The Strangler is a 1964 American psychological thriller film directed by Burt Topper and starring Victor Buono, David McLean, Davey Davison, and Ellen Corby, with a screenplay by Bill S. Ballinger.

The film was inspired by the Boston Strangler, a serial killer who murdered several women in the 1960s, and went into production while police were still attempting to solve the crimes.

(A subplot features Kroll becoming enamored of Tally, one of the girls who works at the amusement park stall from which he won this doll.)

The police, believing Tally could be the strangler's next victim, bug her room and stay close by to catch Kroll.

Producers Samuel Bischoff and David Diamond originally planned to make a movie called The Boston Strangler, capitalizing on the ongoing interest in the real life serial killer of the same name.

[3] Topper found working with Bischoff and Diamond a positive experience, but relations were not as smooth with his star, Victor Buono.

Buono insisted the director change those scenes which he felt were "too suggestive"[4] (indeed, cinematographer Jacques Marquette's main recollection of the shoot was Buono's refusal to do a scene in which Diane Sayer was supposed to be nude)[5] and he once walked off set for a day, after an exchange with Topper over the actor's difficulty hitting his marks.

[3] The film's small budget limited the number of big names that could be hired, and the main leads were subject to Allied Artists' approval.

[9] Among contemporaneous reviews, Variety commended both Buono's performance and Topper's "dramatically skillful direction"[10] while The New York Times film critic Eugene Archer seemed unimpressed.