The Sadist (also known as Profile of Terror and Sweet Baby Charlie) is a 1963 horror film written and directed by James Landis and starring Arch Hall, Jr., Marilyn Manning, Helen Hovey, Richard Alden, and Don Russell.
Teachers Ed Stiles, Doris Page, and Carl Oliver are on their way to a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game when their car experiences trouble. Pulling into a junkyard to obtain a new fuel pump, they discover the place is seemingly uninhabited...until they meet gun-toting psychopath Charlie Tibbs and his girlfriend Judy Bradshaw.
Charlie and Judy have been heading west from Arizona, leaving several corpses in their wake. Holding the teachers at gun point, they demand that Ed fix their car in exchange for leaving them alone, and over the next ninety minutes, the pair will torment and terrorize the helpless trio to the breaking point…
The Sadist contains examples of the following tropes:
- Accidental Murder: Ed sprays gas into Charlie’s eyes, and a blinded, angry Charlie fires at who he thinks is Doris… only to find he’s killed Judy.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Charlie forces Carl to get on his knees and beg for his life at gunpoint.
- Bittersweet Ending: Charlie and Judy are dead, but Ed, Carl and several other people are dead and Doris is clearly traumatized from the ordeal.
- Boom, Headshot!: How Charlie kills Carl.
- Building of Adventure: The entire film takes place in a junkyard until Doris briefly escapes to the abandoned property next door during the climax.
- Cat Scare: When Carl goes looking for the dockyard owner, he is searching the silent house when he hears a clatter from the next room. he pulls back the curtain to discover it is just a cat that has upset some of the dishes on the table.
- Counting Bullets: Invoked. Ed asks Charlie about the people he’s killed, trying to see how many shots he has left in his gun as part of a possible escape plan. He’s foiled when Charlie catches on and shows he has spare magazines.
- Cut Phone Lines: Before the teachers have realised anything is wrong, a slow pan back reveals to the audience that the phone in the office has had its line cut.
- Down in the Dumps: Three people driving into Los Angeles for a Dodgers game have car trouble and pull off into an old wrecking yard where they are held at bay by a bloodthirsty psycho and his crazy girlfriend.
- Evil Laugh: Arch Hall Jr. based his performance as psycho killer Charlie Tibbs on Tommy Udo, Richard Widmark's character in Kiss of Death, right down to the giggle.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The film takes place over ninety minutes, almost in Real Time.
- Final Girl: Doris.
- Foreshadowing: Doris is spooked by a snakeskin when Ed is trying to remove the fuel pump from the junked car, indicating that there are snakes in the area. At the climax, Charlie falls into a hole while chasing Doris and is bitten to death by a rattlesnake.
- Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: When Doris snaps and starts yelling at Charlie to just shoot them already, Ed grabs her and slaps her a couple of times until she shuts up.
- A Handful for an Eye: When Charlie is about to shoot Ed, Ed blinds by spraying him in the face with gasoline from the gas hose he is holding.
- Impairment Shot: After Ed blinds Charlie by spraying gasoline in his eyes, the film switches to Charlie's POV: showing everything as blurry up until Charlie shoots Judy after mistaking her for Doris due to his blurred vision.
- It's Personal: Charlie takes a special interest in tormenting his captives when he learns they’re teachers, as Judy had been mocked by teachers for her low intelligence. The kid gloves come off when Ed blinds Charlie, causing him to accidentally shoot Judy.
- Kneel Before Zod: Charlie holds Carl at gunpoint and forcing him to kneel in the dust at his feet: telling Carl that he can talk all he wants, but once he finishes his soda, he is going to shoot him in the head.
- Outlaw Couple: Charlie and Judy are a pair of spree killers who have spent the past several days evading arrest and leaving a trail of corpses behind them from Arizona to California. They were based on Real Life spree killers Charles Starkweather
and his girlfriend Carol Ann Fugate. - Peek-a-Boo Corpse: When Doris is hiding in a shed, she stumbles across the bodies of Charlie's first two victims and screams; giving away her location.
- Pistol-Whipping: After taking his wallet from him, Charlie viciously clubs Carl over the head with his pistol.
- Punk in the Trunk: When the motorcycle cops arrive, Charlie locks Ed in the trunk of one of the junked cars.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Judy acts like an excited child, even as she watches Charlie put their captives through hell.
- Revealing Reflection: Ed hides behind one of the junked cars in the junkyard in an attempt to ambush Charlie, but Charlie sees in reflected in the wing mirror of one of the other cars and is ready for him.
- Ripped from the Headlines: Charlie and Judy are based on spree-killer Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate.
- Sadist: Charlie and Judy alike take great pleasure in breaking their victims down psychologically and then physically when they run out of ideas. The title is not given in error.
- Serial Killer: Charlie and Judy have spent the past several days heading west from Arizona, leaving a trail of corpses behind them.
- Snake Pit: Charlie falls into one while chasing Doris during the climax, and is bitten to death by the snakes.
- The Sociopath: Charlie Tibbs is a Serial Killer For the Evulz who gets his jollies from his victims' helpless terror, and spends most of the movie toying with three (then two, then just one) stranded motorists. He gets his own helpless terror when he stumbles into a den of rattlesnakes, as the film's only surviving character gets away.
- Totally 18: The characters of Charlie and Judy were inspired by real-life serial killers Charles Starkweather and Caril Fugate. Although the character of Judy acts like a very young teenager (like the real 14-year-old Fugate), a radio announcer was added to clarify that Judy is 18 years old, in order to sidestep censorship problems.
- Wham Shot: Carl getting shot in the head is a hell of a kick if you're expecting this to be like any other horror film from 1963, making it clear writer James Landis is not playing games.
