'Changeling': Fact behind the Fiction
Reverend Gustav Briegleb (John Malkovich) is depicted as a radio preacher in ‘Changeling’, although none of the 176 mentions of him between 1921 and 1943 in the Los Angeles Times report that fact. His good friend, Methodist minister R.P. Shuler, did however conduct a radio ministry. They were both community activists and partners in highlighting the corruption of the police and city officials.
Although Briegleb is played by the exuberant Malkovich, it appears that he really was a larger-than-life character, once raiding a gambling operation in a circus tent with Shuler, and barely escaping serious injury when its patrons moved to attack them. He railed against vice, lewd dancing, gambling and Hollywood morality. There are unsupported accounts that he was anti-Semitic, but he was ahead of his time in how he viewed women and their role in society and he champions Christine Collins’ case against the LAPD through the film.
Sammy “S.S.” Hahn (Geoff Pierson), the attorney who takes up Christine’s case on a pro bono basis was also a flamboyant character with a penchant for the theatrical. He took up the cases of some of the most famous and controversial people of his day, including hoaxer Aimee Semple McPherson and convicted murderess Louise Peete, one of only three women ever executed in California. He had a sharp wit and an oratorial manner, and although enjoying relatively little screen time in ‘Changeling’, his character was given ample dimension by Pierson. Hahn committed suicide in 1957 by tying two concrete blocks around his neck and jumping into the deep end of a swimming pool.
Gordon Stewart Northcott, one of the men eventually charged with the ‘Winehouse Murders’ was brought alive by the immense talents of Jason Butler Harner, and from contemporary accounts, it appears that he got it spot on. Dr. S. M. Marcus, an LA psychiatrist who examined Northcott prior to the trial, declared that he possessed three of the nine classifications of the “constitutional psychopathic inferior”. He was “a pathological liar, a criminalistic individual and a sex deviate”.
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Although Briegleb is played by the exuberant Malkovich, it appears that he really was a larger-than-life character, once raiding a gambling operation in a circus tent with Shuler, and barely escaping serious injury when its patrons moved to attack them. He railed against vice, lewd dancing, gambling and Hollywood morality. There are unsupported accounts that he was anti-Semitic, but he was ahead of his time in how he viewed women and their role in society and he champions Christine Collins’ case against the LAPD through the film.
Sammy “S.S.” Hahn (Geoff Pierson), the attorney who takes up Christine’s case on a pro bono basis was also a flamboyant character with a penchant for the theatrical. He took up the cases of some of the most famous and controversial people of his day, including hoaxer Aimee Semple McPherson and convicted murderess Louise Peete, one of only three women ever executed in California. He had a sharp wit and an oratorial manner, and although enjoying relatively little screen time in ‘Changeling’, his character was given ample dimension by Pierson. Hahn committed suicide in 1957 by tying two concrete blocks around his neck and jumping into the deep end of a swimming pool.
Gordon Stewart Northcott, one of the men eventually charged with the ‘Winehouse Murders’ was brought alive by the immense talents of Jason Butler Harner, and from contemporary accounts, it appears that he got it spot on. Dr. S. M. Marcus, an LA psychiatrist who examined Northcott prior to the trial, declared that he possessed three of the nine classifications of the “constitutional psychopathic inferior”. He was “a pathological liar, a criminalistic individual and a sex deviate”.
Click here for another behind the scenes featurette
ARTICLE CONTINUES
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