The Sadist (1963)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Strong and Moving!

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

I don't understand all of these positive reviews. All the reasons given for this being a good film are exactly why I think this movie stinks. Arch Hall Jr. not only is a horrible actor, he is a horrible looking actor. Not entertaining, not suspenseful, not compelling, just a really, really, really bad piece of cinematic garbage.

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

Wow! For a film made in 1963, The Sadist is awfully harsh and full on. You'd think a film this good would be more well known, because it blows most thrillers that have been made in the last 50 years out of the water. The film takes place in real time in one place, and is surprisingly close to the bone for an old black and white film.Three teachers, having car trouble while on their way to a baseball game, pull in to a scrap yard for a spare fuel pump. However, it looks like the place is abandoned, if it weren't for the still warm apple pie sitting on a dining table. After deciding they're going to just get the part themselves, two youngsters appear, a guy and his almost mute girlfriend, and the guy's got a gun.At first the guy just seems to want to force the teachers to fix their car so they can steal it, but it become apparent that they've run afoul of a couple of spree killers (one of the teachers even knows the guy's name from a news report about killings in Arizona). From then on, the rest of the film details how the teachers are going to bear up with a gun barrel shoved in their faces. I won't go into detail and describe too much of the plot, rather than just give you an idea of how this film keeps throwing curveballs at you. One character has the length of time it takes for the killer to drink a bottle of soda to beg for his life (and gets shot in the face for his trouble), the girl gets forced to eat dirt, and things didn't pan out the way I expected it to at all regarding who was the hero. There's a high enough body count for cynics who shy away from films this old too. I'd say give it a shot. What I also liked was that the killer wasn't a wisecracking evil mastermind – he was just a dumb (but sly) kid with a victimised girlfriend he was trying to protect from the world.Another good point is the hyperactive camera-work that lends an almost sentient air to the abandoned junk yard: Very atmospheric.The Sadist gets my highest recommendation. One of the best sixties films I've watched.