One afternoon a man dressed as a priest walks into an apartment building in New York City. He passes a young woman named Kate Palmer (Lee Remick) on the stairway. The priest enters the apartment of Alma Mulloy (Martine Bartlett). He strangles the elderly woman and props her body up on the toilet. With red lipstick he paints red lips on her forehead. The priest is really Christopher Gill (Rod Steiger), a wealthy theater owner and homicidal maniac with a mother fixation.
Morris Brummel (George Segal) is a New York City police detective who is assigned to the case. As part of his investigation, he interviews the only witness to the case, Kate. Although Kate can’t give a solid description of the man she saw in the stairway, she agrees to look at some mug shots and work with a sketch artist. Morris and Kate become attracted to each other and begin dating.
Not long after that another elderly woman, Frau Himmel (Ruth White) is murdered. After the first murder, Gill had seen in the paper that Morris had been quoted as saying that the crime was well executed and we planned. This inflates Gill’s ego. The killer develops a perverted affection for Morris and begins calling him after every murder to taunt him and elicit some type of perverted praise.
After five murders Morris is no closer to solving anything. Then a dwarf named Mr. Kupperman (Michael Dunn) falsely confesses to the crimes. When he is rejected, Kupperman gets angry and brazenly predicts a sixth murder. This gives Morris and idea. If he can make the killer think that a copycat is trying to take credit for the murders, then it may draw out the killer and make him mess up. The ploy works a little too well. To prove that he is the real strangler Gill targets Kate.
“No Way to Treat a Lady” was released in 1968 and was directed by Jack Smight. It is an American psychological thriller with some black comedy elements. The film was based on the 1964 novel by William Goldman.
Some of the elements in the story were influenced by the real-life murders perpetrated by a real-life strangler the press referred to as “The Boston Strangler” who murdered several women in the Boston, Massachusetts area between 1962 and 1964. “No Way to Treat a Lady” came out the same year as the movie “The Boston Strangler”. Albert DeSalvo confessed to the Boston killings and was convicted for other crimes but never for the Boston killings.
Rod Steiger is scary to begin with, but as a serial killer, he’s downright terrifying. And he owns the movie. Steiger basically plays several characters. His over-the-top antics as Christopher Gill the insane but intelligent serial killer makes him one of the scariest villains ever. The rapport between Segal’s character and Lee Remick is totally adorable and Eileen Heckart as Segal’s mother is absolutely precious. The balance between evil and comedy works making the film enjoyable from start to finish.
Sadie, the hooker at the bar, was played by Kim August. Kim was a well-known female impersonator. That fact brought up a lot of speculation as to whether or not Kim’s character in the film was supposed to be a transvestite or not.