness of baseball, especially the necessity of having to touch the bases during a home run. One of the teachers knows his way around engines because he repaired tanks in the army. Anyway, no more than 12 minutes later, the villainous Arch Hall with his fluffy coiffure appears with his girl friend and an automatic pistol. The remaining 79 minutes gradually gets under your skin because Arch makes you believe that he is bad, as in lethal. The action plays out as close to real time as possible. Aside from the opening scenes, "The Sadist" takes place in one setting during noon.After he wanders up with his girlfriend Judy at an auto salvage yard, Charles A. 'Charlie' Tibbs (Arch Hall Jr. of "The Choppers") takes school teachers Ed Stiles (Richard Arlen of "The Pit"), Carl Oliver (Don Russell of "The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?") and Doris Page (one-time actress Helen Hovey) hostage. Charlie smacks around Carl with his pistol. Later, he harasses defenseless Doris for putting on airs. Carl is a 50-year old school teacher with a mustache and horn-rimmed spectacles. In other words, he is harmless. Ed is the mechanic of the three who tries to change out the fuel pump. Naturally, Charlie picks on the older teacher. The heartless killer forces him to get down on his knees and talk until he finishes drinking his soda. Eighteen year old Judy Bradshaw (Marilyn Manning of "Eegah") is just as heartless as her bloodthirsty boyfriend. "School's out, teacher," Charlie says and blasts Carl at point blank in the same composition. Charlie and Judy retire to gargle more soda pop while Ed explains the problem to Doris. As it turns out, Charlie and Judy is a murderous couple who have killed two other innocent bystanders before they got to the salvage yard. Arch is pretty intense when he challenges Ed to disarm him. You see, Ed has been trying to figure out how many bullets Charlie has fired.Landis generates suspense when two thirsty California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops roll onto the premises. They just want a Coke because the heat is so brutal. Charlie has stashed Ed in the trunk of a car when he makes small talk with the police. Judy has a knife pulled on Doris, and they lay hidden out of sight behind a car. When Doris cries out during a struggle over the knife, Charlie shoots the two cops without so much as a second thought. Afterward, Judy scavenges their corpses and then snatches up a cat and fondles it. Charlie gives Ed eleven minutes to repair the car. Charlie doesn't trust Ed worth a damn. Ed orders Doris to climb behind the wheel while Charlie covers Ed with his Colt auto-pistol. The way that cars worked back in 1963, Ed has to prime the carburetor with gasoline to get the engine started. As he brings the gas pump nozzle under the hood, he surprises Charlie and squints enough into his eyes to blind him temporarily. This is when our villain mistakenly kills his girl. Ed scrambles off to hide in the salvage yard and appropriates a tire-iron. A tense game of cat and mouse occupies the last ten minutes as Charlie and Ed search for each other. Mirrors are used with considerable finesse during this scene. Principally, Ed tries to make Charlie empty his pistol. Charlie surprises Ed and shoots him several times with a revolver stuck in his waistband. Doris flees on foot and Charlie takes Ed's car to pursue her. He gets the car stuck in sand and follows Doris on foot with a knife. He chases her around the woods and falls into a well teaming with rattlesnakes. Basically, this resembles a scene from "True Grit." Indeed, Charlie is given a fitting death scene at the fangs of the poisonous reptiles. The ultimate irony is the radio broadcast of the Dodgers game throughout the action.Landis wrings genuine suspense from this modest but compelling stand-off of a saga. A definite plus is future Oscar-winner Vilmos Zsigmond's evocative cinematography. The scene where crazed Charlie guns down his gal by accident because gasoline blurs his vision is nothing short of fantastic. "The Sadist" qualifies as a believable portrait of two vicious murderers before anything like "Badlands." Mind you, Arch didn't deserve an Oscar, but he strives to act like somebody that he clearly could never have been in real life: a homicidal maniac. Primarily, he hams it up, but he creates a despicable psychopath.