User Reviews

**SPOILERS** Interesting film about the life times and crimes of one of America's most notorious serial killers Albert Fish, Patrick Bauchau. Fish not only murdered his victims he cannibalized them as well which made him a perfect candidate, when he stood trial, for an insanity defense that would have saved him a one way trip to the Sing Sing electric chair.

Being that Fish was actually looking froward to get strapped into the chair, he was reported to say it would be the biggest thrill in his life, he made little if any attempt to defend himself in trying to convince the jury that he was, which was very possible,insane and ended up getting his wish. Fish at age 65 was executed in Sing Sing prison on the morning of January 16, 1936 being one of the oldest persons to be executed in New York State history. For all the crimes that Fish was reported to have committed, that included some half dozen murders, he was tried convicted and executed for the kidnap murder of 12 year-old Grace Budd, Lexi Ainwsorth. It was Fish himself who by sending an anonymous letter to Grace's parents admitting his crime that lead the police to track him down and finally put an end to his reign of terror.

The film "The Gray Man" goes deep into Albert Fish's sick mind in showing how he as a young boy became fascinated with pain, that was inflicted on him at the orphanage he spent his early years in, and how that fascination, that lead to his purposely torturing himself, shaped his entire adult life. Fish also became some kind of religious fanatic who explained away his horrendous crimes in saving his victims, all young children, the pains of either being raped or corrupted in the future!

Like most serial killer Fish,in him being in his 50's and 60's when he committed his crimes, came across as a both sweet and kindly old man to his intended victims, and their family members, that masked the real intentions that he had in store for them. It was Fish's own sense of invincibility, by getting away with his crimes for so long, that in the end did him in. It also took the efforts of New York City Police Detective Will King, Jack Conley, to track Fish down and finally bring him to justice.

Det. King never gave up in trying to find little Grace Budd's murderer when everyone else did. Suffering a serious mental breakdown that landed him in the hospital for weeks Det. King still worked on the Grace Budd murder case, from his hospital bed, until he got the brake that he so long, for some six years, had waited for. And ironically that brake came from Albert Fish himself!

One thing that has always bewildered me about movies portraying true events is the film makers' habit of changing the story to suit their Hollywood vision. This movie did a surprisingly good job of sticking to the facts, however, it still fails to be 100% truthful. For instance, it was not Grace Budd, but her little sister Beatrice who was asked to fetch her brother from his friends house on that first meeting. Fish didn't lay eyes on little Grace until the second visit to the Budds' house at which point he immediately decided to dupe the family into letting him take her away with him. Also, detective King finds a clipping in Fish's rooms saying that the Gaffney boy's corpse was found in a trash bin, but in fact, despite Fish's later confession that he dumped the boys remain in trash dumps, the body was never recovered. One more thing that the movie decided to change, maybe for effect, was Fish's arrest. He did not attack the detectives with a knife, but rather went willingly. These details it chooses to change (as well as a few others) aren't incredibly significant, but why change them at all? Certainly the story of Albert Fish needs no twisting or exaggeration to be one of the most horrific tales in American History. The film is an abbreviated account of years of Fish's criminal history. In addition to making very brief mention of his crimes against Billy Gaffney and Francis McDonnell and focusing mainly (as the media did at the time) on the murder of Grace Budd. It also chose to leave out some of the more unsavory details of his sexual paraphilia, such as his habit of soaking alcohol soaked cotton into his rectum and lighting it on fire, also omitted was his fetish for eating human feces and urine. Perhaps the filmmakers didn't want it to be a stomach-turning horror fest. However, as a crime drama it does just fine. The acting is not spectacular which gives the film a bit of a "made for TV" feeling. But the chronology and main details of the investigation were pretty right on, including many small details and direct quotes taken right out of case files and court room transcription. I would have liked them to spend a bit more time detailing the criminal trial as it was very revealing into Albert Fish's psychopathy. All in all the movie kept me entertained and I was impressed by the inclusion of minor details and the accuracy of the story telling.

When I was a kid, I read comic books and in those comics were ads for everything from "sea monkeys" to books about "freaks." One ad showed an elderly, bewhiskered man named Albert Fish; beneath his picture was the word "cannibal." In my neighborhood, there was an old man who looked a LOT like Albert Fish: his skin and his hair were gray, and he wore an ankle-length gray trenchcoat. He would stand across the street from the grade school I attended and accost kids on their way home every day. I asked who he was and someone told me that his name was "Pork Chop." I made a point of avoiding him. But there came a day when I had to stay after school for some long-forgotten reason. As I crossed the street, I realized that someone was following me. I turned, and there was Pork Chop. He reached for me. "Come here, son," he whispered. I backed away, shaking my head, and looked toward the school- but the school was empty and deserted now. Pork Chop came at me, arm outstretched. I ran. My mother called the police when I got home and I went back with them to the place where I'd been accosted, but Pork Chop was gone. A door-to-door search yielded no results. I've never forgotten that close encounter, nor Albert Fish, "cannibal." While I think that Bauchau is probably a lot more cultured than the real-life Fish was, his is still a riveting performance and helps make THE GRAY MAN a true crime movie worth watching. The only real problem with it is the inordinate amount of time that is spent on the obsessed cop: real or a fictional construct, he's not the reason to see THE GRAY MAN.

I didn't know much about this Albert Fish until this week. I saw 'Albert Fish: In Sin He Found Redemption' a few days before and even though that was not a good film, the story remains one that is haunting, to say the least. I went on reading up on him on the net and came across this film.

Patrick Bauchau does a very decent job of portraying The Gray Man, but overall I found this to be a mediocre film. The settings, the clothing, the music, it was all nicely done, but somehow something felt amiss. A well worked out storyline perhaps? Beside Fish, the viewer is presented with the primary detective on the case - voice-over included - and his investigation. I found it to be rather boring and cliché and not adding to the story of Fish. Then there were the children of Fish, which made for an interesting angle, but somehow that didn't impress me much either. It all just didn't come together.

I'm glad I've seen this one, and it gets away with a small 6 out of 10, but that's about it. If only David Fincher would take it upon him to make more films about infamous serial killers...

To the lowest and darkest possible place. Let me get it straight, there's absolutely no uplifting aspect or positive sign in this story. It's a sad, chilling, shocking, horrific journey into the abyss of a deranged mind. The matter of fact this is based on true events makes it even harder ... almost unbearable. What's lore? What's fiction? What's the truth? Hard to tell almost 90 years after the events happened...ultimately a slow paced thriller with a despicable backstory. Luckily it does refrain from graphic images instead it predominantly hints - but as said, that's more than enough.

Shoutout to the set design, costume etc which captures the vibe of NYC 30s so well.

Albert H. Fish is a prolific serial killer who targets young children, killing them & eating their bodies afterwards, who haunted New York City in the 1920s. He cons his way into a poor family's home & kidnaps their young daughter, pretending to take her to a birthday party. He takes the girl to an isolated house where he kills her & eats her body. When she fails to return, the family calls in the police. Missing Persons Unit detective William King dedicates himself to the case & attempts to track down Fish. But Fish is an exceptionally clever killer & the only thing that stands in King's way is Fish's deteriorating mental state.

This is a retelling of one of 1920s America's most infamous serial killers. While many aspects of the story shown here are fabricated for the narrative's sake, the fact remained that Albert H. Fish was a menace to society at the time.

The film does a good job of recreating 1920s' America, right down to the buildings & shop-signs (where you could get a soda for only 10 cents!) & the attitudes of the society at the time. Also of note is the fact that the limited forensic resources of the era allowed Fish to kill & eat as many children as he ultimately did & that the detective in charge of the case nearly lost his sanity chasing down the killer. The film is not perfect, but director Scott Flynn manages to make a passable detective yarn & in part an insight into how such a deranged mind could wreak as much havoc as he did at the time. Patrick Bauchau dives deep into the Fish character with fearless abandon, portraying a disturbed mind who was partly shaped by the bad childhood he experienced in the orphanage he grew up in (the ghostly pale boy that appears in some scenes is meant to be a symbol of Fish's lost childhood). For the supporting cast, Jack Conley is solid as the detective after Fish while Silas Weir Mitchell, who Steven Seagal fans will remember as the militia's second in command in the uber-flop The Patriot, does his role as Fish's unwitting son well. The only flaws in the film were the portrayal of the dead girl's mother as a complete attention-seeking buffoon & the somewhat slow pace but the film remains a reasonable entry in the thriller genre.

This isn't a slasher and given the fact that most of Fish's victims were children, which he sexually molested and cannibalized, that isn't too surprising a fact. Further evidence of this if needed was the fact the Chiller channel released this alongside Hitchcock's "Psycho" in a masters of suspense double bill.

****Here starts the spoilers, in so much that reference will be made to the true story on which this is based and how this was portrayed in this film****

What this is, notwithstanding, is a film that focuses on the murder of Grace Budd and the police investigation that leads to Fish's eventual arrest. Set against the backdrop of the great depression, the film shows the effects such crimes have, not only on the victims and their families, but indeed, the killer and his loved ones as well. It's worth mentioning this, as some of the photography and visuals belie the limited budget of this ambitious period piece. Mention has been made of a train and metal railings that were not to period, but given the budget and location this in itself is laudable and such things were well hidden from anyone but the most perceptive and in my mind no way interferes with the film or the telling of it. Certainly the set decoration and costumer departments did a wonderful job and scenes like the Western Union telegram repository are truly beautiful and evocative.

Shot mostly in Gutherie and Oklahoma City the film does give one the look and feel of Depression-era New York. How they made The local Masonic Lodge look like Grand Central Station is beyond me, but that I guess is where a director's vision becomes very evident in the ability to see that and believably recreate it in such a strange location. An Easter egg in this scene are the flower and sweet sellers, which are the two news anchors for Fox 25, who ran coverage of the filming of the Gray Man under the heading "Okiewood"!!

Drawing from the original letters Fish wrote to his family, lawyer, doctors... and most chillingly, several victims, these and the trial transcripts were handed to the Producers by Fish's trial lawyer and used as source material. Several scenes were also created around photographs of Fish and his family and while this doesn't add anything truly to the overall film, it does speak to the intelligent use by the director and makes for another wonderful Easter egg.

This is one of the films you wish they had made a mini-series of. Plunging into the darkness the film maker holds on the central plot of the abduction and murder of Grace Budd. Given this was an Indie and thus the running time was dictated for commercial showing, it shows several abductions, alluding to the murders if not showing them. It would have been nice to have more and one suspects much had to be left on the cutting room floor. Still what we have is well crafted and accurate.

In a world where we have become desensitized to violence the director goes the intellectual route and crafts suspense and leaves the bad things for your minds eye to create and dwell on. Something I wager which is far scarier. It isn't Disney, it's intelligent and for those that seek blood, gorging on human flesh and excrement this isn't the film for you. Yes these are mentioned or showed in a stylized way that retains the horror sans a Chuckyesque knife- wielding maniac. There is also no teenage sex or pounding rock music to distract you either. Flynn uses Bauchau in the vein of Wells, portraying him as a grandfatherly figure, the demonic is seen in flashes and in a command performance Bauchau's Fish is absolutely chilling.

Further comparison can be had to the old masters in the stylized filming of the Budd scene in which we are introduced to the angelic Grace Budd. In fact throughout, the camera is moved wonderfully and every shot used to support and promote the emotional narrative. In the age of 5 camera lock-offs, jump cuts and CGI, is a film purist's dream.

All in all, this was a film of which I left wanting to see more. While this wasn't a slasher or indeed, a documentary, what it is is a nicely crafted true crime story that is entertaining and makes one talk, think and feel. Overall the acting, camera work and direction were above par, with the jobs done by Bauchau, Flynn and Rudd respectively worth higher praise. The film is in Fincher territory rather than Roth, not that that's a bad or good thing, it just is. While this isn't the full story, we're all going to have to wait for a mini-series to get that. In the mean time color me intrigued and hoping for such an event.