I mentioned at the beginning of the month when doing a post on TCM's Star of the Month Bela Lugosi that October 30, the last Wednesday of the month, would not be given over to Lugoi's films, because it's being programmed as part of the Halloween marathon. To be honest, some of the movies aren't really traditional horror, but more movies with dark psychological overtones, such as The Strangler, which comes on at 2:00 AM.
The movie opens up intriguingly, with special effects being used to expose the image of a woman getting home and changing into something more comfortable superimposed on an eyeball, which implies somebody's watching the woman. Sure enough, sombeody is, and when the woman gets out of the bathroom, she's in for a rude surprise, which is that the person watching her is there to strangle her to death. However, the phone rang just as the strangler was about to do his deed, so the victim's boyfriend is able to know right away something's gone wrong.
It's not as if this strangler is new to the cops either, as they've got a serial killer on their hands who's killed eight women by now, all nurses, too, which gives the cops a place to start looking for their killer. Not that there's any mystery to the viewer, however, since the killer is revealed right away. Leo Kroll (Victor Buono) returns to his apartment and takes a doll that he's undressed, putting it in a locked desk drawer together with several similarly undressed dolls. And Kroll works as a lab technician at one of the local hospitals, which would explain how he's come into contact with a bunch of nurses to be able to kill.
With this killing, the police investigation, led by Lt. Benson (David McLean), decides the police are going to interview all the male employees of the hospital the latest victim worked at, which happens to be the same one where Kroll is currently working. He passes a lie detector test, but is way too arrogant in his dealings with the police. One place he somewhat trips himself up is that he has his father is dead and his mother is a cripple, which is true but implies that Kroll is taking care of his elderly, infirm mother. In fact she's in a nursing home and Kroll is paying good money for the privilege.
Kroll claims to try to visit Mom every night, but in fact misses night in part because he's committing those murders and in part because Mom (Ellen Corby) is a piece of work herself. She's basically told Leo that no woman is ever going to want him, which is a really nasty thing to tell one's own son!. Leo, in fact, has a woman he has is eye on: Tally, who works at the local arcade where Leo wins the dolls that he dismembers. Not that Tally realizes Leo has any feelings for her; in any case, she'd be horrified to find that out.
Now, the Production Code was still in effect, so we know that there's no way Leo is going to get away with his crimes. Even if the movie had been made 10 years later after the disintegration of the Code, I don't think they could have made a movie in which this sort of murderer gets away with it. With that in mind, the ending is somewhat pre-ordained.
The Strangler is a low-budget movie, but a reasonably fun (if you can consider subject material like this fun) one thanks to the performance of Buono, and how ridiculously over the top Ellen Corby as his mom is. However, large portions of the movie really do have the feel and look of a low-budget affair. Definitely worth at least one watch.
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