# Films/TV Based Very Loosely On Real-Life Incidents **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 9, 2005, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848 "2005-01-09T05:02:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/21 "2005-01-10T00:07:11Z")
The play (and later [film](http://imdb.com/title/tt0053946/)) was loosely based on the [Scopes Monkey Trial](http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/22 "2005-01-10T00:08:24Z")
> [@Tapioca Dextrin](#): > > The play (and later [film](http://imdb.com/title/tt0053946/)) was loosely based on the [Scopes Monkey Trial](http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/scopes/scopes.htm) The play/film was _Inherit the Wind_ of course :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/23 "2005-01-10T00:12:36Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > I’m amazed no one’s brought up Ed Gein. > > Robert Bloch’s story, _Psycho_ (which became the Hitchcock movie) was inspired by the Ed Gein murders and the lurid stories that came out after Gein’s arrest. Another movie, \*Deranged!, \* with Roberts Blossom, actually comes closer to the facts. When the _Texas Chain Saw Massacre_ claims to be “based on a true story” this is the true story it’s supposed to based on. :rolleyes: Nothing like Ed Gein’s gruesome tale, of course (he never chppoed up a van full of pit-smokin’ hippies). But “based on a true story” sounds scarier and sells more tickets… _Psycho_ closer to the Gein case, though with some serious dramatic liberties. Actually, Cecil may have debunked the TCM “true story” thing at some point, come to think of it… ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/24 "2005-01-10T00:13:29Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > I’m amazed no one’s brought up Ed Gein. Mr. [Texas Chainsaw Massacre](http://imdb.com/title/tt0072271/) himself. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/25 "2005-01-10T00:22:46Z")
Wondering if there will be a _Law and Order_ episode where a woman drowns her kids after watching it on an episode of _Law and Order._ “Your honor, the defendant’s claim is false, since I know I didn’t do any such episode, and I have a affidavit from Michael Moriarty that he didn’t either!” ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/26 "2005-01-10T00:22:56Z")
**The Exorcist** was also based on a [“true”](http://theexorcist.warnerbros.com/cmp/phenomenon-fr.html) story. ---
**Author:** ![Master\_Wang-Ka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/master_wang-ka/32/3325_2.png) [@Master\_Wang-Ka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Master_Wang-Ka)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/27 "2005-01-10T00:23:03Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > When the _Texas Chain Saw Massacre_ claims to be “based on a true story” this is the true story it’s supposed to based on. :rolleyes: :smack: You are, of course, completely right. I’d forgotten about this one, because it’s probably the farthest from any actual facts in the Gein case. (I live in Texas, and on the occasional school trip, when I was a wee lad, I recall seeing a dilapidated old house, in passing. One of the old kids told me “You know that movie, the _Texas Chainsaw Massacre_? That’s the place where it HAPPENED!” I found out years later that the building in question was one of the filming locations.) ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/28 "2005-01-10T00:35:55Z")
The murders committed by Ed Gein inspired at least **Psycho** , **The Texas Chainsaw Massacre** , and **Silence of the Lambs** , and probably at least twenty other movies… ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/29 "2005-01-10T00:38:58Z")
> [@Eats\_Crayons](#): > > When the _Texas Chain Saw Massacre_ claims to be “based on a true story” this is the true story it’s supposed to based on. :rolleyes: > > Nothing like Ed Gein’s gruesome tale, of course The wearing of human skin is the connection here - also the connection to Silence of the Lambs. One of the more lurid details of the Gein case. ---
**Author:** ![snorlax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@snorlax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snorlax)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/30 "2005-01-10T00:58:18Z")
Moving away from serial killer evening wear, there’s a movie called [_Grace of My Heart_](http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0116442/?fr=c2l0ZT11a3xzZz0xfHR0PW9ufHBuPTB8cT1ncmFjZSBoZWFydHxteD0yMHxsbT0yMDB8aHRtbD0xfG5tPW9u;fc=1;ft=8) which stars Ileana Douglas as a 60’s singer/songwriter very much like Carole King, and featuring a number of scenes which map to real-life incidents. In fact the story is so similar that I wondered why they even bothered fictionalising it. My best guess is that someone wrote a movie about Carole King and she wouldn’t give them the rights. It’s not particularly scandalous at any rate. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/31 "2005-01-10T01:17:28Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > Hitchcock did a film sorta kinda barely based on Leopold and Loeb, the two killers from the 1920s, didn’t he? > > Sir Rhosis Perhaps you’re thinking of [Compulsion](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0052700/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxzZz0xfHR0PTF8cG49MHxxPWNvbXB1bHNpb258bXg9MjB8bG09MjAwfGh0bWw9MQ__;fc=1;ft=20;fm=1) (a good flick IMHO) although it wasn’t directed by Hitchcock but rather by _Richard Fleischer_. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/32 "2005-01-10T01:37:16Z")
Hitchcock’s **Rope** was an adaptation of the play of the same name. The play was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case, although it differs from reality in numerous major details. For instance, L&L murdered a little boy, not a young man of their own peer group. **Compulsion** was an adaptation of the novel of the same name. That book was more directly based on L&L than the play **Rope**. IIRC it was written by a journalist who’d not only covered the trial but had actually been a college classmate of the killers, although I may be confusing the narrator’s backstory with the real author. **Compulsion** follows the real events of the murder and trial much more closely than **Rope** , but the names are changed and a fair amount is speculation or pure fiction. (Leopold himself apparently did not think it was very accurate.) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/33 "2005-01-10T01:37:20Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > ^^Yes, semi, at least, though probably gussied up by Laura and her daughter when they wrote them. > > But the show was clearly based on these, and credited them. > > What I’m looking for is more like taking a real-life Cold War incident and turning it into an episode of an SF program, or taking the death of an unfortunate woman and making it the plot of an SF or lawyer show. > > Sir Rhosis The novel Declare by Tim Powers is clearly fantasy – it’s based on the idea that Soviet Russia achieved it’s successes during the Cold War by obtaining a djinn from Mount Ararat in Turkey … but it’s also based on the life of Cold War spy Kim Philby – in fact, nothing in the novel conflicts with the historical facts of Philby’s life. It is also one helluva read. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/34 "2005-01-10T01:43:06Z")
> [@Evil Captor](#): > > The novel Declare by Tim Powers is clearly fantasy – it’s based on the idea that Soviet Russia achieved it’s successes during the Cold War by obtaining a djinn from Mount Ararat in Turkey … but it’s also based on the life of Cold War spy Kim Philby – in fact, nothing in the novel conflicts with the historical facts of Philby’s life. It is also one helluva read. Everything by Powers that I’ve read made very skillful use of historic events and real people within the context of a science-fiction or fantasy story. **The Stress of Her Regard** (which I love because it so prominently features my namesakes!) is largely consistent with what is known of the lives of Byron, Keats, and Shelley…it just fills in the blanks in a fanciful and frightening way. **The Anubis Gates** is similar, although I noticed less direct borrowing from history. It may just have referred to more people and events I’m unfamiliar with, though. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/35 "2005-01-10T01:44:24Z")
I was indeed thinking of **Rope** in my OP (I was recalling Stewart Grainger talking in a recent interview of how he and the other actor had to subtly convey the gay subtext between the two characters, lest the censors catch on to what they were doing), but I thank you for alerting me to **Compulsion**. Also, I have heard so many good things about Powers’ writing, but have never read him. I will have to remedy that soon. Thanks, Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/36 "2005-01-10T02:28:38Z")
\*\*Murder by Numbers \*\* was also loosely based on Leopold and Loeb (pretty, intelligent, well off teenage boys in a homoerotic/homosexual relationship committing murder for murder’s sake) ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/37 "2005-01-10T03:23:22Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > :smack: You are, of course, completely right. I’d forgotten about this one, because it’s probably the farthest from any actual facts in the Gein case. > > (I live in Texas, and on the occasional school trip, when I was a wee lad, I recall seeing a dilapidated old house, in passing. One of the old kids told me “You know that movie, the _Texas Chainsaw Massacre_? That’s the place where it HAPPENED!” > > I found out years later that the building in question was one of the filming locations.) I believe the real house was torched one night, right before the property was auctioned off. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/38 "2005-01-10T04:29:16Z")
> [@Quixotic](#): > > _Open Water_ takes off from the real-life premise that two scuba divers were stranded, but of course all we really know is they were never found. Was _Open Water_\* based on any specific incident? When that movie came out, some Dopers who knew about scuba diving confided that diver strandings are not as rare as people think. ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/39 "2005-01-10T04:48:32Z")
Re: _Silence of the Lambs_ Buffalo Bill was a combination of three serial killers. Ed Gein, as was mentioned. Ted Bundy, who inspired the abduction of Catherine Martin, and another one who kept women in a dungeon in his basement. Now, why he couldn’t have captured one _really_ fat woman and made a suit, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Ed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Just\_Ed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Ed)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2005, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848/40 "2005-01-10T04:53:36Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Was _Open Water_ based on any specific incident? When that movie came out, some Dopers who knew about scuba diving confided that diver strandings are not as rare as people think. The factoid that strandings are not rare is actually repeated by one of the ill-fated divers in the movie. Not being a diver myself, I can’t vouch for it one way or the other. But there is definitely a real-life backstory to _Open Water_, as posted on the [Cyber Diver News Network](http://www.cdnn.info/article/open_water/open_water.html): > [@](#): > > The promotional material boasts that the film is “based on true events”, but its makers are now parrying questions about exactly which true events are involved. Yet few doubt that the inspiration is the case of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, American tourists who disappeared off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef on January 25, 1998. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/films-tv-based-very-loosely-on-real-life-incidents/283848.md?page=3)