Richard Brooks - In Cold Blood (2)

This is an almost literal translation of Capotes book to the screen, and it compares very favorably both with his writing, and the recent movie "Capote", about his own role in the trial of Hickock and Smith and the role of the book in his life. Some odd choices aside (why did the script change Capote's name?), this is a gripping true murder story, intense, yet never sensational. The central ambiguity of the title, which refers both to the act and the punishment, is made too explicit for my taste in some of the lines toward the end, but the subject is just important enough, that a bit of preaching is forgivable.