Spoilers below.
The 1970s in America was rife with serial killers—from Ted Bundy to Richard Cottingham to Jeffrey Dahmer. Rodney Alcala is less of a household name, though he was convicted of seven murders and believed to be connected to as many as 130. Nicknamed the “Dating Game Killer” after appearing on the popular game show where it’s believed he was aiming to find his next victim, Alcala is the subject of Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour, which is now streaming on Netflix.
The film, which also stars Kendrick as the titular character, follows bachelorette subject Sheryl Bradshaw as she encounters Alcala (Daniel Zovatto) as a contestant on the show. He eventually wins and asks her out, but the date quickly sets off alarm bells for her. Woman of the Hour flashes back and forth through time to reveal Alcala’s murderous past through multiple fatal interactions with random women, including a runaway teen who later had him arrested, and. The film doesn’t delve into Alcala’s backstory, but rather focuses its scope on the victims and survivors.
With every true crime story, some liberties must be taken. Read ahead to see how much of Kendrick’s film was based on fact vs. fiction.
Rodney Alcala was a contestant on The Dating Game opposite Sheryl Bradshaw, but they likely didn’t go out after the taping.
The basic premise of the film is based on true events. Alcala really did appear on the dating game show as one of the bachelors that Sheryl Bradshaw had to choose from. Tony Hale’s host character Ed Burke introduces the film version of Alcala almost verbatim to the script from real-life host Jim Lange, in which he described him as a “successful photographer… Between takes you might find him skydiving or motorcycling."
Alcala really did win the competition, but Bradshaw apparently rejected him because she found him creepy. According to reports at the time, one of his fellow contestants Jed Mills also recalled Alcala as “very obnoxious and creepy—he became very unlikable and rude and imposing as though he was trying to intimidate...He was a standout creepy guy in my life.”
Very little footage of the episode is still available—Kendrick and McDonald primarily used newspapers to fill in the blanks—but a short compilation clip of Alcala’s responses still exists on YouTube:
Alcala kept sexually explicit photos of his victims.
Midway through Woman of the Hour, a flashback shows Alcala holding court with his LA Times coworkers. In the scene, the amateur photographer is showing off his portfolio of sexually explicit images of various women and men, bragging that he was paid to take these compromising photos.
Alcala really did briefly work at the LA Times in 1978 as a typesetter, and spent much of this period of his life convincing people that he was a fashion photographer as a means to lure them into his orbit—much like the portrayal of him in Woman of the Hour. One real life coworker later said, “I thought it was weird, but I was young; I didn't know anything. When I asked why he took the photos, he said their moms asked him to. I remember the girls were naked.”
Laura’s storyline is a composite of the many failed attempts at convicting Alcala.
This section contains discussions of sexual assault.
As the audience takes their seats at The Dating Game, one onlooker is visibly put off by the presence of one of the contestants on stage. Via flashbacks, the audience member, Laura, makes the connection that Alcala was at the scene of the crime when her friend was raped and murdered the previous year—and likely the perpetrator, too. Laura swiftly exits the studio and tries to file a complaint with the producers, but is waved off. Frustratingly, she faces the same fate when speaking with the police.
While Laura’s exact story didn’t happen, hers is a composite of many other accusations and arrests that ultimately amounted to nothing for many years: In one example from 1968, a passerby called the police after witnessing Alcala lure 8-year old Tali Shapiro to his apartment. He raped and beat Shapiro with a steel bar before fleeing; Shapiro’s parents wouldn’t allow her to testify at the trial, which in turn let Alcala off with a child molestation charge and a 3-year sentence.
Just prior to his appearance on The Dating Game in 1978, Alcala was interviewed by the task force investigating the Hillside Strangler because of his status as a sex offender. Though they determined he wasn’t the suspect, he was not investigated further or apprehended.
This gray area was what drew screenwriter Ian McDonald to the story. “The context around him was the thing that I found really interesting,” McDonald told Tudum. “He seemed to represent something that we were kind of wrestling with as a country at the time, which is ordinary people looking the other way so that bad people could get away with bad behavior.”
Alcala’s Valentine’s Day arrest didn’t put him away for good.
The interstitials at the end of Woman of the Hour reveal that Amy’s (based on the real life Monique Hoyt) frantic 911 call from the diner really did result in his arrest, though he was released on bail a few days later. Alcala’s mother was the one who posted his bail.
After his release, Alcala committed at least two other murders, including a 12-year old girl Robin Samsoe. It was the investigation into this murder that eventually put him on trial and behind bars in 1979, and helped reveal his connection to other murders in the area. He was originally sentenced to death, but wound up spending 42 years in jail until his death in 2021.
