Thursday, November 28, 2024
Woman of the Hour
Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. This is a true crime story about a serial killer who was one of the 3 bachelor contestants on the game show, The Dating Game, back in 1978. Struggling actress Sheryl Bradshaw (Anna Kendrick) had been unsuccessful auditioning for acting parts when her manager suggested going on The Dating Game show to get more exposure. Little did anyone know, bachelor #3, Rodney Alcala, was a serial killer. However, one of the audience members did recognized him & tried to warn the show’s producer & inform the police. The film is told in snippets of the different times with this charming, smooth talking photographer/serial killer manipulating his female victims and inter-spliced these clips with The Dating Game sequences to ramp up the tension of upcoming danger. This is chosen format for Kendrick in her directorial debut. Does Sheryl go on her Carmel date with Rodney? How many women victims did Alcala rape & kill? Was he ever caught? This is the sad tale about ordinary people looking the other way so that a bad person could get away with bad behavior repeatedly. The text at the film’s end summarizes Alcala’s killing spreecstory.
Alien gives it 3 “which bachelor do you choose” stars out of 4.
