Violated (1953) ** 1/2 (out of 4)Greenwich Village comes under attack by a psycho who is stalking women. Not only is he killing them but he's also scalping them. The lead investigator (Mitchell Kowall) teams up with a psychiatrist (Jason Niles) as they try to determine the killer who might just be a released sex offender.For 1953, VIOLATED is pretty hot stuff from start to finish. This is basically an exploitation film that mixes horror and film noir elements and the end result is fairly entertaining even if there are many flaws with the picture. If you're familiar with the 1980 slasher MANIAC you'll know that the lead character there scalped his victims. That film was heavily influenced by the 1966 film AROUSED. Well, I think it's safe to say that MANIAC also borrowed from this picture.The first thing you'll notice about this picture is that fact that it's working on a very small budget. I know noirs made a name for themselves by having small budgets but this here is a lot lower than you'd typically expect. What really sets the film apart isn't its story so much but the fact that it's willing to push the boundaries of good taste. After all, this here was seven years before PSYCHO and you've got a sex maniac, a psycho stalking women and a burlesque subplot where there are plenty of ladies not wearing too many clothes.Those exploitation elements is what keeps the film alive and moving throughout its short 67-minute running time. The performances are very hit and miss and the majority of them would be called amateurish to say the least. The lack of any real acting talent makes for a documentary like feel and the music score by Tony Mottola really adds a lot of sleaze. VIOLATED is a film that should probably be better known than it is.

With mesmerizing music by Tony Mottola, vintage shots of some out of the way New York City locations and a plethora of creepy characters, this cheaply shot thriller is a film way ahead of its time. A serial killer is stalking models from some of New York's sleaziest agencies, literally scalping them and leaving their corpses out in public. The detectives head into the world of New York's biggest low lifes and find out that some of these female victims weren't necessarily "ladies". Shots of such changed neighborhoods as the 14th Street Arcade, the Bellvue Sanatarium (still in operation as a men's shelter), Greenwich Village and the West Side Highway dominate the photographer's eye as sometimes moving, often creepy music brings the viewer into a view of the Big Apple that they may never have witnessed before.For this type of independent film (which seems like something that John Cassavettes might have done early in his film career), the actors are all unprofessionals, some of them bit players from other movies, but mainly people who made only this film and no others. Their performances cannot be described as acting, but many of them seem so natural that it becomes even spookier. When you compare this to the number of low-budget movies that did manage to get a general release (and featured truly wretched acting by paid professionals), "Violated" is a very refreshing discovery because it seems very true to life in a totally demented, horrifying way. The film really delves into the mind of its leading character, played by the scary looking William Holland, and while you definitely will find him repulsive, you begin to understand what does drive somebody being held together only by a string of sanity into the realm of the diabolical, and so the film ends up working on many different levels: psychological thriller, horror, film noir, and social drama.

***SPOILERS***Filmed on location in, where most of the places in the movie are no longer in existence, 1953 New York City the movie "Violated" is about a serial killer the mad photographer Jan C. Verbig, William Holland, who targets young women for their hair not bodies that he clips off after murdering them. It's a faddish that Verbig developed in childhood when he caught his mom with another man in bed stroking her long blond hair! Taking time off from his job developing as well as snapping pictures at "Earnie's" a strip club in the Manhattan red light district Verbig becomes infatuated with stripper Lii Demar, Lili Dawn, and tries to make it with her at all cost. Even going so far as blowing his identity as the "Hair-Cut" serial murderer who's already murdered and shaved or clipped off the hair some half dozen young women. While targeting Lili the deranged lunatic also has his eye on young blond and pretty Susan Grant, Vicki Carlson, whom he promised to break into the world of fashion photography as a fashion model!It's when Lili rejects Verbig's clumsy advances toward her that he goes completely berserk and strangles her only to blow his cover in being identified by those at "Earnies"" where Lili works as a stripper as the last person seen with her alive before she was found murdered! Bearly escaping from a police manhunt Verbig as mad as ever and forming from the mouth as a rabid dog makes it to his studios in Greenwich village and finds Susan there looking to get photographed by him and thus start her career, as Verbig promised her, as a top fashion model. By then the police got a clue, through hair samples in his clothes, to who the crazed and murderous psycho is and got there in the nick of time to prevent Verbig from doing her in!***SPOILERS*** The movie ends with a sedated looking Virbig strapped down on a bed at New York City's Bellevue's psychiatric ward being examined and giving a dose of truth serum by Dr. Jason, Jason Niles, in order to find out just what makes him tic. And also see if there's any way to cure him from his murderous urges that already cost the lives of some half dozen young women. Despite Dr. Jason's recommendation to have Verbig's life to be spared, by reason of insanity, and committed to a mental facility to be studies as well as cured of his murderous urges. Instead Dr. Jason recommendation is overridden by the jury in Verbig's trial who found him sane and sentenced him to Sing Sing's electric chair instead! And with his death also was killed any way of knowing how to cure future Jan C. Virbig's medically as well as psychologically before they commit their first and many to follow murders!

The story follows the police investigation of a serial killer with a hair fetish. Lt Mack (Mitchell Kowall) and Det. Dana (William Martel) enlist the help of a psychiatrist Dr Jason (Jason Niles) who we first see checking up with one of his patients, George (Fred Lambert), who has recently been released from jail. We also follow the story of photographer Jan (Wim Holland) and Susan Grant's (Vicki Carlson) attempts to make it as a model in New York. We are also introduced to the world of burlesque where Lili Damar (Lili Dawn) is queen of the scene. At the end, Dr Jason reveals the causes of what makes the killer tick, and the film finishes in a similar way to the beginning with an encounter between a man seemingly helping out a young woman who has dropped some papers.The film starts in quite an arty way - the soundtrack is very effective - as we see the first murder being committed. The music is good throughout the film. However, the acting is wooden and some of the dialogue is suspect, eg Susan's over-use of sentences that start "Gee....". The film is grainy and in poor quality over a certain section but the film has a novelty value. At times it feels like a silent film with a gripping soundtrack and this effect helps, in my opinion, to give this film a cult/art-house status.