Netflix's “Woman of the Hour” isn't the whole true story

Photo: Leah Gallo/Netflix

Anna Kendrick's new Netflix true crime film Woman of the hour relives a haunting true crime story, but the real Rodney Alcala, aka “the dating game killer,” was scarier than the film suggests.

In her directorial debut, which premiered at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, Kendrick plays Cheryl Bradshaw, who appeared in an episode of The dating game in 1978. Daniel Zovatto plays Alcala, a serial killer who appeared on the series just a year before he was charged with the kidnapping and murder of his last known victim, 12-year-old Robin Samsoe. Although the verdict was overturned, retried and confirmed several times, Alcala remained imprisoned until his natural death in 2021.

Woman of the hour spends some time with Bradshaw and Alcala beforehand Episode (with some fictional embellishments). But while Kendrick's scenes seem to occur in sequential order, covering a short period before filming, Zovatto's timeline seems more expansive; Some events occur in the present, and some of the murders we witness seem to be inspired by attacks that occurred years before his appearance dating game. As seen in the film, prosecutors said Alcala tortured his victims by repeatedly strangling and resuscitating them.

A portrait as cruel as Woman of the hour could paint from Alcala, The film practically glosses over the most frightening aspect of his backstory: Even before his appearance on the dating show, Alcala had already been arrested several times, including for murder, and was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list.

When Alcala committed his crimes, there were no national crime databases, so television background checks were not possible. The dating game Producers had no idea (and couldn't have known easily) that Alcala had already served three years for child molestation in connection with his attack on an eight-year-old. Woman of the hour admits in a postscript that survivors and other private citizens had been reporting Alcala to law enforcement for a decade, but this after-the-fact treatment almost downplays the sheer magnitude of his past crimes.

Alcala's first known attack occurred in 1968 – ten years before his appearance The dating game. Morgan Rowan, then 16, says he lured her and two friends to his home in California, where he attacked and raped them. “I saw his face turn purple,” Rowan said People Earlier this year. “He hit me between the eyes with a belt buckle. I saw stars shooting and fell to my knees.” During the attack, she said, “I didn't pray for my life. I prayed for death.” Finally, she says, one of her friends forced her way into the room by breaking a window and everyone fled.

Weeks later, Alcala lured eight-year-old Tali Shapiro into his car and took her to his home, where he beat and raped her. Accordingly PeopleWhen police arrived, Alcala was still attacking Shapiro and then fled. Shapiro, who was near death and in a coma, says police “made the choice to save me or go after him.” She remained in a coma for more than a month. woman of the hour, In the film, set years later, Alcala's attacks on one of the girls are not specifically mentioned.

Police issued an arrest warrant for Alcala and he fled to New York, where, according to the New York post and as mentioned in the film, He enrolled at NYU under the false name “John Berger” and studied film under director Roman Polanski (who, coincidentally, later fled the country after pleading guilty to having unlawful sex with a minor).

Alcala's next known murder victim, Cornelia Crilley, actually seems to make it Woman of the hour, but with a different name – Charlie. As in the film, Crilley worked as a flight attendant and moved into an apartment in Manhattan on the day she and Alcala presumably met. Speaking to CBS News 48 hoursManhattan prosecutor Melissa Mourges recalled that after Alcala's attack, authorities found a “horrifying scene” in her apartment and Crilley dead. She had been stripped naked and strangled with her own stockings, with a bite wound on her chest. Without concrete clues or forensic investigations, the case remained unsolved for decades.

Months after Crilley's murder, in the summer of 1971, Alcala was arrested in New Hampshire, where he had used the slightly different alias “John Burger” while working as a girls' summer camp counselor. (Rodney mentions the upcoming appearance to Charlie shortly after they meet in the film.) Loud 48 hoursTwo campers recognized his photo on an FBI poster. Alcala was arrested and extradited to California in connection with the outstanding warrant for his attack on Shapiro. But prosecutors declined to charge Alcala with the girl's rape and attempted murder because her parents refused to allow her to testify. Instead, Alcala served less than three years after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of child abuse. Although Crilley's murder, which occurred earlier, appears in the film, this is not the case in the rest.

Less than two months after Alcala's release from prison in 1974, police arrested him again for assaulting a 13-year-old girl identified only as “Julie J,” according to Justia. She doesn't appear in either Woman of the hour. As seen in the film, Alcala got a job in Los Angeles Just as a typesetter in September 1977 – just a year before he appeared The dating game. During this time he posed as a fashion photographer and photographed hundreds of men and women. As seen in Woman of the hourHis portfolio was said to be filled with explicit nude photos, including of teenagers. The dating game introduced him as a photographer, as the film shows.

Not much is known about the real Cheryl Bradshaw. Kendrick's film portrays her as a frustrated Juilliard graduate who only appears in the series The dating game because her agent says it will get her seen (and she needs money for rent). As her misery unfolds in the series, she remembers several times that Sally Field once did the exact same thing – and whether it worked for Sally…

Although the film portrays Bradshaw as a rebel who goes off script and holds her bachelor feet to the fire, that is actually the case dating game The episode proceeded with the usual raunchy, slightly suggestive banter. For example, Bradshaw once presented a scenario in which she served Alcala for dinner and asked what his name was and what he looked like. His answer? “I'm called the Banana and I'm really good-looking.” When she asked him to be “a little more detailed,” he added, “Peel me.”

We see some of this in the Netflix film version The dating game corresponds to real life. For example: Alcala bragged to his competitors that he “always” gets the girl. Jed Mills, who appeared as Bachelor number two, told ABC's 20/20 in 2021, Alcala told him exactly that in the green room.

Still, Kendrick and screenwriter Ian McDonald also add a few dramatic flourishes. Some are small: while Alcala appears as Bachelor Number Three in the film's retelling, he actually starred The dating game as the number one bachelor in real life. Other inventions are a bit more drastic – like a seemingly made-up audience member at the game show taping named Laura, who happens to be a friend of one of Alcala's victims. Another minor discrepancy: In the film, Rodney and Cheryl are given an all-expenses paid trip to Hawaii – an ominous prospect considering everything we know about him. In real life, the prize was just tennis lessons and a trip to California's Magic Mountain theme park.

But it's the film's version of what happens after filming that seems to be a complete fabrication. Although Kendrick's character agrees to a date with Alcala, where the energy quickly becomes unsettling, the real Bradshaw calls dating game Employee to cancel the appointment agreed with Alcala.

In conversation with 20/20former dating game Attendee coordinator Ellen Metzger recalled Bradshaw telling her, “Ellen, I can’t date this guy. Strange vibrations are coming from him. He is very strange. I don't feel well. Will that be a problem?” As one would hope, Metzger's answer was simple: “No.”

In February 1979, prosecutors say Alcala raped 15-year-old Monique Hoyt; He allegedly knocked her unconscious while she was posing for photos. This also makes it into the film, although Monique has been renamed “Amy”. Months later, in June 1979, Alcala attacked his last known victim, Robin Samsoe; In 1980 he received the death penalty for her kidnapping and murder. The verdict was overturned in 1984 and in 1986, after a new trial, Alcala received the death sentence again. A federal appeals court overturned the conviction in 2003, and in 2010 Alcala was again given the death sentence not only for Samsoe's murder, but also for his attacks on Jill Barcomb, Georgia Wixted, Charlotte Lamb and Jill Parenteau. Alcala pleaded guilty in 2012 to the murders of Crilley and Ellen Jane Hover. As Woman of the hour admits that authorities estimate his actual number of victims is much higher than the seven for which he was convicted – “up to 130.”