The Strangler, Pretty Nurses Assume Room Temperature

Such a waste of medical talent. In a day when all nurses were babes clad in white, film noir movie-makers didn't waste exploitation opportunities. Today we have a heartbreaking tale in which some sultry angels in white are slaughtered having never having a chance. Today we look at 1964's "The Strangler," directed by Burt Topper.

The movie begins with a psychopath's eight murder. As pretty nurse Helen (Selette Cole) arrives home and strips out of her clothes, Leo (Victor Buono) strikes. The hulking fat and sweaty pervert uses the nurse's own stockings to strangle them to death. He leaves a stripped doll at the crime scenes. The cops, headed by Lt. Frank Benson (David McLean) are perplexed. Who is Leo? A fat nerdy guy with a domineering mother (Ellen Corby). The mom keeps reminding him he's fat and doesn't understand why he doesn't visit her more often in the health-care facility. Leo secretly wants his mother to die. Uh oh...mom gets a sultry blonde nurse, Clara (Jeanne Bates). Clara has a great bedside manner and Leo is worried her care will extend his mom's life. Leo follows Clara home and strangles her to death.

The cops are desperate. Clues? But wait! Leo is infatuated by a pretty Tally (Davey Davison). She man's a ring-booth at Fun-Land. He goes every night and wins baby dolls...the same ones found at the crime scene. Tally has a pretty partner, Barbara (Diane Sayer). When the cops arrive to investigate the doll prizes they give away, Leo is watching. Now Barbara and Tally are in Leo's cross-hairs.  Oh no! We like these two beauties a lot, but Leo has secrets he needs kept...secret. He also has delusional fantasies about Tally and he is ready to put them in motion.

Will the two ring-booth beauties survive the wrath of Leo the pervert? Will deviating from nurse victims help or confuse the police seeking to find Leo? Would the pretty nurses have fared better if the 1960s American population had adopted a "Where all in this together" mentality? The murders are hard to watch and gratuitously filmed. For a nice Film Noir homicide story with gratuitous murders of beautiful women, see "The Strangler."