It's based on a terrifying true tale, but Netflix's Woman of the Hour occasionally bends reality to freakishly coincidental and disturbingly dramatic effect.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00It's based on a terrifying true tale, but Netflix's Woman of the Hour occasionally bends
00:05reality to freakishly coincidental and disturbingly dramatic effect.
00:09Woman of the Hour is a crime thriller that's all the more chilling considering that it's
00:12inspired by a true story. It centers around a 1978 episode of The Dating Game in which
00:17contestant Cheryl Bradshaw selects bachelor Rodney Alcala for a date. But unbeknownst
00:22to her, producers, and viewers, he's actually one of the most notorious serial killers of
00:27The movie version departs from reality in ways both small and significant. For one thing,
00:31the real Cheryl spelled her name with a C, while the movie Cheryl, played by Anna Kendrick,
00:36spells it with an S. Also, it's made clear early on in the movie that Cheryl is a wannabe
00:40actor struggling to make a living in Los Angeles.
00:43After it's implied that she's lying about her age because she's reaching the upper limit
00:46of her casting window, she admits that she's thinking of giving up the dream. That is,
00:50until her agent calls with an urgent request for her to appear on The Dating Game. She
00:54finds a gig beneath her, but she still appreciates the exposure and tentatively agrees.
00:58Um, I need a drink.
01:01But at the time that the real Bradshaw appeared on The Dating Game, she wasn't actually a
01:04working actor. Instead, she was introduced as a drama teacher from Phoenix who recently
01:08moved to the Los Angeles area.
01:11One scene set in New York City in 1971 finds a woman in her 20s painting her new apartment
01:16and talking on the phone about an upcoming trip. She misses a furniture delivery while
01:20she's in the shower, and then the moving crew leaves it all outside for her to deal with.
01:24Then she recruits Rodney Alcala to help her, as he's lurking with his camera across the
01:28street. They flirt and drink beers, while Rodney talks about how he studied under filmmaker
01:31Roman Polanski and is about to move to New Hampshire to teach photography to children.
01:36Then he suddenly and shockingly beats and strangles her.
01:39The scene aligns with the story of Cornelia Michael Crilley, a flight attendant who was
01:43strangled in her apartment in 1971. The real Alcala was found guilty of her murder, but
01:48it likely didn't occur in real life exactly the same way that it's depicted on screen.
01:52In reality, he removed her clothing, bit her, and sexually assaulted her. It's unclear
01:56if he helped remove furniture or if the attack was a more random encounter. However, the
02:00killer did quickly move from New York to New Hampshire, while also changing his name to
02:04John Berger and finding work at a girls' theater camp.
02:07A subplot of Woman of the Hour involves a woman named Laura attending the taping of
02:11the fateful dating game episode along with her boyfriend and his family. When the stage
02:15rotates to reveal the three bachelors, Laura suffers a panic attack and flees the studio.
02:20As it turns out, she recognizes Rodney, as she saw him creeping around the house when
02:23her friend Allison was sexually assaulted and murdered in a beach house. Laura then
02:27tries to get somebody to hear her story and heed her warning that a likely wanted killer
02:31is sitting on the stage. Alas, she can't get her boyfriend or anyone else to listen to
02:35her and take action. Rodney then successfully tapes his episode and goes on to murder many
02:39more women, as the end of the film reports.
02:42There's someone on the show right now who shouldn't be there.
02:48Who shouldn't be there? Your boyfriend?
02:51While the full extent of Alcala's real murder spree is unknown, the death of Allison and
02:55the actions of Laura seem to have been created for Woman of the Hour. Nobody at the real
02:59dating game studio glaringly interrupted the show or tried to identify a murderer, and
03:03nobody involved with the show is aware of Alcala's criminal record.
03:07Woman of the Hour accurately dramatizes how the dating game episode concluded, as Cheryl
03:11picks Rodney as her preferred bachelor. But then the plot diverges wildly from real life.
03:16In the film, Cheryl and Rodney win a trip to Carmel, California, and after the taping,
03:20they go for cocktails at a restaurant across the street from the TV studio. It goes well
03:24until Cheryl suddenly becomes deeply unsettled by Rodney's remarks and wants to leave immediately.
03:29So he walks her outside, but after confronting her about giving him a fake phone number,
03:33he chases her and attempts to prevent her from getting into her car. Fortunately, though,
03:37some exiting studio personnel give her the opportunity to leave safely.
03:41So I guess this means we're not really meeting up in Carmel anymore."
03:44But these scenes were fully invented for the movie. Back in 1978, the pair actually won
03:49a tennis lesson scheduled for the next day. Bradshaw declined to go, as her initial meeting
03:54with Alcala left her feeling uneasy. She later recalled telling a producer,
03:58There's weird vibes that are coming off of him. He's very strange. I'm not comfortable.
04:01Is that going to be a problem?"
04:03Bradshaw ultimately never talked to Alcala ever again.
04:11you