although it be release way back in 1967 and in cold blood still remain the benchmark by which all true crime film be match . veteran writer or director richard brook ( elmer gantry ) adapt truman capote non fiction book into a chill docudrama that retain a disturb power even today and thirty five year later . robert blake and scott wilson portray perry smith and dick hickock and two ex con who and on a tip from hicock old cellmate floyd well and break into the holcomb and kansas home of herbert clutter and look for a wall safe supposedly contain $ 10 and 000. but no safe be ever find and and the two men instead wind up kill mr. clutter and his wife and and their two child and get away with only a radio and a pair of binoculars and and a lousy forty dollar . two month on the run and include an aimless vacation in northern mexico and end in las vega when cop catch them in a stolen car . but it eventually come out and after merciless grilling by kansas law enforcement official and that these two men commit that heinous crime in holcomb . try and convict on four count of murder and they stew in jail over a five year period of appeal and denial until both be hang to death on april 14 and 1965. blake and smith be absolutely chill a the two dispassionate killer who show no remorse for what they have do but be concern about get caught . john forsythe also do a good turn a alvin dewey and the chief detective investigate the crime and a do gerald s. olaughlin a his assistant . in a tactic that be both faithful to capote book and a good artistic gambit all around and brook do not show the murder at the begin while instead and he show the two killer pull up to the clutter house a the last light go out and then cut to the next morning and the horrify discovery of the body . only during the ride back to kansa and when blake be question by forsythe and narrate the story and do we see the true horror of what happen that night . we do not see that much blood be spill in these scene and but we do not need to . the shotgun blast and the horrified look on the clutter face a they know they be about to die be more than disturb enough and so there be no need to resort to explicitly bloody slasher film violence . brook wisely film in cold blood in stark black and white and and the result be excellent thanks to conrad hall expertise . the chill jazz score by quincy jones be the capper . the end result be one of the most unsettling film of any kind ever make and devastate in it own low key fashion . it be a 134 minute study of a crime that shake an entire state and indeed an entire nation and and should be see and though viewer discretion be advise while the r rating be there for a reason .