Woman of the Hour on Netflix

[silverscreenselect]

This is a Netflix movie about Rodney Alcala, the Dating Game Killer. He was a serial killer who was convicted of eight murders but may have killed as many as 130 people. He was an amateur photographer who was able to trick victims into going off with him to remote locations for "photo shoots." Ironically, after he was arrested in 1979, he jumped bail and killed two more people. During the middle of his killing spree, Alcala appeared as a contestant on The Dating Game and was selected by Cheryl Bradshaw, the episode's bachelorette. You can find clips of his appearance on YouTube. Their date was supposed to include a trip to Magic Mountain, but Bradshaw said she got negative vibes from him and cancelled the date.

In the movie, Anna Kendrick (who also directed) plays Bradshaw, and the film follows her as a struggling actress whose agent gets her the Dating Game gig as a way to get greater visibility. The movie takes considerable liberties with what actually happened on the show (although its depictions of some of Alcala's killings seems accurate). The host (Jim Lange) is given a fictional name and his character (played by Tony Hale) is a sleazeball pushing Kendrick to act sexy for better ratings. They also don't use the Dating Game theme song, substituting other music. And Kendrick deviates from the questions she's been given to make the movie version of the episode a lot funnier than what actually happened. She also goes to a nearby bar with Alacala right after the taping to get to know each other a bit better. Let's just say that encounter doesn't go well.

The movie is worth watching, especially for game show fans, although, surprisingly, Kendrick doesn't give herself as much screen time as Alcala. I would have been interested in learning more about her. Kendrick also does quite well for a first-time director.