Aahana Swrup
Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut film, ‘Woman of the Hour,’ charts a chilling narrative about a serial killer who—perplexingly enough—hides in plain sight and appears on a matchmaking reality show in the 70s. The film revolves around Cheryl Bradshaw, an aspiring actress who agrees to be a bachelorette on the TV show “The Dating Game.” On the show, she’s presented with three suitors—whose faces remain hidden from her—who have to woo the other woman with nothing but their wit. However, unbeknownst to Cheryl—and everyone else on the set—the third contestant, Rodney Alcala, leads a double life as a serial killer.
Consequently, eerie anticipation settles in as the narrative showcases Rodney’s charming performance on the show alongside the atrocities he is responsible for. The film frames Rodney and Cheryl’s beyond-belief situation as a killer and his possible victim with immense gravity. This accentuates the incongruity of their appearance on national television. Naturally, the same leads to a number of questions about the realism behind this premise.
Woman of the Hour is Based on Rodney Alcala, a.k.a, The Dating Show Killer
Despite the incredulity of the idea that a serial killer may have appeared on a matchmaking show on television, the narrative presented in ‘Woman of the Hour’ is actually based on a true story. The film dramatizes the real life of Rodney Alcala, a serial killer who appeared in the game show ‘The Dating Game,’ which first aired in 1965. The brief revival it underwent in 2021 attests to the show’s popularity among the public. As such, it remains all the more peculiar that Rodney James Alcala managed to secure a position as a “bachelor” on the show in 1978. By then, Alcala had already spent two years and ten months in prison and farmed an official record as a child molester and sex offender for his crimes against Tali Shapiro, an eight-year-old girl, in 1968.
Furthermore, although Alcala hadn’t been charged with any homicidal crimes yet, authorities would later uncover his involvement in multiple murder cases. Nonetheless, despite his past record, the man managed to make it through the background check for ‘The Dating Game,’ securing a position as one of the three Bachelors vying for Cheryl Bradshaw’s attention on television. Allegedly, it was Alcala’s “tall, handsome, and charming” persona that sold the producers on him as a contestant. Likewise, his charm helped him emerge as the episode’s winner as well. Although the episode is no longer available for viewing, bits and pieces of it can be found on the internet.
Needless to say, footage of Alcala’s interactions with an unwitting Bradshaw in front of an equally oblivious audience remains unnerving. Eventually, Alcala continued on with his life for two years before his reckoning arrived. In 1979, he went after Robin Samsoe, a 12-year-old girl. The girl’s friend, Bridget, was able to share Alcala’s description with the authorities, which allowed them to draw up a police sketch. Consequently, he was finally charged with Samsoe’s kidnapping and murder on July 24, 1979.
The year after, Alcala received a death sentence in Orange County, which was eventually reversed. Afterward, he underwent a few more trials—some of which brought up his involvement in a number of murders across the 1970s. Ultimately, he was convicted of seven murders—and remains a suspect in several other cases. After collecting numerous life sentences and awaiting California’s death row execution, Alcala died on July 24, 2021, in a Kings County hospital due to natural causes.
Cheryl Bradshaw Never Went on a Date With Alcala
Even though ‘Woman of the Hour’ evidently bases itself on Rodney Alcala, particularly his retrospectively baffling appearance on a televised game show, the film still fictionalizes some aspects of reality. The most notable of such creative liberty that the film employs remains its depiction of the actual matchmaking game show. On the surface level alone, the on-screen storyline departs from reality. For instance, the on-screen The Dating Game show equips a fictional host, Ed Burke, in place of Jim Lange, who hosted the episode in real life. Furthermore, the film also allows Cheryl Bradshaw’s on-screen character to take a more feminist route with her questions, averting the stereotypical misogynist humor of the 70s.
Nonetheless, the most significant change the film makes to the real-life story remains Cheryl’s date with Rodney at the end of the game show. In real life, Bradshaw quickly became anxious about her choice after meeting Alcala face-to-face at the show’s end. Reportedly, she found Alcala and his behavior to be creepy, compelling her to back out of the agreement to attend a date with him. As per reports, Mike Metzger—the Executive Producer for the actual game show—had an odd feeling about Alcala as well. Therefore, in reality, Bradshaw turned down the date with Alcala—a decision that might just have saved her life.
The film deviates from this reality and fictionalizes an on-screen date between Cheryl and Rodney to underscore the storyline that the narrative builds. Even though the same remains a significant departure from reality for the film, it ultimately feeds into the tale’s thematic portrayal of the real-life event. In a conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Anna Kendrick, who directs and stars in the film, expanded upon the creative intention of ‘Woman of the Hour.’ She shared, “We got to use ‘The Dating Game’ as this framing thematic device about, how do you know who is a safe person and who is not?”
Ultimately, despite the slight fictionalizations and dramatizations equipped within the film, ‘Woman of the Hour’ delivers a realistic account of Rodney Alcala and the horrifying implication of his appearance on a TV show. Through a number of characters, including Amy—the fictional counterpart of Monique Hoyt, a woman who Alcala terrorized in real life—the story delves into the more disturbing realities of the serial killer. Still, the film takes a uniquely authentic path by shifting the focus away from Rodney and allowing characters like Amy and Cheryl to handle the narrative reins. Thus, the film ends up charting a close-to-reality story about an actual serial killer and his terribly bewildering TV debut.
