Violated (1953)

Why so much hype?

Thanks for the memories!

People are voting emotionally.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

"Violated" is a film about a homicidal photographer. Wait a minute, this description also fits to "Peeping Tom". Yes, there are many similarities - but also many dissimilarities - between those films.The similarities: Both perpetrators have a strenuous relationship with women. The crimes in both cases are caused by unpleasant childhood memories.Mark in "Peeping Tom" was used as a guinea pig for his father's psychological experiments on fear and the nervous system. Jan in "Violated" discovered that his mother's lover stroke her long hair, which triggered both his hatred of women and hair fetishism. He cuts off the hair of his victims after he killed them.The dissimilarities: "Peeping Tom" had the advantage of being made on a large budget with high-classed actors by one of Great Britain's most reputable directors, Michael Powell. The film was shot in Eastmancolor."Violated" was made on a shoestring budget by Walter Strate, his only feature film. Some of the actors were amateurs and they only appeared in this film. To be honest, most of the acting (also by the few professional actors) is quite unskillful. A reviewer on IMDb.com has, however, claimed that this adds more realism to the film. It was shot in gritty black and white on location in New York City.Mark in "Peeping Tom" incorporated his work as a photographer in the murders. Jan in "Violated" doesn't do that, although he kills a couple of his models.Mark is a handsome guy in his twenties, while Jan is an unattractive man in his forties.It is a matter of personal taste if you label this film as a noir or not. I think that Tony Mottolas moody guitar-playing expresses the loneliness and hardships of New York City's unfortunate residents, giving the film a touch of noir at least in the soundtrack.

With mesmerizing music by Tony Mottola, vintage shots of some out of the way New York City locations and a plethora of creepy characters, this cheaply shot thriller is a film way ahead of its time. A serial killer is stalking models from some of New York's sleaziest agencies, literally scalping them and leaving their corpses out in public. The detectives head into the world of New York's biggest low lifes and find out that some of these female victims weren't necessarily "ladies". Shots of such changed neighborhoods as the 14th Street Arcade, the Bellvue Sanatarium (still in operation as a men's shelter), Greenwich Village and the West Side Highway dominate the photographer's eye as sometimes moving, often creepy music brings the viewer into a view of the Big Apple that they may never have witnessed before.For this type of independent film (which seems like something that John Cassavettes might have done early in his film career), the actors are all unprofessionals, some of them bit players from other movies, but mainly people who made only this film and no others. Their performances cannot be described as acting, but many of them seem so natural that it becomes even spookier. When you compare this to the number of low-budget movies that did manage to get a general release (and featured truly wretched acting by paid professionals), "Violated" is a very refreshing discovery because it seems very true to life in a totally demented, horrifying way. The film really delves into the mind of its leading character, played by the scary looking William Holland, and while you definitely will find him repulsive, you begin to understand what does drive somebody being held together only by a string of sanity into the realm of the diabolical, and so the film ends up working on many different levels: psychological thriller, horror, film noir, and social drama.

***SPOILERS***Filmed on location in, where most of the places in the movie are no longer in existence, 1953 New York City the movie "Violated" is about a serial killer the mad photographer Jan C. Verbig, William Holland, who targets young women for their hair not bodies that he clips off after murdering them. It's a faddish that Verbig developed in childhood when he caught his mom with another man in bed stroking her long blond hair! Taking time off from his job developing as well as snapping pictures at "Earnie's" a strip club in the Manhattan red light district Verbig becomes infatuated with stripper Lii Demar, Lili Dawn, and tries to make it with her at all cost. Even going so far as blowing his identity as the "Hair-Cut" serial murderer who's already murdered and shaved or clipped off the hair some half dozen young women. While targeting Lili the deranged lunatic also has his eye on young blond and pretty Susan Grant, Vicki Carlson, whom he promised to break into the world of fashion photography as a fashion model!It's when Lili rejects Verbig's clumsy advances toward her that he goes completely berserk and strangles her only to blow his cover in being identified by those at "Earnies"" where Lili works as a stripper as the last person seen with her alive before she was found murdered! Bearly escaping from a police manhunt Verbig as mad as ever and forming from the mouth as a rabid dog makes it to his studios in Greenwich village and finds Susan there looking to get photographed by him and thus start her career, as Verbig promised her, as a top fashion model. By then the police got a clue, through hair samples in his clothes, to who the crazed and murderous psycho is and got there in the nick of time to prevent Verbig from doing her in!***SPOILERS*** The movie ends with a sedated looking Virbig strapped down on a bed at New York City's Bellevue's psychiatric ward being examined and giving a dose of truth serum by Dr. Jason, Jason Niles, in order to find out just what makes him tic. And also see if there's any way to cure him from his murderous urges that already cost the lives of some half dozen young women. Despite Dr. Jason's recommendation to have Verbig's life to be spared, by reason of insanity, and committed to a mental facility to be studies as well as cured of his murderous urges. Instead Dr. Jason recommendation is overridden by the jury in Verbig's trial who found him sane and sentenced him to Sing Sing's electric chair instead! And with his death also was killed any way of knowing how to cure future Jan C. Virbig's medically as well as psychologically before they commit their first and many to follow murders!

This is a wonderful period piece with the feel of Kubrick's "Killer's Kiss"; made around the same time. Though clumsy in places, it's still more professional and better than "Kiss", and perhaps as interesting a visual walk through fifties New York City.A homicidal photographer hunts down and kills women who reject him, until he is caught by a sweaty, working class cop. An interestingly progressive view of a maniac, the killer is a kind man caught in a compulsion he cannot control. Many of the actors seem to be real people playing themselves; though this is for the most part more effectively done than in many more "respectable" films.When the stripper snaps "You make my skin crawl, you jerk!" it chills to the bone. New Yorkers may find many locations still recognizable, and you gotta love the big poodle. According to IMDB, no one here was ever involved in anotherfilm but the producer, who went on to bring us the films of the notorious Andy Milligan. Too bad, much talent is on hand. Find a copy!