Thanks for your comments.

I would not go so far as to suggest that "Compulsion" and "Man With the Golden Arm" be scheduled at Noir City Festivals throughout the USA. The programmers oftentimes make certain film screenings specific to the various cities where the fests are held. I felt the two movies would have been a good fit for the Music Box Theater in Chicago.

Apart from renaming the principal characters, the plot of "Compulsion" is taken almost directly from the Cook County Criminal Court records. The closing argument speech made by Welles is closely related to the actual argument made by Clarence Darrow.

Richard Fleischer has some serious film noir credits and he also developed a reputation for directing films based upon true crimes. Reportedly, Fleischer rated "Compulsion" as his favorite movie in spite of Orson Welles walking off without looping some of his dialogue (Welles was allegedly angry because the studio permitted the IRS to garnish the actor's wages).

One of the challenges of "Compulsion" is that the screenplay had to cram lots of information into its running time. The prosecuting attorney also delivered a powerful closing argument, but the movie omits this entirely.

Of course, "Man with the Golden Arm" added a Hollywood ending for Frankie and Molly O. that differed from the bleak conclusion of Algren's novel.