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‘Woman of the Hour’ Review: Anna Kendrick Directs a Thriller About the ’70s Serial Killer Who Was a Contestant on ‘The Dating Game’

In Anna Kendrick's '70s thriller, Danny Zovatto plays Rodney Alcala, the "Dating Game" serial killer who hid his violence under a soft-rock sincerity.

TV, of course, never got much kitschier than “The Dating Game.” I used to watch it as a kid, marveling at the fact that the entire show, with its Herb Albert-on-happy-pills theme music and its flower-power décor, was a kind of leering, smirky put-on that made no great effort to hide it. I always thought that the squirmiest moment each week was when the bachelor who’d been chosen came out from behind the barrier, and after giving the bachelorette that ritual polite kiss, the two would stand there, arms around each other, as aviator-framed host Jim Lang described what would be in store for them on their date (it would usually be something along the lines of “Because you’re going on an expense-paid weekend to…Tuscon, Arizona!”), as if they were already a couple. She makes clear that the show is a meat grinder, from the onscreen double entendres the bachelorette is assaulted with to the crudely hostile offscreen personality of the host (Tony Hale), called Ed Burke here.

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