Violent Midnight (1963)

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This stark but interesting low-budget thriller stars Lee Philips as Elliot Freeman, a veteran of the Korean War who has returned home to New England and is following his muse as an artist. Freeman inherited a fortune from his wealthy father and is earning an impressive reputation for his paintings,… More This stark but interesting low-budget thriller stars Lee Philips as Elliot Freeman, a veteran of the Korean War who has returned home to New England and is following his muse as an artist. Freeman inherited a fortune from his wealthy father and is earning an impressive reputation for his paintings, but he remains a tense and moody individual. Freeman had a brief fling with one of his nude models, Dolores (Kaye Elhardt), but she's also been dating Charlie Perone (James Farentino), a beefy truck driver described as "the Stanley Kowalski of the laundry set." When Dolores is stabbed to death, both Freeman and Perone are suspects, and while brassy bar girl Silvia (Sylvia Miles) is willing to provide an alibi for Charlie, Elliot isn't so lucky, and things get even more complicated when a handful of students from a nearby women's college his sister attends turn up dead under the same circumstances as Dolores. Along with early screen appearances from Sylvia Miles, James Farentino, and Dick Van Patten (yep, the Eight Is Enough guy), Violent Midnight also features some fleeting nudity that probably kept it out of a few drive-ins in 1963 but insured big crowds for those that did screen it. Violent Midnight was also screened under the titles Black Autumn and Psychomania (not to be confused with Don Sharp's amazing 1972 film Psychomania, about a gang of undead bikers). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi