The film Woman of the Hour tells a terrible story that occurred in the American version of Tournez-manège.
Ride the carousel: an iconic game
In 1985, at lunchtime, a TV game show that had become cult appeared on TF1: Tournez-manège. Adapted from the American game “The dating game”, it allows many singles to find love. A single person hidden behind a door takes turns asking questions to 3 suitors on the other side of the door and trying to choose the right one “blindly”. Then a suitor is chosen and the door is opened so that everyone can discover themselves. The “couple” receives a gift to spend some time together, for the first date. The Unknowns made it a cult sketch.
In the United States, the “original” show had its first life between 1965 and 1973 before returning in other incarnations over the years. It is in one of these new versions of the game that a story arises which could have been terrible and which is told in the film Woman of the hour : an “active” serial killer is hiding among the candidates.
A killer looking for a victim?
Much has been said about the presence of “Pockmarked” in Everyone Wants to Take His Place a few years before he committed suicide. But the terrible story that happened to Cheryl, a candidate for The Dating game, sends chills down your spine. Cheryl will play on set with 3 suitors including a certain Rodney Alcala. The flow is obviously going very well between them, to the point that he does not hesitate to titillate the young woman. To the question: “ what do you look like ?”he will respond “A banana… Peel me…” A daring answer but one that will convince the young woman to choose him. But when they win tickets to a famous amusement park “as a first date”, Cheryl retracts and decides not to pursue this story. She explains her choice to production: “II can’t go out with this guy. There are strange vibrations emanating from him. It is very strange. I’m not comfortable. Is this going to be a problem? » Obviously, production accepts and we each leave it there.
The following year, Alcala was prosecuted for the murder of a 12-year-old child, for which he was sentenced to death. But we will discover that he also killed many women and that at the time of his participation in the game The Dating gamehe already has 4 murders to his credit. Cheryl was obviously right to “not feel Rodney”. Although he was convicted of murdering 4 women, the total number of total victims is unknown. Alcala died in July 2021 at age 77 of natural causes while still on death row.