Podcasts
Stephen King’s ‘Billy Summers’ Sneaks Up on Constant Readers [The Losers’ Club Podcast]
The Losers rent some office space, grab some grub from the food trucks downstairs, and snipe through Stephen King‘s 2021 Billy Summers.
Join Losers Randall Colburn, Michael Roffman, Lara Unnerstall, and Jenn Adams as they discuss the immortal currency of the written word, the timely themes of financial insecurity, and King’s penchant for creating lovable characters out of recognizable archetypes. But also, all the connections within King’s Dominion. Note: This episode was recorded in August of 2021.
Stream the unpredictable chat below and stay tuned next week when the Losers begin The Summer of The Stand with the first of three book episodes being re-recorded to allow other Losers to chime in on King’s renown apocalyptic epic. For further adventures, join the Club over long days and pleasant nights via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, RadioPublic, Acast, Google Podcasts, and RSS. You can also unlock hundreds of hours of content in The Barrens (Patreon).
Podcasts
‘The Boston Strangler’ Adaptations Share One Major Blind Spot [Murder Made Fiction Podcast]
Amanda and I have spent the month of July examining the various cinematic depictions of The Boston Strangler over on Murder Made Fiction, and we’ve come to an odd realization: despite the case claiming thirteen lives, none of its filmed adaptations seem to care at all about the victims.
After walking Amanda through a Primer on the case, which seems like an open and shut indictment of Albert DeSalvo (until it gets muddied by conspiracy and possible corruption by the Boston PD), we tackled three very different films:
- 1964’s The Strangler: Burt Topper directs Whatever Happened to Baby Jane actor Victor Buono in a slice of 60s pop psychology that tries to inject a weird doll fetish into the proceedings. The real life details of the case mostly fall by the wayside, in large part because DeSalvo wasn’t implicated in the murders until after this film’s release. Still, Buono’s performance is pretty astounding!
- 1968’s The Boston Strangler: The best of this month’s three films, though it is less for Tony Curtis‘ take on the killer than its use of split screens by cinematographer Richard H. Kline and editor Marion Rothman. It’s magnificently entertaining, though the back half slows down too much when it comes time to let Curtis do his thing.
- 2023’s Boston Strangler: This is the film that finally prioritizes women…although not the victims. The straight-to-Hulu film (which I reviewed for Bloody back in the day) stars Keira Knightley and Carrie Coon as Record American reporters, but writer/director Matt Ruskin’s thesis, which boils down to “it’s hard for women in the workforce,” feels overly simplistic. In hindsight, this one is mostly just a boring misfire.
The Boston Strangler 1968
Next month: For August, we’re turning our attention to John List, the family annihilator who went on to inspire 1987’s The Stepfather. We’ll partner that up with the 2009 remake, starring YOU‘s Penn Badgley (!), as well as the 2026 Tubi version starring Taye Diggs (!!)
Want even more true crime adaptations and Murder Made Fiction? Support the show on Patreon to listen to our coverage of Elle Fanning in The Girl From Plainville and Ryan Murphy’s The Watcher Netflix series, as well as full-length primers and 160+ hours of bonus content.
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